Australia Day, Natural Disasters, Job Hunting

I'm not sure how much it has been on the news in North America, but my TV here has definitely been tuned to the news channels over the last few days.  Why?  Queensland and NSW have been hit by a 'super-storm' caused by ex-tropical cyclone Oswald two years after the floods we went through.  It isn't as bad as the 2011 floods, but some people are definitely being flooded AGAIN.  I can't even imagine.  Bundaberg sounds like it has been the worst hit in Queensland - people are being rescued off roofs and they have evacuated their hospital.  Jeremy could have easily ended up there and was actually offered an interview for a spot there.  Despite the fact that if we had gone there, I could easily have transferred to another job within Education Queensland, I have to say that I would absolutely not want to be there now.  Here are a couple of pictures from the floods:

From yahoo: Townships along Australia's east coast were buried under up to four feet of sea foam today as the waves were whipped up into a frothy messy by powerful winds from Tropical Cyclone Oswald.

Similar to what happened in Scotland back in September, this ocean 'spume' is caused when strong winds mix air into the waves, and mucus from tiny plants floating in the surface layer of the ocean, called phytoplankton, is whipped up into a meringue-like foam.

An aerial view of Bundaberg.

In more pleasant news, Lisa came for a visit over the Australia Day long weekend.  She discovered an Australia Day event called the "Havaianas Thong Challenge" being held at various beaches across the country and encouraged me to attend the one at Glenelg Beach.  (Note: PLEASE replace "thong" with flip-flop when you are reading this paragraph!)  Jeremy was actually working a 10 hour shift on Australia Day, so I half jokingly suggested that she just fly down and accompany me.  Lo and behold, the next day she had bought a plane ticket!  She arrived Friday morning and over the next few days we proceeded to: drive into the Adelaide Hills, have a chocolate and wine pairing tasting at Hahndorf Hills Winery, eat lunch at a cheese factory in Hahndorf, go see the biggest rocking horse in the world, have a delicious dumpling dinner at Dumpling King, go to the Adelaide central markets, be part of the Havaianas Thong Challenge and each take home a giant inflatable thong, go to two Australia Day BBQ/parties, have a 3 hour brunch with some of Jeremy's coworkers, have an antipasto dinner with the same coworkers, AND go to the factory outlet mall before dropping her off at the airport. 

We monitored the news about the weather/flooding in QLD quite carefully as Lisa was flying back into that area.  Her flight was delayed by a few hours, but she did make it to Brisbane safely.  Getting back to Hervey Bay, however, was a different story.  The Bruce Highway, which is basically the only way back (Hervey Bay is about 4 hours north of Brisbane) is known for flooding and was closed in a few areas.  Instead of driving back, she got to stay over at Jules' house and hang out with Jules and little Billy T - I miss them!!!  Lisa texted me this morning to tell me that Billy looked at her toes (painted a similar shade to mine) and said "Ana's toes!!"  He remembered the colour of my toes!!  Ah, so cute!!!  Hopefully Lisa does make it home today.  I was super happy to have her and it was a fabulous weekend.

Jon hunting = nothing yet.  apply, apply, apply.