Darwin seems to be having a tediously long build-up this season. When we arrived in the Top End on New Years' Eve 2010, the monsoon was well and truly here, with refreshing downpours most afternoons to take the edge off the humidity.

Not this year. It is still suffocatingly hot and humid and the forecast storms each afternoon don't eventuate.

It dawned on me that the heat might be partially responsible for my sleeplessness and irritability. Pete and I had been feeling particularly virtuous about the fact we'd never used our air conditioner, but last night we relented in the interests of a good night's sleep.

But evidently, the hitherto not-experienced sound/vibration of the air conditioner meant  that our resident possum, upon return from its nightly frolic, was too nervous to take its usual route back into the roof.

Out in the  garden this morning, I looked up to see one very perturbed and fretful possum, huddling in a corner on the roof, trying to scratch its way back home, desperate to escape the rising sun and coming heat.

Awww! Too cute!

Apparently it was still there when Pete got up a few hours later, but when I got home this evening it had  disappeared (I admit we did check the ground below for any sun-struck, dehydrated possums...)

So... do we use the air conditioner tonight?! I KNOW we should be doing whatever we can to keep possums out of our roof... but how cute is this little thing?!