Congratulations on sticking with us to the end! My last blog!
A sad farewell to Keryn and the bikes today! Took the train to Chelmer and met her there for the short ride to Sian and Shep’s through sad scenes of flood ravaged Brisbane - whole roads of dark, dank and deserted houses. Very sad. Plenty of tradies about so for those lucky enough to clear their insurance there is hope. Thank you for Brian’s bike Sian, and for yours Keryn. You know how much we appreciated the bikes - they really made our trip.
Left with a bagful of macadamia nuts off their tree so we will export those and put them in the vice at home! Said hello to the chucks K, F and C!
We had a slow cool ride round the Botanic Gardens and a stroll through the Japanese garden in particular - beautiful - followed by lunch in the cafeteria, a short drive to Toowong station and a big hug and thank you to Keryn, and Jeff, for everything. My bike was a dear and if I could parcel it up and take it home I would make you an offer!
After a rest we had dinner in Sandgate and a quiet stroll, we thought, through the town! The lorikeets were back swooping, swirling and screeching until a moment of certain darkness arrived and they all shut up, tucked their heads under and went to sleep! Quiet returned!
Friday is dedicated to packing and clearing up so I shall wind up the blog and put away my PC.
We have had the trip of a lifetime in beautiful Brisbane with its great people. In particular it has been very special for Brian to spend so much time with his family. We love Sandgate and could not have chosen a better base with its historic town, bay side, pool, wetlands, lagoons and miles of cycle tracks. From its station we have done 61 train journeys but leave without seeing 05! We have had wonderful welcomes everywhere - thank you - in particular we are honorary, temporary members of the Coffee Club and regulars at Salvos!
The birds have been magnificent but now our resident Butcher Birds have fledged their four young and flown, and so must we!

We went our separate ways today! Brian to Bowen Hills in his search for 05, then on to Roma Street and back to base – unrewarded efforts!
I set off to Toombul for my pedicure and manicure with Trang, a lovely Vietnemese girl. Got rid of the fluorescent nail varnish I had last time! Outside Centro I saw a ‘bus headed ‘Cultural Centre’ I asked the driver if he went to the GOMA and he said ‘I no know’! That helps! As I walked away he shouted ‘Lady, Lady, I go there, this man he tell me!’ – another passenger! So I hopped on and had a lovely ride through Hedron and Ascot (I could live there!), along the river and over the bridge to the South Bank.. The Serbian driver made me touch my Go card at the terminus and then drove the bus to the front doors of GOMA for me before he started his return route!
‘The Art of the Early 21st Century’ was exciting and stimulating and I enjoyed it very much, as I did my pizza and coke in the café underneath on the riverside. Great to see it all open again and very crowded especially with school parties. Lots of inter-active things for them.
Walked as much river walk as I could get to, then over the footbridge to Roma Street for the train and met up with Brian at Sandgate where he had arrived on the previous one. Had a coffee and decided to go back later for a half-price meal – card kindly given by Megan! We were all washed and dressed up and on our way on our bikes when I asked Brian if he had his doorkey as I had left mine behind. Of course he hadn’t! Locked out and no chink of entry! Happily got the number of the owner and she was here in 10 minutes and eased our red faces! Many thanks, sorry about that!
Tried to converse over our meal but could not due to the thousands of rainbow lorikeets coming into the town centre to roost! What lovely birds they are! After a few battles with the ravens they settled down and quiet returned.
Counting the hours now and planning the retreat.

Jill’s day off again gave us another chance to go to Wynnum and Brian time with her to do some more ancestor (rellies – another lovely word!) searching. After lunch with Jill and Les we set off for the library. I was supposed to go swimming but yesterday’s rain brought a temperature drop – from 36c to 22c in our corner – and I chickened! I am feeling really Australian - I’m cold!
Instead, whilst they researched I went on a suitcase strap search and bagged 2, one for Brian’s cycle machine which is causing a bit of angst re packing and XS baggage! Another nice place Wynnum.
Then off to see Auntie Marjorie again with a sad farewell and hopes to see her at 102.
At 5 p.m. we met up with Les, Sian and Shep at the Manly Hotel for dinner which was quite the best. I had to take a pic of my calomares for Kate! A lovely evening the pleasure of which only intensified the realisation that it was just a few days before we leave them, and all this, behind us. Very appreciative of the car ride with Sian and Shep over the magnificent Gateway Bridge and its panoramic night views back to Sandgate.
The nearer it gets to our departure the sweeter, but sadder, these days get – thank you so much for a great day and night out.
The day was saddened by the awful news from Christchurch and our love goes to all our Kiwi friends.

Monday was washday and it felt good to get all the washing dry in the hot sunny breeze rather than leave it to when we get home to cold, foggy Chobham! Also big storms were forecast for Brisbane so it was of double benefit. It was still very hot and humid and you could feel the weather change building up. We made the best of the rest by doing our usual town visit, lunch out, a trip to the lagoon to photograph the birds (who had all taken off due to the heat!) and a swim. Needed that but it is impossible to get dry in the humidity. We watched the dark clouds roll over from the west and decided it was time to go when they turned dark green! Quick bike back to await the storm and about half an hour later the world turned black and the heavens let fly! Great thunderclaps, lightning and heavy rain for about 4 hours. We were glad of Australia’s Funniest Videos and the bubonic plague to entertain us!

We didn’t know what to do with ourselves today! 36c and very high humidity forecast so we retreated to the shade of the house after our coffee/paper trip to town! Thankfully Salvos have provided some great books so I spent my day engrossed with the gripping story of the bubonic plague in Eyam in Derbyshire in 1666! From the sublime to the gorblimey I think!
We set off for the pool about 4.30 p.m. and I did my usual triathlete training – 15 minutes cycling, 4 x 50 metres swimming and a quick final sprint to the kiosk for 2 x chocolate Billa Bongs! Still hot at 6 p.m. but we had the same sea breezes we experienced last Sunday! It’s a whole week since that great fish and chip night! The sea breezes make all the difference here!
Thinking of my Brookwood family! Johanna has set off for a week’s ski-ing in Italy glad of her Uggs which arrived quickly and safely by air from Sandgate Post Office. Kate and Paul, with Leah and Natasha are setting off for a break at our French place. Pic below for those who have not been there! They’ll be putting the heaters on and chopping logs for the wood burning stove and the electric blankets will be going on a couple of hours before bedtime to air and warm the beds up after 3 months without use. They will shop at Carrefour, Aldi and Lidl and stock up with great 3L French red at £7.50 a box and no doubt get a summer’s supply of dinky French sandals at ‘Chaussures’! The girls will walk to the boulangerie in our beautiful village on lundi matin for the baguettes and pains au chocolat! Have a great time! We will be there mid March to prune the roses and fruit trees! We quite like retirement!!

We thought we would beat the Saturday crowds by going to the pool early. How wrong can you be? They were all there! No car or bike parking, no seats or beds left, lovely big groups and families all set in for a day’s swimming, eating and drinking! Eskies, stubbies, 4-packs, sausages and bacon on the barbecues for breakfast, everybody protected against the sun in T-shirts, shorts and hats – even in the pool! The only place we could find for Brian to sit was in the toddler’s area so I left him there, with his book, surrounded by little girls and boys and countless adult minders! I had a great swim!
Coffee, food shop, lunch back at the base and a determination to keep out of the sun for the rest of the day! It was getting up to 34c, I have never seen such a huge sun surrounded by a vast area of glare and later on tonight it’s full moon and that is big and beautiful. A very high tide laps at the promenade as we cycled along so it’s all coming at us!
They are going to start emptying the Wyvenhoe Dam tomorrow as they think it would be better lower in anticipation of all the rain that is forecast so we shall have to see if we notice any difference! At the moment for the coming week we are forecast 36c and no rain!
We left before 5 p.m. to meet up with Brian’s family to celebrate Elliot’s 10th birthday at the Arrivaderci Pizza House in Milton – one stop on the train from Roma Street. What a fabulous place! Very Italian, lots of red, white and green and we all 14 tucked in to two x one metre long pizzas, birthday cake and Italian ice cream. Packed out in no time with many people cheering on the Brisbane Roars win on TV too! It was good to see Bob and Pat again and we wish them well for a great time on the Ghan next week. We hope Sophie is feeling better today. We all ate far too much of the fantastic pizza selection – prawns, satay chicken, ham, mushrooms, pineapple and so on and the cake and cassata ice cream were delicious. To heck with the diet! Good to hear Jeremy had another successful cricket day, at Wynnum this time, with Keryn and Jill in attendance, but most important of all – A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELLIOT
Thank you very much for asking us – it was great!

Just wanted to remind you that below is Friday's blog as whilst my computer is still on UK time it's a day out unless I do it early in the morning of the next day! Get That!

It’s getting hotter and we are starting to feel it together with the effects of so much fresh air and exercise. Sweated so much I have put us on rehydration drinks - 36c forecast for Brisbane next week! Hot today for our planned cycle ride firstly to our favourite Dowse Lagoon hide. They were all there! See picture below. All in one bunch we had a 2 x Great White Egret, a Little White Egret, an Ibis, a Spoonbill, a Swamp Hen and a Shag! The Spoonbill was hilarious as he got into a tussle with a big long stick and this kept us well entertained!
We were reluctant to leave but we wanted to see the old houses on Brighton Terrace, Sandgate and Eagle Terrace, Shorncliffe. They are lovely but the beautiful renovations are putting prices up and driving the locals away which sounds much like Cornwall and our other beauty spots. Happily these houses are big, a commuter distance away from the city and are expensive so more likely to be full time homes rather than holiday homes which, in the end, may save the area by rejuvenating what was a tired resort.
Coffee at the Café on the Park, Shorncliffe, which has a colourful history from the halcyon days when thousands of day trippers came by boat and train from the city each weekend. Now it has a good menu and evening entertainment so is very popular.
The long ride was lengthened for Brian who had left his bino bag at the hide so I did Woolies whilst he went for it, caught up with me and staggered back to the house with me for a late lunch and a rest. We got some first crop Australian Gala apples – lovely! We both fell asleep and woke up too late and too lethargic to go for a swim so will wait until tomorrow morning!

That didn’t work out as planned! The Salvos $1 video tape did not work so we watched Brian’s 25th Anniversary dvd of Les Miserables with Alfie Bow, and an appearance of some of the old principal artists, performed last year at the O2 (the failed Millennium Dome now a fantastic performance centre) and ended up with tears down our cheeks. What a show!
Next morning sheets of rain again but, reliable as ever, it was dry by 10 so we set off for Brissie. - Brian to Roma Street and I to the museum after a little trudge around the city in between the heavy showers. But it’s so hot! The sort of weather you could strip off and dance about in but not in Queen Street! I see the locals have started wearing their winter clothes!
The museum has been temporarily moved to an office block up Ann Street due to a major renovation of City Hall and there were token gestures of displays of skateboarding and of the Melbourne telegraph system. Good in their way but disappointing as representative of Brisbane. The man says they are spending so much money on City Hall it must be good but it’s still 2 years away! Hope the Queensland Museum opens before we leave as I read the Art Galleries are now in business after the floods and I can get there next week.
Arrived back before Brian so got in some R and R with my book before he returned with no cops. 05 still has not appeared!
We stayed up later than usual to watch Arsenal v Barca – what a game! Felt sorry for Messi! Brian said ‘you don’t half have to be fit to be a footballer these days’! Went to bed exhausted!

Sheets of rain again when we awoke and we had to wait until about 11 a.m. before we ventured outside. The roads dried very quickly so off we set to town for our usual circuit, a visit to the library and today, for the first time, the Sandgate Museum which turns out to be an Aladdin’s cave of artefacts, photographs and pictures and home to an elderly committee drinking coffee and doing odd jobs. Some good chats, very atmospheric and very interesting. Good books to buy. Spent so long there we had to eat at the Coffee Club as we would have fainted with hunger before we made it back! Paid another visit to my new French friend Catherine’s boutique! We’ll never get away with all our luggage!
After a lazy afternoon about to watch an op shop video as the TV is desperate tonight!

Waterfalls of rain surrounded the house for our 5 a.m. wake up today but a ‘phone call to Jill confirmed we had every confidence it would improve and it did! Early trains out to Cleveland to meet her for the boat ride from Redland Bay to the Bay Islands where it was still a bit grey but very warm and beautiful with some heavy purple clouds hanging over the dark green mangrove islands and turquoise seas. A swift and smooth journey on a modern catamaran. and, although we had a light shower, somebody else got the big stuff in the distance. First alighted at Russell Island for an iced coffee (Jill had the full works (+2 x ice cream and whipped cream, I had flat white but with carrot cake!) and a look round. Found a mini Chobham Art Group at work! Much fun working out the toilet arrangements – a key, a giant chain and a serving spoon on a hook! Went to the garden centre and bought some seeds for my French garden and made friends with the pet shop owner who came from Wonersh, Surrey, and drank in Chobham before his escape to Oz! In all a lovely place inhabited by happy, relaxed, fishing retirees!
Then onto the boat again to MacLeay Island for a club bus ride to the Bowls Club for lunch. Where else can you get such fish if not here! Lovely coral sea and palm tree outlook and very relaxing – so relaxing here you could fall over! Except so relaxing we almost missed the boat back to Redland Bay where we stopped off at the Redland IndigiScapes at Capalaba for another iced coffee and a quiet sit breathing in the cool, green atmosphere listening to the forest birds. A very calming place. Then back to Wynnum via OfficeWorks to pick up some sticks at $6.95 each – great price and enough to hold my trip photos!
A nice early evening with Jill and Les storytelling, going through the family photos and updating the family tree research was followed by the train ride back to Sandgate which had had very little rain and so gave us a dry walk home from the station. Another lovely, memorable day – thanks so much Jill.


MONDAY 14th FEBRUARY 2011

A double celebration today! Happy Birthday little Samuel Walker age 1! We should be with you but are in spirit! Got him well started on the Thomas the Tank so he’ll be a trainspotter yet!
Valentine’s day found Brian and me exchanging identical cards! Both very carefully chosen without reference to the other – it’s the sense of humour!From then on downhill! A bit of shopping, coffee (and a macadamia tart treat for me!), a home cooked T-bone steak lunch, a nap and a swim. A pretty boring day

Up early on Sunday for the train to Brisbane to see the parade of CityCats along the river to celebrate their return to service tomorrow – 15 out 23 services functional. Alas we had our first meeting with the Brisbane Police and ended up giving statements. No! We won’t be sentenced to life here although we wouldn’t mind! Some drunken idiot started abusing us, for no reason, on Sandgate Station platform, followed us onto the train and then started on everybody else. For a moment we thought it was our fault but we did not take kindly to being threatened to have our faces smashed in!! It was amazing how quickly two large Transit Policemen, built like wardrobes, arrived, isolated him and held him safe until handing him over to the police at Roma Street station. A job very professionally done but we had to make statements and were fearful of missing the CityCats. No problem! The police put our bikes onto the train to South Bank and held it up whilst we got on!
It was just a poor paranoid drunk but he was very nasty and looked capable of anything!
We didn’t miss the CityCats! After cycling from South Bank station we positioned ourselves with a few others on the Goodwill footbridge and were surprised how few people were there for such an important moment – all of Brisbane’s CityCats (well 15 of the 17) and 8 of the 9 City Ferries in procession along the river to celebrate their partial return to service on Monday after the damage caused by the floods. Not well publicised they said. I cried buckets! It was so moving and such a lovely way to say ‘We’re back’ loud and clear after losing most of their jetties in the floods. Brian was chuffed to get a note of every one! See picture below! We watched them there and we watched them back waving like mad so look at the news tonight! There were lots of helicopters filming the event and they may have copped the bridge with us on it!
A lovely cycle wander around the lush green and shady Botanic Gardens followed, lunch and a trip to Target and the Queen Street shops before hazarding the busy city streets to Roma Street and the train ride home. Uneventful this time! A bit of basic shopping at Woolies before we were glad to collapse in front of the TV with the Sunday papers!

It was happy coincidence that Jeremy was playing cricket for his school at Sandgate and that, after an early morning ride round the Deagon racecourse and through the woodlands , we were able to watch him get 12 runs and 1 wicket for 3 runs to help his school, Brisbane Grammar, beat Shorncliffe. Well played Jeremy! The road back was hot and the weather exhausting so we were glad to rest before meeting up with Jeff, Keryn and the children at the pool for a welcome swim later that afternoon and then posse out at one of the many beachside seating areas to await our fish and chip supper from the Flinders Fishbar. Delicious and not a crumb left. What appetites! Another lovely day and, despite the afternoon nap, we slept like bricks!

Heavy rain during the night gave us a hot and humid day for our trip to Fortitude Valley and Chinatown - an area I had visited with my mother when it was a run-down inner city collection of multi-racial cafes, bazaars and markets with lots of street crime. Then we used to go to the Valley Bingo which had hundreds of patrons and hence big prizes. She said there was nothing more thrilling than to shout ‘House’ for the £1000 prize! The area has changed! Massive traffic, many new pieces of architecture but not much atmosphere on a Friday morning although it is described as the place to go to be seen, to eat and be entertained at night. Chinatown was a delight! Not as vibrant as Sydney but I could imagine it throbbing at the Chinese New Year last week. I got some bamboo spatulas and chopsticks in the huge Chinese food store. We’ll get some practice in!
We trudged to New Farm looking for the old ethnic market I loved so much but all we found were glossy wine bars with people to match. No Turks, Greeks, Italians, Indians, Chinese et al with their mouth watering cheeses, hams, pastas, salamis, pastries, spices and fabrics. We visited the James Street market, which may have been its successor, but now it caters for a very upmarket clientele. My noisy, atmospheric market has probably been bulldozed for this international Sunday Supplement lifestyle – leather, glass and steel and sterile cabinets of well-washed foodstuffs – all at a price. No bargaining here!
Back to Chinatown for coconut prawns and crispy duck – had to ask for a knife and fork! We are falling off our pedestals and must have one lettuce leaf tonight!
It has all recovered impressively from the floods.

Woken up at 04.23 by my mobile text alert! It might be teatime in Brookwood but it ain’t here! Whatever! Had a lovely long phone call to the girls and crawled back to bed for another 2 hours and missed the birds and the fruitbats!
A lazy start and even lazier – we decided to go to Redcliffe on the ‘bus for the pleasant journey over the long bridge and a walk around this up and coming little resort. It is gaining popularity with commuters and holiday makers and hopefully it may regain its Victorian splendour! Nice beaches and sea views across to the city. Needs the railway badly.
After our return and a Coffee Club lunch we retired for a relaxing afternoon and a bit of light washing. The rest of the day just drifted away in reading, computing, TV and odd jobs! Nice!! Just remember we are 10 hours ahead of the UK!!

Another Sandgate Day. Cycled through Curlew Park, along Cabbage Creek stopping off at the fishing boats and prawn stalls, to Baxter Point, then Moora Park and along the promenade to the pool for a swim. Snapper at the Flinders Fish Bar and a cycle ride home through the town. A good day for birds! In Curlew Park there were more fruitbats than usual roosting in the trees so all the big birds were grounded on the grassland - they don’t seem to get on - and along the coast it was high tide and there was a fair wind blowing so the seabirds were lined up along the prom waiting for the tide to turn! A good reading afternoon getting over it!

After the heat and activity of the weekend we had a catch-up typical Sandgate day on Monday and on Tuesday we went into Brisbane. On the way I got a haircut and a pedicure at Toombul whilst Brian went on to Roma Street looking, unsuccessfully, for 05!
The main aim of the visit was to go to the Roma Street Parkland and how beautiful was that?! In 1995 when I visited mum it was an area of old yards and dumps overlooking the railway and now it is an elegant, beautifully planted and maintained oasis garden and parkland in the centre of the city. There are world acclaimed plantings of subtropical flora, wetland species, rainforest and arid areas giving an all-round blaze of colour and spectacle. Cool walks take you round balancer lakes, into ferneries, bamboo thickets and palm courts. Native birds, especially Grey Fantails, Wood Ducks and Fairy Wrens, insects and reptiles greet you at every turn and the trees are full of birdsong.
A lovely experience and we are due for a return visit on a sunny day when I have my camera to do it justice.

We have had a lovely weekend. An easy drive to Mooloolaba, a tour of the creek and beaches, walk through the reserve to the lighthouse, lunch at the harbour side Top Deck fish bar overlooking the water, check into our very homely but spotless motel (Twin Pines), a kip and await Jeff, Keryn and the children’s arrival. Then off to the stunning Alexandra beach for a not to be forgotten swim in the surf (Yes! Me too!) No sharks, water as warm as bathwater and waves to jump over or come in on the board. After a tour of Mooloolaba via some of the real estate we arrived at Bob and Pat’s (Jeff’s parents) lovely house in Buderim where we were joined for the evening by Marcus (Jeff’s brother) and Kylie. We started off by going to Jeff and Keryn’s renovator home for starters and admired the stunning view from the balcony high in the hills above the coastal plain and resorts. As it grew dark the dancing lights enhanced the scene. Then back to Bob and Pat’s for more great steak, sausages and salad, fruit salad and ice cream – thank you both for a great evening
Slept like logs in the motel and then up to Buderim again to join up with the family to go to Noosa. This was my treat! After dropping in to several of the most beautiful beaches ever we arrived at this lovely resort, with beach, shops and restaurants – a place I had been longing to return to. We found a shady place in the beach reserve for a picnic lunch and then, whilst the men took the boys and girls for a swim, Keryn and I did a tour of the shops. It was hot and humid so we were later glad to get into air-conditioned cars for the return to Sandgate.
Another very big thank you for a super weekend.

And he did it! Up at 4.00 a.m., breakfasted and on the first train out of Sandgate to Roma Street to get the numbers of the Sydney train and the rush hour commuter trains! He’s got them all now except the elusive 05 so if anybody sees it please let us know where so we can track it down! Did you also know that there is a non-stop express from Brisbane to Shorncliffe every morning!? You can’t travel on it 'tho as it is the first commuter train of the day going out to its morning starting point!
I welcomed a lie-in having been awake until 3.00 a.m. listening to a marvellous presenter talking with the people up north who were bunkered down waiting for hurricane Yasi. She deserves a medal for the comfort and support she gave the listeners for about 7 hours. It was a good insight for me into what a frightening experience they were going through and certainly was compulsive listening. Morning TV revealed the horrible reality of what Yasi had done – devastated homes and townships, smashed boats and marinas, lost banana and sugar cane plantations, stripped trees, floods – heartbreaking. After a terrifying night not one casualty but three births!
There are 6 cyclones due this year and Queensland has had three so far. Heaven knows what the last 3 will do and if the State can take any more pounding. It is truly an awful sight to see the most beautiful of coastlines looking like a war zone. It will take years to get back to normal. All those luxury holiday resorts on the mainland and the islands have just disappeared as well.
Very little to talk about but that all day but we managed the cycle ride to the pool and a swim.
Friday we were up early to meet Keryn at Indoroopilly to go and collect their car which we will have the use of today and over the weekend with them at one of my top ten places to holiday in – Noosa. Lovely. Thank you so much both. We took advantage of it and went to the largest shopping mall in the southern hemisphere at Chermside – big but not as nice as Indooroopilly! Then to our local foodmarket to stock up on weighty items whilst we had transport. Useful.
I forgot to mention that our pier at Shornecliffe will be on UK TV soon. When we went there last week it was busy with workmen constructing rooms, gardens and pathways on the pier itself for the UK DIY store Homebase. They made 10 adverts featuring room and outdoors mock-ups for screening from March onwards and used local professionals and materials. They paid tribute to the area and its people and donated $600,000 to the flood appeal. So look out for it and you may see this bit of Australia and its lovely blue skies trying to con you into thinking it was England!

The mid point of our trip and one of those days I dare hardly admit to! Very hot and humid. Up late, a meander down town, battered barramundi and chips for a blowout lunch and then on our backs all day reading and watching cricket! Well, you have to do it sometime and we loved it! No result to the cricket yet but I fear we have given our best effort yet away! Thursday Brian will be up at 4 a.m. and off to do the rush hour at Roma Street!

We had a lovely day at Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo with Dot (Dorothy Thurlow, Te Kauwhata) whom it was wonderful to meet after 45 years! Dot was looking lovely and we both agreed neither of us had changed a bit! The weather was hot and humid, very exhausting, but the experience quite uplifting. The zoo is beautiful and managed so professionally, the humans smart and clued up and the animals charming and well cared for. The crocs are quite intimidating but seem to do as they are told! My favourites were the lorikeet flypast in the show and the lovely native bird aviary and Brian’s was Monty the crocodile who refused to go back in after his feeding performance! They didn’t bother to coax him but left him to make his own mind up! When he realised he was not getting any applause he sloped back into the pool and went home!
Steve’s image is everywhere and they do miss his presence badly. A lovely place.
Thank you Ian and Dot for the luxury ride and Dot for a memorable day. Sorry if you were late picking him up, it was our fault as we could not be dragged away – it was awesome!
We came home to more news of Cyclone Yasi. This is the biggest ever! Category 5, 500k across, winds of 200+kph, a flood swell of 4 m, it’s bigger than Katrina and heading for the north Queensland coast at 35kph! At the moment it seems to have veered south of Cairns a little but those in its path await it with dread. We are now in the waiting time before midnight tonight and, to prepare, there are mass evacuations to safer areas, constant flights of evacuees into Brisbane including 250 hospital patients and their equipment from Cairns hospital. People left under threat are bunkering down and facing a fearful night.
But what organisation and what people the Queenslanders are! From the leadership of Premier Anna Bligh, who has found her political moment and made it good, (George Bush, where were you for New Orleans?) to all the services who are on the ready for both before and after the event – rescue, medical, transport, police, tradies (love that word!) armed forces and so many more and the people who just face it, get through it and start again. It’s going to be a big one and the world will follow it – let’s hope there’s not too much damage or loss of life.
I’d pay $10 a week to get Queensland right again not the $1-5 some folk are complaining about! What a battering the State has had but it has been a privilege to be here to see how people deal with it all. “It will be terrifying, but you are not alone – we are all in this together.” AB)
All we expect to get is a little wind and rain – we are so lucky.