Extreme heat

We are in the middle of an extremely and unusually hot period. As nurses, you will know the warning signs of dehydration. Make sure you drink a lot of water. Soft drinks such as Coke are not beneficial. Also, avoid the outdoors as much as possible, and make sure you wear a hat, sunscreen and sunglasses if you must go outside. Umbrellas also provide excellent protection from the sun.

You may have noticed that the sun is quite fierce in Adelaide, compared to your country. Australia has a high level of Ultraviolet (UV) radiation, and you will see the current levels mentioned in the weather forecasts on the news. Everyone is at risk of getting burnt, so be careful!

Tips for staying cool
If you have airconditioning, switch it on. If not, use a fan. You can buy cheap fans from Target, Big W, Cheap as Chips and other discount stores. Use wet towels to reduce the temperature. For example hang it up near the fan so that the air will be cooled by blowing through it.

If it is hard to stay cool at home, visit the local library or shopping mall or take time out and go to the movies.

If you have children or animals, never leave them in the car in the heat. Even in cooler weather, cars are very dangerous as the temperature inside a parked car rises in a few minutes to lethal levels.

Always make sure that animals have plenty of water and shade. Even animals can get sunburnt, especially on their noses and ears.

You can find more information on sun safety tips at the SunSmart section of the Cancer Council Australia site

Regards,
The Blog Team

Chinese New Year...!

春節

January 26th is an exciting time in the Asian culture. It is the start of the Chinese New Year Spring Festival, and there will be lots happening in Adelaide during this time.

The festival is a time of ancient traditions and Adelaide likes to embrace multicultural festivals of other cultures, and the Chinese New Year is no exception!

China Town on Grote Street, will come alive on Monday night with Dragons, Dance and Chinese Dumplings! Many other local suburbs will also have their own celebrations with local festivals.

An important part of the festival for the Chinese, is to cook Chinese Dumplings! If you want to have a try at cooking some yourself, here is a great recipe that you can use to give it a go!

http://chinesefood.about.com/od/potstickers/r/potstickers.htm

Happy New Year!!

The Blog Team

School is back!

You can expect to see more cars and pedestrians around the streets from next week. Children return to school from Tuesday the 27th January, so the traffic will increase to the level prior to schoool finishing in December.

So from next week, make sure you allow extra time to get around Adelaide and into University if you catch public transport.

The Blog team

Australia Day!

You will notice on Monday the 26th January, that there will be lots of flags and Aussie BBQ's around the place for Australia Day!

We celebrate the landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove on this day, and all cities in Australia celebrate the colonisation of Australia with parties, bbq's and fireworks!

So have a look around your local area, and see if your local council are doing an Australia Day Parade, a BBQ, fete or open day in the park, and join in!

The Blog Team

Support the UniSA cycling team in the Tour Down Under!

Have you wondered why there are so many cyclists on the road at the moment???

The Tour Down Under International Cycling event starts on Sunday night in the City. There will be thousands of people out to watch the world class cyclists begin the 6 day event which runs from the 18th to the 25th of January.

There will be road closures all around Adelaide and some suburbs at various times, so it may be wise to check out the event course during the week to see if it will impact you.

Don't forget Tour De France winner, Lance Armstrong, will return to competetive cycling at this event, so go and cheer him on!

The UniSA has a cycling team http://www.unisa.edu.au/tdu/ competing in the event, and you can join the free supporters club on the website.

Full details can be found on the Tour Down Under website http://www.tourdownunder.com.au/2009/

The Blog Team

Sharks!

You may have heard recently in the media about a number of shark attacks on swimmers at the beach. Don't let this put you off swimming! Despite how bad it sounds, there are no more attacks than normal. All you need to do is keep your eyes open, and swim on a beach where there are Life Savers on duty, and you will be safe. The Life Savers will be wearing yellow clothing, and there will be flags in the sand indicating the safe area to swim.

The Blog Team

Happy New Year!

Hello everyone, and best wishes for 2009. We hope you had some time for rest and leisure over the break. The weather has been very nice - not too hot!

We saw from the discussion board that a few of you saw the film "Australia" and we would be interested in what you thought. You can post a comment at the bottom of this, or send an email to Tina.

We also saw that you had tutorial presentations on Tuesday, and an exam on Wednesay, and we hope these went well for you.

We will be introducing some new Learning and Teaching staff to you in the next few weeks. Don't forget that staff there can help you with academic and personal problems you may encounter.

What would you like to see on the blog this year? We want to keep the blog relevant to you, and so would really like some feedback on what topics and information you will find useful. Please let us know either by posting to the blog, or through your discussion board.

Best wishes,
The Blog Team