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!