'ave cum to 'ull'

So this blog comes from the UK, having just spent another 26hrs of my life on that horrible transit route. OK, it’s better than walking, and it’s better than spending a month or more on a ship.. like they used to, but it’s still not that fab. This time however, it was made easier by having the indomitable Molly traveling with me, and her self-deprecating approach to adversities large or small is always a tonic, or even a laugh, depending on how she actually finds it. She will be expecting me to tell you about our trip, so here goes, and there’s some bits of video too, from Daile’s new waterproof video camera.
We had a dodgy start. Molly’s main baggage was 24kg on an allowance of 20kg, her hand luggage was 13kg on an allowance of 7kg and on top of that she had a box of paintings (using a specially made cardboard box that Daile had had made) that was 14kg. To compensate for this, my bags were very light, and I’m proud to tell you that I managed to travel with only 8kg main baggage and just over that for the cabin bag. We offloaded the main bags and the painting box and went off for a cuppa with Daile and the girls. Daile casually asked Molly if she’d got all her liquids sorted out for the plastic bag treatment that they all have to have nowadays. Molly admitted that she’d not given it any thought, and proceeded to look. She emptied about 1kg of things that we knew she’d not be able to get through customs, like a sewing box that Ali had given her for Christmas, and quite a few liquids of one sort or another. I took her camera and charger into my bag. We put my trousers belt around the bag so that it would squeeze into the size measuring frame should the powers that be decide to check that.. and off we went.
The first thing that happened was that Molly’s bag got stopped in the scanner because they said they thought there were scissors in it. They had a look and found two pairs of tweezers. I thought ‘blimey that’s going a bit far’ but then they went and scanned it again and declared that they STILL thought there were scissors in the bag. A second look proved them to be right. The inspector drew out a pair that were those kind that are for cutting hair… long thin stainless ones that look for all the world like a dagger! MOLLY!
So we laughed that off, lost the scissors of course, and moved on to passport control. Molly copped it from them because her visa had only been a 3 month one, and she’d been with us for 5 months! However, I didn’t realise she was having problems because I was too! I’ve just had a new passport issued because mine ran out earlier in the year, and the man asked me if I had it with me because my new one didn’t have a visa for Australia at all! He said that I wouldn’t be able to get back in without it… so I’d have to get Daile to send it to the UK so that I had it before I came back! So BOTH of us got carted off to one side by the supervisor. She was able to associate my new passport with my current permanent residence visa from the old passport, so all was well there….but she told us that Molly would not be allowed to return to Australia for 3 years for overstaying her visa. She did say that it might be possible to have this reviewed if she goes to the embassy and explains what happened. (Apparently you get a 3 month visa be default, and if you want more than that you need to tee it up specially).

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. The highlight for me was that there was a little girl on the plane that was VERY similar in disposition and look to Matilda at a similar age. It made me feel quite broody.. not for more kids or anything like that, but just for that time of my life.






We knew we’d arrived in the UK, cos we had to queue to land, and wait for ages to get our bags. In fact it took the best part of an hour (that’s right!) to get our bags, which seemed to come in lumps that would have more or less corresponded to one of those silver containers they transit them in from the plane to the terminal. We’d get one load come down, then it would stop for 5 minutes, and then another load, and another 5 mins…etc. I would have loved to have seen what the baggage handlers were doing the rest of the time.

We met Ali, (who’d been waiting that whole time) and went for a coffee, which she kindly bought, along with a toasted sandwich for me. I wanted to properly say tarra and by the time I’d done, I had only an hour and a quarter left to get to Kings Cross and my connection to Hull. I’d pre-booked this from Australia and left myself what I’d thought would be plenty of time…(3 hrs from landing). I made it with 5 mins to spare, and that was largely because I’d set my watch with the wrong time at the airport. I’d thought I’d missed it by ten minutes so it was a very pleasant surprise!

I booked on the ‘quiet carriage’ which smelled of the toilet at one end… presumably from the stuff being spattered underneath it when it flushed. Not only that, but I had to point out to a man that he wasn’t supposed to be calling his office from that particular carriage… and that there were stickers all over it to say so. He looked at me like I was a stupid old man (which of course I am) but apologised none the less.

The guard lent me his phone so that I could phone Mum and Dad to say I was on the train.. so that was almost enough to offset the smell. The countryside this time of year is VERY grey looking. It’s funny that we always think of the UK as green, and to be sure, it is green in summer, but we forget that during the winter, it’s far from it. All the trees are bare, and the grass is yellow, rather than green. After all the rain we’ve been getting in Queensland this summer, with all the associated greening up of where we live, it was a bit of a shock!

Just pulled out of Doncaster… and I saw a train spotter!!! Ha ha. I’d forgotten about those!

This helps to show it...

Someone sent me this link... it's got before and after sliders on the photos....

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/floodrelief/queensland-floods-interactive-before-and-after-photos/story-fn7ik2te-1225987255127

Flood Sweat and Tears

There's a fair bit of panic buying here. The supermarkets are almost out of some basics, and because Queensland is so flooded, many of the markets and warehouses that distribute our food are under water. Paradoxically, we are being told to conserve water, because some of the water processing plants are also unable to access clean water right now. To whit, Molly and I have been filling up our camping water containers, and I managed to purloin the last 10 litre container of mineral water at the local supermarket after work today. We were already stocked up on nosh, because Daile had set us up before she went to NZ. I got a few more soups and what have you. There was no bread to be had, but luckily, I've got yeast and flour for maybe 10 or 12 loaves, so we're fine.

The city has pretty much ground to a halt. Most of the lads at work are not at work. Many of them have houses in high risk areas, or are unable to get to work because the bridges are all closed.



It's all a bit of a mess really. Some of the clips and stories that are coming onto the TV are very upsetting. Cars have been seen going past with people in them, even houses have been seen going past with people in them and there's nothing that can be done! Many many people are missing.

However it looks like the worst events are over, the tide peaked at 4am last night, and it was less severe than they'd predicted. Everyone in Brisbane had got out of the way having had the benefit of the early warning that the people further inland didn't have. There has been a pulling together of people to help each other and now there will need to be some solid work to recover the city from the mud.



We feel very fortunate to have been missed in this little handout....

High and Dry

Just a quick note... we're not flooded. We have a little stream running through my garage from time to time, but the whole area is completely fine, well drained and dry. This video shows what it's like in Toowoomba, which is just over an hour away.

Should this be allowed?

We watched a film called 'Defiance' this evening. It's about a group of Jews who survived for several years in the forests of Belarus... somewhere in or near the Naliboki forest in the south.. which is just north of the now defunct Chernobyl nuclear reactor. I find myself very drawn into accounts of the genocide of the Jews by the Nazis or for that matter that kind of behaviour by any nation or group. So after the film, I found myself researching the story of the Bielski Brothers (who led the forest group until the end of the war) and as usually happens, found myself meandering until I ended up reading more about the concentration camps, the research by Stanley Milgram in the US which was prompted by the trial of Eichmann etc. Then in this process, I came to this page on the 'us-israel.org' site. I couldn't quite believe that they would put this page up... if only since it seems to me to desecrate the memory of all those who were murdered:



Here's the link:
http://www.us-israel.org/Concentration_Camps.cfm?fp=UOx5ni%2FBt1LSjwz1HlugyVbwOSb408i8VR4BIfBwFJTjTqBTeCVzxIOMbinjGFVekRluxvUEAiqIGotIYrWcXwyQG6J%2FR07EBA%2FJheiBNmlXOmdH9k3BGbJqRaKCc%2BF0XCeVQHAdMisHAe%2BhVOMON4qOJMiCeZtJcsnTZTGwRLGWWTuQr43gj4CxXmr6lRDj&yep=CB2UPUPPHGsq9tg2Y%2FmoD5HWXddNvd8L%2BsRph5V2kEiXMCTFRtwrpgZl0zdhuPdiNBlp2x8F0Dqun56BgMh8CoY%2Fn47cN0TEMxH2MtOEcrWFz8p1ThSzsf4%2Bsd2AHRmFHbWaCW9rvl6yijbyRmzwqfvv7BeabUfWSgpAqXUx5EHt5qlbwylnJ8%2BVOsLQn9UA9FqNP0eC7TwkorZi37kgnUVSlJa%2B7nfUYhrwMKovYeoggTRm3xg6CMox1H2jTYMjO5ILBBA7hKrDSi01bTJYUUxvPALy%2F3Legy94zSNy5kfwlzWHSuEuHgWFnF9f5kbcOEfrjPJgA2NOi%2FqQpf0qeBA1ssOOHuw1zqXxJtilIiMr4raJIDRurr4b5wi2twfbSVKp70oS%2B9Z2KVArB8xHHgxKUhCfQzftwRaVbmmH2XtnW0xMPf6gAzqVxn4rXbW0&gtnp=0&gtpp=0&prvtof=S171PA0IwW7XALWFLCZ5NvzfLNCZQ9utrUp5Es%2B7CMGePCn7hvlBvrQHBoZs9llZiBW%2FbkrrO5EJ5GWZJ4DkJcYa%2BqUgwpSqFJc%2BKSEGW9k%3D&&gtnp=0&gtpp=0&kt=113&&kp=5&bd=10%231050%231680%231%230%23568%23255%23596%23262

I followed a link originally from here:

http://www.omnipelagos.com/entry?n=rudolf_Hoess

and that went to here:

http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/biography/Hoess.html

which went to the page i've pasted. That CAN'T be right!

Happy New Year and 'Nat'....

So anyway, being as how I'm now officially 'ill'... Molly felt that she'd undertake the rather laborious job of cutting the lawn. At our house this truly IS a mission... and involves a lot of hilly bits that you have to push the mower up with some gusto. I find it quite a bit of a slog, but view it as my work out. I'm not particularly good at keeping up with the grass at this time of year, but this last couple of weeks it's rained non stop so nobody in the street has done any mowing at all... and it looked pretty run down in our street as a result. Last week the sun came out for a couple of days and the grass got a bit dryer... so I thought I'd ask the lass to have a go. She did the front OK.. and then it went quiet for a while...(I think she was getting her breath back!). Then she started off again and went well ... until she got to the hilly bits. This was where she gave up:



Good girl eh! Made of stern stuff our Moll!

Also this week, I've been finishing off a painting that is my first one that isn't a portrait of a member of the family. It's from a photo that Molly took down at the spit on the Gold Coast a month or so ago.

Woohoo!