It takes about 10 minutes to drive to work in the morning and even in that short distance a lot can happen and there are strange things afoot. As you drive along Jacaranda Street, you pass Ipswich East State School and of course we must slow down to 40 kph.
In the middle of the school zone there is a pedestrian crossing patrolled by a “Lollipop Lady”. The one that is here most mornings is a bit weird but she really enjoys her work because you can tell by the fearless way she will jump out in front of traffic with her back completely straight, looking as if she would be better suited to a military parade ground. With the stop sign held aloft on a 45° in front of her, she will boldly walk out to the middle of the crossing with little regard for traffic. In fact, I get the impression that this is the main reason for doing this job.
There is a small tree in a garden near the crossing. She will hide in the shade of this tree and so when you drive along you will not really notice her until she begins her lunge to get to the crossing before you do. I personally feel she is a bit of a fucking lunatic and should not be anywhere near children and more so being in charge of their safety.
I have only one right hand turn to make at a set of lights. If the right hand turn is controlled by a filter arrow, then it is not a problem but when the poor Australian driver has to do this manoeuvre themselves, it turns out that most really don’t know how to do it and I get very frustrated if I am stuck behind them. The right hand turn that I have to make has to be done at your own peril, no filter arrow here.
When the lights change to green they will not move to the middle of the junction if there is oncoming traffic, they just sit still behind the line. I learned to drive in the UK where we were taught properly. We were told to move to the middle of the junction and wait until it was clear to turn. If you were still sat there when the lights changed to red you were still able to get one or two cars through the junction. In Australia however, most drivers sit behind the line and will not move to the middle of the junction, which means if there is no gap in the traffic then no one gets through the lights. And this can go on for more than one change of the lights if it’s a busy junction which makes one rather pissed off.
Turning right, merging into traffic, especially on the motorway. Leaving a motorway they will usually slow down while on the motorway rather than slow down on the exit ramp. They love to indicate and will do so for any deviation, even going around a bend in the road. They love indicating so much that will do it at every opportunity and most of it makes no sense. You can never trust Australian drivers’ indicating signals. For them it is like breathing, no thought is used it is completely instinctive and completely stupid.
Bends really fuck with Australians…….they’re great in a straight line with their big powerful V8’s and four wheel drives but don’t ask them to go around a corner without dropping 10 to 15 kph.
If they wish to run right, they will indicate right but not necessarily for the road that they wish to turn in to. Sometimes they will pass two previous roads before the actual turn. Indicating just means that at some point in time they will go in that direction, but not always just to confuse things.
Oh another thing. Many people here lean in when they go round corners and they might only being doing 40 kph, no G forces here to fight. Driver stupidity seems to be increasing year on year.
Cars on the other hand are becoming “Smarter”. I therefore have come to the conclusion, that on the day when everyone is running about in autonomous vehicles, many will just become vegetables. The rot has already begun…………….
One more thing I managed to put a cube of mulch on the garden at the weekend and it’s looking rather good, although I’ll need to buy some more soon……………..
On Monday, I went to the dentist, for the first time in a long time. I would usually go and see by brother in law Mike, but he no longer has the dental practice but instead has become a teacher. I think that it is always difficult to find a new person to go and see, to put your trust in. Whether it be a new mechanic for the car, a doctor anybody really and I usually go by word of mouth rather than search online or follow any form of advertising.
A few weeks ago a nurse came into the store and we got chatting and I happened to ask her where did she go to get her dental work done and she told me that she went to Ipswich City Dental in the town centre and so I thought I would check them out.
I paid them a visit and then I checked them out online and the reviews all seemed very positive and they were also running a special price for new patients, $99 for a clean and check-up. That will do me. I do not have a health fund and so it can be quite costly to visit a dentist in Australia.
First impressions were good. My dentist is Dr Cheng and he is from Taiwan. We got talking and he asked why I hadn’t been to the dentist for so long and I explained that I had been out the country and secondly because Mike had retired and I hadn’t found anyone to go to yet. He asked about Mike and I told him that when he gave up the practice he went into teaching………..it turns out that Mike was Dr Cheng’s supervisor for three years……tis a small world indeed. Not sure if this put a bit of pressure on Dr Cheng but his approach was very methodical and at times resembling the way Mike would have done things……..which was great.
I don’t enjoy going to the dentist, one reason because I have sensitive gums and the jet of cold air that comes off some of the tools always seems to find its way to the tooth nerves making it very unpleasant. I sat there meditating repeating “no pain” over and over in my mind trying to block it out. I got through it OK but my gums took a battering, two days later they are still a bit tender.
Dr Cheng drew up a dental plan and gave me the low down on the condition of my gums and teeth. He picked up on 4 small areas where there are signs of tooth decay, not much but they will turn into problems down the track. Two old amalgams are cracking up, he recommends having them replaced, and lastly there are four teeth where the gum is a little bit exposed so they will fill that with a composite filler. All up, I am looking around $1500.
More than I would want to pay but realistically in the big scheme of things I don’t have much choice and that’s just the going rate. I’ve booked in to have the first session done in two weeks and then every two weeks until finished.
Just as well I’ve got this job to cover these kinds of unexpected outlays.
There’s a part of me that thinks that when it’s my day off I should get up and make the most of the day in a productive manner and then there’ the old me that sneaks out every so often and convinces me to lie around like a couch potato and just relax. I like the old me, although he doesn’t get channelled so often these days.
I got a cube of mulch yesterday and I really need to get it onto the garden but so far the very thought of that is sending me back to the couch. It was raining earlier today and so that’s my excuse for not venturing out even although the rain stopped some time ago. However the temperature is wonderful, a clean fresh 23c or so, way better than yesterday where it felt as if you could have fried an egg on the driveway.
I’ll get to the mulch at some point but for now it’s just good to have a second coffee and to waste time wandering the internet. Mind you it’s disappointing how the second cup of coffee for the day never quite meets the expectations of the first.
Internal politics and the lack of staff have made this week at work a little fractious. We are waiting for the new manager to arrive; the current manager is busy getting sore thumbs playing games on his phone. Others are bickering about this and that and often do so in front of customers which I find very strange but I will often distract the customer by asking questions and completely ignoring the staff member that’s having the rant. I don’t understand how people cannot be aware of their surroundings and act appropriately, although at times it can be amusing.
I checked the news this morning whilst having breakfast and saw the headlines about Trump, really America! Civil war looks more likely than ever, mind you it will be interesting to watch the fallout from the failed impeachment trial which I think everyone knew would never achieve the desired result.
Teflon Trump is just that and it will be some small issue that will be the downfall of this man, some insignificant event will happen or come back to haunt him and it will be this event, whatever that may be, that will finally give Trump his comeuppance because it is only a matter of time. Maybe someone will top him but that will be too quick, we really want to see him suffer long and hard and watch him wither away slowly.
So what else is new? Well not much…………oh yes its Valentine’s Day………..and I am overwhelmed with cards, flowers and desires from many places……….aye right. Not a jot I may add and I never sent any either. At one time this was a day we would all dread because in the build up to Valentine’s Day we had expectations of a mountain of cards from available and willing young women and when the reality hit you like a brick as the postie walked past the door, or he only dropped off the gas bill instead of a letter with S.W.A.L.K. on it, the final nail in the coffin was rammed home with so much force and that bloody reality was a bitter pill to swallow. However as one gets older, well me to be precise I would worry more if I received a mountain of mail because I am quite content to meander this path alone at the moment without distractions, no matter how cute they be. But that thought is not set hard and fast into concrete and as Joan Armatrading says “I am open to persuasion”.
1.30pm
The Butcher birds don’t seem to know its Valentine’s Day either as there is no love lost as they shout at each other with chest puffed up staring each other down just because I put a bit of mince out on the plate, so I went out with another piece to keep the peace.
I’ve had lunch and watched a bit of the Mandalorian. I’m still in my”PJ’s” as it were and I’m not feeling at all guilty and why should I? Mind you I think that I’ll maybe venture out to the garden at some point but I’m in no hurry, I think I said that before…………….. I would like to put some mulch along the front of the house to stop all the mud from getting splashed up on the new paint which in turn is difficult to clean without damaging the finish. The rain is coming this week and I’m glad that the downpipes seem to be functioning again once more. The grass also needs cut again but that’s not going to happen today, maybe tomorrow. I have many jobs to do about the place but I am still being resolute at being completely lazy.
Lunch was not too bad, stir fried mince, onion and tomatoes with a Mongolian Lamb mix and I’m feeling very full and ready for a siesta which is what I will do as soon as I put my keyboard down.
“Bon après-midi, il est temps de faire une sieste”
It seems as if weeks have passed since I last put fingers to keyboard. I spend quite a lot of time on the computer at work and so I’m not so keen on firing it up when I get home and I have had to deal with the storm water problems yet again.
I thought after I repaired the pipe at the front of the house, that the problem was fixed but alas no.
It rained the next day. I back filled the hole and covered it with flagstones and mulch I was very happy, but when the rain came the torrent of water spewing out of the gutters and downpipe was enormous and so it was obvious that there had to be another problem.
I got the extension ladder out and precariously leaned it up against the house, the angle of incline was very steep and so I tied the ladder to the house but was not very confident climbing up. I peered over the roof and into the gutter and downpipe, the gutter was dry but the downpipe was filled to the brim with water, how can that be me thinks?
I hoped it wouldn’t rain too much until I got an opportunity to dig up the other connection to the storm water to try to find the problem or try to find out what was blocking the pipe. At the same time as all of this is happening one of the downpipes going under the deck had also begun to leak and I’m thinking it never rains but it pours. I never connected these two problems but as it turned out, they were.
I was going to start digging on Saturday after work but by the afternoon, the sun was already cooking that side of the house so I thought I’d start bright and early on Sunday, well 8.30 am bright and early. The ground was not too hard thankfully and after I got down a few inches, the soil was easy to move.
I found the storm water and soon found out why the pipe was “blocked” apparently my builders offsider isn’t skilled in the art of plumbing and so he connected both downpipes to each other completely bypassing the storm water pipe rendering it useless and of course this accounted for the stagnant water in the both pipes.
I rectified the problem but it did take a few hours. The shadow on the western wall was retreating and being consumed by the sun and if I didn’t hurry it would get to me too. Sunday was hot, really hot and the humidity was around 70% , so all and all a bit miserable.
In the afternoon, I popped out the shops and the temperature on the billboard said 38c and this was around 3.30pm in the afternoon, so working out in the midday sun was not very pleasant but I finally got the job done and was quite happy with the result.
I haven’t filled in the hole yet because it hasn’t rained and I just want to make sure that all is working before I cover up my masterpiece. But when I get home today, if I have the energy I’ll start to fill the hole again because I want to finish putting mulch down on that side of the house so that I can get another trailer load on Saturday.
It was my long weekend, Saturday after work was very hot and so it was back to the air conditioning for me. Sunday I had a slow start but then put the undercoat on the downstairs renovation. I find painting soul destroying and it’s a real effort mentally to get it done. I noticed a few flaws in my setting as I worked my way around the room and I’ll have to put a thin layer of plaster back over a few spots, but to be honest I think my setting will suffice………..
The downpipe and stormwater pipe had come adrift and I picked up the bits and pieces to repair it. I cut the pipe and fitted the elbows and joiners and put it in place but I hadn’t glued it in place yet.
Monday morning, I headed into the garden to trim the tree, it’s grown so much over the past few months and it was beginning to go over the fence to my neighbours’ garden and so I thought I’d better give it a haircut before they said something.
I borrowed the extended saw from Mick next door because even with my new fancy extension ladder that can be folded into many shapes it was still not high enough and I really didn’t want to lean the ladder against the tree branch…………I’ve seen too many YouTube videos.
When I finished I was surprised at the amount of the tree I had cut down but I think she still looks great after her wee trim. I’ll drag the trailer out at the weekend and go to the green recycling centre.
After cutting the grass it was around 4.30pm and time for coffee after which I had a shower and looked forward to the evening ahead watching some TV.
The rain started; at first it was very light but then the clouds gathered and the rain began to batter off the roof. I suddenly thought of my downpipe to storm water fix which I hadn’t glued yet. I went to have a look and I didn’t like what I saw…………..The water was pissing about everywhere. The bends and connections had blown off with the water pressure from the downpipe, but more so from the stormwater which is connected to my 3000 litre tank and so there was a quite a bit of pressure from that. Nothing I could do but to try and divert the water into the garden so that it didn’t erode anymore of the ground around the base of the downpipe.
So this morning I checked the connections once more and modified one part to make the connection snug but I had to go to work, I hate this work thing it just gets in the way. They are predicting rain later and so I just hope I can get this glued and fixed before it arrives.
10 years ago today the Ipswich region was under water. The small town of Grantham had been washed away and many people had been killed. My house soon became under threat from these rising flood waters.
I left work early and by the time I got home the rain was bucketing down. The water was running off next doors property and I tried desperately to divert the water from going through the garage and along the side of the house. The garden was a quagmire and the ground was so wet that it was liquid.
About 3.30pm the rain eased and while I was surveying the mess the police came to the house and told me that I would have to evacuate, I couldn’t believe it…………..
I looked out over the park behind the house and I could see that the water was already covering half of the park. A friend came down to see me and said that I could stay at his place. We went upstairs to the house and he suggested that we lift everything up to higher ground just in case, I laughed at this idea and thought he was taking the piss but as it turned out this saved me a lot of time and money. I never thought for one minute that the water would reach the second story of my house, but it did.
The flood waters rose very slowly; this flooding was very different from the waters that wiped Grantham off the map. The waters took a long time to rise and it was almost like a form of water torture. Little by little the water climbed up the walls of the house.
Neighbours told me that the 1974 flood had been worse and that the waters still had a long way to go yet before they would begin to drop. I had resigned myself to the fact that I would have a bit of damage and was hoping that the waters would stay out the main part of the house, which is the second story, and only go through the garage and I was fairly confident at this stage, but I think I just wanted to hear some good news.
The next morning after breakfast I walked down to the house. I stayed with Danny and Maria, their house was only a five-minute walk back down the hill. At about 8am the water was about a metre deep and had reached the downstairs windows.
I stood there with others in the street as we all watched the incremental advance of the water. Putting a stone on the road in front of the rising waters and seeing how quickly that it was reached. Two or three centimetres was covered in just a few minutes which is absolutely staggering if you think of the area that this flood was covering.
By mid-afternoon the water was just below the floor boards and I was praying to Poseidon to shut the taps off, but the water didn’t stop, but I was still hopeful.
A few hours later it had covered the floor and was reaching the windows of the second story. Mick’s house next to mine on the down side of the hill was already ¾ submerged. A group of us just stood inches in front of the water checking to see if it was still rising.
In the late afternoon, while we chatted and looked at the amazing vista of this new landscape before us we all suddenly realised that the water had stopped rising Before us was an expanse of water, an inland sea which had eaten up houses and left TV ariels, trees and telegraph poles standing to attention in the middle of this vast ocean. The waters were calm and the sun was hot and to be honest it did have a certain tranquility and beauty.
The small stones that we had put in front of the advancing waters were still dry and it really looked as if there was a slightly bigger gap than there had been a few minutes ago……………the tide was finally beginning to turn. But it was only when the waters finally receded did we see the damage that had taken place………..even although this water stealthily attacked our neighbourhood it still bought heartache and destruction to many
The next morning, we drove down to the house to discover that the waters had dropped significantly and we pulled into the driveway which was still covered by about 100mm of water. I opened up the garage door and couldn’t believe the mess, benches were upturned or flipped on their ends and there was a thick layer of ooze.
Outside the water heater had been ripped off the wall and the pipe work was bent and twisted. The garden was covered in a thick layer of the same ooze.
I was dreading to look upstairs by this time because the reality of the situation was finally starting to sink in. Most of my furniture is solid timber and so it survived ok. There was a tide mark throughout the house on the walls and furniture and the carpets were just disgusting. I felt helpless and overwhelmed by what lay before me.
I came back downstairs and already friends were pulling anything that could be salvaged out of the garage and putting it to one side. Someone was hosing out the garage and pavers out the back to get rid of that ooze before it baked hard under the summer sun. It was hot and steamy, the sun was shining and the sky was blue.
I think it was on the second or third day the firemen stopped by the house and asked if I needed anything hosed out and I said yes, could they hose out the shed at the bottom of the garden…………..that was quite a spectacle.
Strangers as well as neighbours lended a hand and brought cups of tea and comforting words. On the third day of the clean-up a Brazilian guy stopped by with a large pot of homemade curry, it was delicious. Another day a Ute with some pretty girls on the back handed out water.
The mounds of rubbish on the street were increasing and so were the many tradesmen who were in short supply. I called my plumber, Shane, and he came and got the hot water connected and checked the gas connections and things. At Mick’s house there was an electrician with many guys and I asked him if he could come to my place when he had a chance. There was so much electrical damage and one of the bigger items was the air conditioner and I was lucky enough to buy one so that the electrician could install it.
The electricians were at the house for two days as they repaired the damage and also put in some new lights around the place but it took nearly ten days until the power was finally switched back on. I was really surprised that the remote garage door still worked along with the solar panels.
The council came along one day and cleared all the rubbish that had been dumped, mind you there were also the scavengers out and about picking their way through the detritus……………..me included. I picked up a metal rack from my next door neighbour and it’s still in my shed to this day.
The flood was traumatic and at the same time an amazing experience although painful at times but the worst part I think for me and for many others was having to deal with the Insurance companies. I was with RACQ and they would not pay out because they said that it was a rain event and not a flood and they gave me a compassionate payment of $12,400. The cost of the electrician and plumber and air conditioner was already around $5500 and there was so much more to take care of.
The stress and suffering that we were put under by insurance companies like RACQ was intense. Other insurance companies paid out my next door neighbours and they just got on with the rebuild. Assessors were on the ground within a few days and repairs were set in motion, meanwhile myself and Mick were wondering where we would get the money to repair our houses.
I was off work for a month; my blood pressure was through the roof. I was depressed and didn’t know how I was going to fund the repairs. I was not enjoying work and with everything else going on it felt like a very dark time in my life.
One day in October on the way back from work, I received a call from RACQ and they told me that they had re-evaluated my claim and they would now send out an assessor, this was only because they had come under a lot of pressure from the public, government and other business bodies. I was stunned and elated at the same time and also a bit pissed off because I had started to repair things myself whereas if I had had the insurance money at the beginning I would have done things differently.
As it turned out in the end I got a very generous cash settlement and I also received government compensation and so for a time there I thought that I had won lotto………..the bank balance was full once more and I could now use that cash in any way I saw fit.
I’ve seen many others over the years being flooded and I can sympathies and empathies with them, especially having gone through it myself. Whether it be by fire or flood the consequences of such an event can stay with you for years and even the unity of the community gives you hope that humanity is not dead and still has a heart but you are quickly brought back to reality when the insurance companies try to do everything they possibly can to wriggle free of their obligations by trying to split hairs within the wording of the policy.
I went to Aldi, The shelves were empty, No meat and no vegies, No rice and cheese, Come on people please, It’s a 3 day lock down, For fucks sake, Catch a grip, Not even a dram to sip, But I got my chocolate 🙄🍫
Well a year ago to the today, the 8/1/2020, I returned to Suzhou from Thailand. I was really surprised this morning when I got to work and they told me that we are now going into lock down nearly a year to the date of the initial covid lock down in China.
The new UK strain has been passed to a hotel cleaner in Brisbane and she has been to many places since she discovered that she was infected and so the state government has decided that initially a 3-day lock down will take place but I’m sure it will be extended.
And so from 6pm today until 6pm Monday 11th we are in lock down and need to wear a mask outside and of course when we are at work. The panic buying began shortly after the announcement, the shops soon filled with crazy folk emptying shelves for a 3 day lock down, they need to be shot.
Mind you I only have one bar of chocolate left so I might go to Aldi and wait in line for a couple of hours to make sure I won’t run out over the weekend.
The world is in a hell of a state, people are dropping like flies all over the world and yet Australia has been relatively lucky in the big scheme of things mainly due to geography. The UK has surprised me, the amount of chaos and death there is not what I expected and thankfully most of my friends and relations are still well although my brother in laws father died of covid last March.
The virus is coming in waves and each wave seems to be getting bigger and stronger and it only takes one small mistake or act of stupidity to fuel the virus and then it begins to spread exponentially faster and more aggressive. Mind you, stupidity and selfishness seem to be major contributors.
America is the one to watch though, they are living in very interesting times where they have a megalomaniac president that lives each day in an alternate universe preaching to his flock who hang onto his every word living and breathing the Trump bullshit and then there is the rest of America that live in the real world with the rest of us.
I watched a video this morning where there was an Irish journalist in Georgia asking the Trump supporters what they thought about Biden winning the election and everyone they asked were in complete denial and were convinced that Trump had won and would be president until 2024, it’s fuckin’ madness and reality and fiction are almost aligned.
In Australia they had just begun to get on top of the virus and life began to return to normal just before Christmas. Internal borders were re-opened and flights resumed and it really looked like Australia had returned to normality, but then there were a few cases discovered in North Sydney and because of that restrictions were put in place very quickly and so once again people were in lockdown.
On Christmas day at Bronte Beach a few hundred young folk had a party and everyone from politicians, police and the community condemned them for being so stupid and selfish. Having so many people together in such a confined space is just ludicrous and irresponsible. So for days it’s all over the news, it’s all people are talking about. Meanwhile not too far away from said party there is the Sydney Cricket ground who just happen to be hosting a cricket match between Australia and India and guess what they are allowing up to 25% of capacity to spectate. Nothing can stand in the way of sport in Australia.
So if you like sport it’s OK to come together and participate but if you just want to go to a friend’s place for a cup of tea you cannot because you are in lockdown and it goes against all the health rules and guidance. So I’m slowly coming to the conclusion that we do not need a vaccine to prevent covid, maybe we just need to play sport.
Sport has always been the most important thing in Australia and don’t whatever you do allow it to get pushed into the background due to any catastrophe, including bushfires, floods, war, famine, pestilence and any other life changing situation.
