Our task for today is to revisit an old post that we have more to say about now. I thought about this one for awhile and read some of my old posts to try and figure out which one I could use. I decided to pick one from January 2011. I think that my blog is probably 98% light and fluffy. I don't tend to post about negative things because I would rather focus on the positive! That being said, the events of January 2011 were the beginning of what might have been the worst year of my life.
2010 ended nicely, with a great trip to New Zealand. Jeremy flew back to Brisbane on Jan 1 (but missed his flight because the alarm didn't go off AND the hotel made the wake up call to the wrong room...argh...so the airport shuttle arrived, the hotel called up and no one answered, and the airport shuttle left). Maybe I should have taken that as a sign!
He eventually did get on another flight, while I flew to Auckland for a six week clinical practicum in my speech pathology course. I was totally alone, didn't know anyone in the country, but was looking forward to a good clinical experience.
When the reports started coming about flooding in Brisbane, I was quite worried. In the back of your mind though, you think that something like this couldn't possibly happen to you. Our neighbours were born and bred in Brisbane and had three adult children with lots of friends who owned utes. When they heard the forecast, they got all their stuff out of the house ASAP. They had been living in that house for a long time and had been flooded about 35 years earlier, so they took it very seriously. Jeremy was hoping that since our house was across the road and on an upward slant, we might narrowly avoid it. I have to give him credit - he took most of our stuff to the shed in the back (the highest point) and brought some other things to some neighbours on higher ground. He even hoisted our fridge onto the kitchen counter. Being expats, we didn't have all of those connections that you build when you've lived somewhere your entire life. We definitely had friends who helped by putting Jeremy up, cleaning afterwards, etc but we just didn't have the resources to go about it the way our neighbours did. Jeremy chose to have an optimistic outlook, which later led to some neighbours saying insulting things (even though he had made all the preparations he possibly could).
We got to see the lovely side of humanity (people pitching in for the huge clean up, volunteers coming around handing out snacks) and the yucky side (a certain pair of neighbours being quite rude).
We got to see the lovely side of humanity (people pitching in for the huge clean up, volunteers coming around handing out snacks) and the yucky side (a certain pair of neighbours being quite rude).
Anyhow, our house did end up being flooded and when I returned in the middle of February our suburb was a dank, dark, gloomy, half deserted mess. I came back to a house with the carpets ripped out, builders going in and out ripping away the kitchen cupboards and installing new ones, and everything still pretty icky. We had crammed most of our stuff into one room because the whole house needed repainting and repairs. (We were fortunate that the rental agency let us stay there rent free at that time).
I don't think I actually realized how much going through this affected Jeremy. He had to do everything himself and there was nothing I could do. We had a really tough year, but looking back I think that if we could get through 2011, we can really get through anything!
Below I've posted a couple of pictures from Jeremy's flood album - that's our house in the background with the boat parked out front. Then you have the view down our street into the park (aka lake).
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
I'm scared
Anyone who has been keeping up on the flooding in Qld will probably have read something like this and if not...well, it's worth a read. Brisbane is not the place to be right now, so I'm lucky - unfortunately my husband, friends, neighbours and cat aren't. Our suburb (Fairfield) is on of the ones listed to experience flooding tomorrow. Jeremy went to talk to our neighbours, Annette and Mike, and they have packed up their house and are leaving. They experienced the floods of 1974 and apparently Sydney St was flooded (only the one side of the road though...maybe we'll be lucky?) They're saying these floods will be worse than the '74 floods which is not an encouraging thought. Jeremy says that if the waters start to creep up to the house, he'll go to De ands Graham's (neighbours next door, their house is on stilts). He's smart so I'm sure he'll do the right thing. I feel really helpless and worried...
I remember that time. We had moved to Melbourne mid-2010, and the brother of a new friend of ours lost his home and everything he owned in that flood. It's too bad that you had to experience unkindness from neighbors along with the physical loss of your stuff.
ReplyDeleteWow - that sounds pretty awful! :-(
ReplyDeleteThat sounds frightening and very trying. It just goes to show how resilient we are.
ReplyDelete