I worked with a young woman before I was married who overstated things to say the least. Let's just say that her cup was neither half empty nor half full... it runneth over! When she and her husband bought a house with an acre of land she was describing that there was an established orchard on the property. Peter and I still smile when we remember going over to visit and her "orchard" was a half a dozen different fruit trees planted in a clump. It made me realise that one man (or woman)'s fruit trees are anothers "orchard".

So with that said... take a look at our FARM ...

( click here )

I am having a lovely calm day.

I managed to clean the living and kitchen area so the house looks tidy.. NOT!.. down the hall and in the bedrooms are a different story. I have done 5 loads of washing.. I know crazy...

The boys helped this morning.. according to the new strategies I have in place. Scott tidied and vacummned his room and Jack empty all the bins and recycling and tidied his room. They went off to neighbourhood friends, returned to copy files to Ipods, eat Wizard bread (male version of fairy bread), I tried them out on rolling pin rolled flat white bread with cream cheese and ham then rolled into cigars... they loved them... wot the? If I had offered a cream cheese and ham sandwich I can tell you I would not have got such a good reaction.

They now have gone off on their friends family boat - not without me shouting get your sunshirts on, hats, wait I will apply sunscreen, here are bottles of water... don't get sunburnt.. that is how you get Sun Cancer and lastly ... have fun!

During this time we have had 3 tilers here tiling under the deck and Peter had a supplier here to check out the kitchen floor and deliver some goods. I got to talk to kearbear22 before she headed off to a wedding. All the tradesmen have now left and all is quiet. I have had time to telephone notsogreynomad and have a quick chat before she and Dave head off over the Nullabor Plain and have no telephone or internet connection.

I have managed to take some photos of the day and I will post them next. In case this post is getting to long and boring.

I have fast Internet coverage again!

This made me laugh.  I have watched quite a few times and still giggle.   I like how the big brother is still gentle with his baby brother Charlie.  Charlie has the cutest devilish laugh at the end.

This is what sad looks like                                                               This is what sorry looks like


       

You wake up to find presents by your pillow....

( click here )

Well I didn't actually go in the Marathon but we did have fun watching it. I have made a little slideshow if you want to have a look. The slide show starts just down the road from where we live and after they turn it is only about 5kms to the finish line, having already run 40kms. The fish sculpture at the end is our local fish and chip shop and the Staffy watching the runners is for notsogreynomad. (There is music titled "Hard Shit" by Dale Johnson if you want to turn on your sound).

( click here )

I have made this a separate public post. What do you suggest regarding safe-keeping photos. Do you suggest :

1. copy on USB
2. copy on disk
3. copy on third party, ie. Photobucket
4. fireproof box

The wind died down and the rain stopped for awhile yesterday so I went out and for a drive to see what storm damage there was.

Firstly a small palm tree across the road had blown over and a white light cover from the fence had blown down the road. Came across boats that had come away from their swing moorings and were wrecked on the beach, huge tree had snapped, and there was so much sand over the road at Narrow Neck you couldn't tell what was beach, grass or road. There was water being pumped out of construction sites in Surfers Paradise, Motel signs fallen over and the last photo in this slideshow is the boarded up window where,.sadly, a local man died after some debris broke through his office window.

( slideshow here )
Today we have blue skies and sunshine!

If anyone is not quite sure of the scenery from South Australia to the Northern Territory... just look at these two photos...

notsogreynomad photo of road in South Australia heading north



joncub photo of road in Northern Territory




I'm not saying it's boring or not beautiful.. just saying.. a vast difference.... NOT!

If you can, log on to this link and go to the right hand side Latest News Videos menu. Click on "Queensland in State of Emergency". The car sucked into the ocean is one thing but if you keep watching towards the end you will see some footage of the wild weather from yesterday in Surfers Paradise (where the man was killed from a window imploding).

http://today.ninemsn.com.au/videoindex.aspx



In the last 15mins the sky has cleared and the wind has almost stopped... kinda spooky like we are in the eye of a cyclone... hope it just means that this weather has moved away from us.

In April this year, the Italian Cruise ship Msc Melody was attacked by Somali pirates off the coast of Africa. Israeli security staff and passengers fought them off and were able to escape.

So why I am writing about this... well my neighbour across the road was on that cruise! Her Israeli houseguests who we became to know quite well have now left to go home via Thailand and have met up with her on the island of Ko Chang. They will then continue to Vietnam then Israel. Funny thing is that Deanna met Ilan on a cruise some 20 years ago when he was Israeli Security personnel.

The weather in SE Queensland is unbelievable. Torrential rain, 100kmph winds, flash flooding. It has bucketed down all day and the wind is just as wild now as it was today. The power has been surging most of the day and I saw powerlines down in BWaters but we weren't affected. I have been through a few cyclone warnings but I believe this is the worst I have ever seen. We actually had waves in the Creek across the road. We also have high tides and I am sure tidal surges will mean some (minor I hope) flooding around here. kearbear22 said that water was up to the stairs of the shop at Coochie, part tidal and part from rain water in the creek beside it.

In a freak accident today a 46 year old man was killed in Surfers Paradise when a metal awning broke away and crashed through his office window!

Below is the Bureau of Meteorology Radar Image showing the "rain-bomb" covering SE Queensland.

http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2009/05/20/80565_gold-coast-news.html

Queensland's Tourism slogan is "Beautiful One Day, Perfect the Next". I think it should be "Drought one Day, Flooding the Next".

It started off with this carrot I found in my groceries ...

( click here )

What were you thinking?

It's Inevitable!!

( click here )

I got some lovely chrysanthenums from the boys for Mothers Day and when I went for a walk I experimented with the macro setting on my camera.

( click here )

I took my camera to work this week. A while ago I posted photos of my workplace at the Australia Fair Shopping Centre in Southport. I took these photos from the car park (million dollar view for a car park!).

( click here )

Happy Birthday to my beautiful sister. About 4 years too old when I was growing up. But we have caught up in age. She who is wise and beautiful, adventurous and disciplined.

I LOVE YOU SHELLEY... MY BIG SISTER... MY INNER VOICE... I DON'T KNOW IF YOU CAN FEEL THE SADNESS I FEEL WHEN I SAY I REALLY MISS YOU, AND IN MY INNER SELFISHNESS I WANT YOU TO COME HOME... BUT IN MY HEART I AM GLAD YOU AND DAVID ARE TRAVELLING AND EXPERIENCING LIFE.

I HOPE YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL BIRTHDAY! Glennie,Glen, Glens, Glenda XXXXXX

THIS WAS A POST I DID ON SUNDAY 29 MARCH....

There are always the stupid who think they don't need to heed the warnings!

( photo )

THIS IS THE TRAGEDY THAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK...

( photo )

About this time last year we went to the hinterland area which is west of the Gold Coast. This is a relatively low mountainous area and has picturesque rainforests and waterfalls. We could not go to Springbrook as there was a landslide.

Just this week there was an amazing survival story of a family who was travelling in this area when a landslide and huge boulders landed on their car.... they said that it was just like a movie, lots of dust and the rocks fell at the front of their Ford Territory and then at the back which meant they could not travel forward or backward. Fortunately they and their two children were unharmed.
( amazing photos )

I haven't really been in the mood to write much in my journal. I have been reading my friends' posts but sorry if I haven't made comment.

I have been absorbed in reading Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. I read it this weekend. It is really just a teenage love story but for some reason I couldn't put it down. It was an easy read and as the weekend was quite rainy it was nice to curl up and lose myself in a book, something I haven't done for a long time. I bought the next in the series, New Moon, today. So I'm having an early night... off to bed to read more about Edward and Bella.