He had invited some bear friends around and they were having a big party.

Having spent nine years in the sub-alpine region of Victoria and two years in Mount Gambier, I can’t say I’ve noticed the cold, but the rainfall is hard to avoid, especially considering I like to walk to and from work.

Today was the first time this week I was able to do that, and I made it just in time this morning.

A news report said Adelaide will pass its average annual rainfall next week if showers continue as forecast.

That’s wonderful news for such a water-parched city.

For the record, Adelaide’s average annual rainfall is 545mm and the August average is 67mm.

It’s in a no-standing zone on the corner of two streets.

At first I thought the vehicle belonged to someone who worked in a nearby business. There are several such places near my home and the street is filled with cars during business hours from Monday to Friday.

I’ve also heard that many people park in Mile End and walk to the city, although I suspect most of those vehicles are left in the nearby Bunnings car park.

The West Torrens Council has seen fit to impose parking restrictions in this neighborhood to curb workers filling the streets at the expense of residents’ convenience.

When I eventually got fed up with the abandoned vehicle outside my house I rang the police in the first instance, thinking it may be a stolen car.

The police took relevant details and suggested I contact the council.

I sent the council an email with registration details of the vehicle, my address and phone number.

A few days later I received a phone call from the “compliance officer” saying they were aware of the vehicle, but couldn’t do anything until all nearby residents had been contacted.

There are businesses on three sides and barely half a dozen houses within 100 metres, so I found this somewhat surprising, especially as the car is illegally parked.

I wonder what the council would do if someone left a car indefinitely outside their office in a no-parking zone?

Aircraft noise doesn’t bother me either, especially with a curfew in place between 11pm and 6am.

However, earlier this week an emergency services siren woke me at 3.30am.

Breaking the still of night, the noise travelled a long distance and lasted at least five minutes.

It made me wonder why a siren would be necessary at that hour of night.

Surely, flashing lights or a temporary burst of the siren would be sufficient to warn the scarce traffic.

The bear said he’s missing Maggie a lot and can’t wait until she and James visit next weekend.

I’ve searched my inbox and can’t see any record of correspondence advising me of this. I had been an mBox customer since February 2004.

I received a fax from mBox on July 8. The next one on July 23 came from eFax.

Apart from the lack of notice, I was not given login details for eFax and had to request these using a “lost password” option.

As far as I can tell, eFax doesn’t provide a voicemail service, but they appear to have retained it in my case, albeit with an American accent and no option for me to personalise the message.

The monthly price with eFax is also dearer than it was with mBox. I’m yet to discover if they will honor the former pricing.

I don’t really have a problem with the service being transferred to another provider. Some communication would have been nice though.

There is nothing on the web to explain what happened. It must have been pretty sudden because mBox is still running Google ads.

Frankly, I no longer need a fax number, and if voicemail isn’t part of the package I will probably drop the account when it comes up for renewal.