Number of teeth Jack has lost - 1
Number of dollars he recieved from the toothfairy for loss of tooth - 2
Number of days Aud is in her new office - 3
Number of times Jack has lost something at school this term - 4 (actually its closer to 40 probably)
Number of days till Auds parents arrive - 24
Number of days till Christmas - 29
See numbers can be fun :-)
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Clean-up continues after deadly storms hit SE Qld
The clean-up is continuing this morning after a series of destructive storms lashed south-east Queensland for more than five hours last night.
A man drowned in a flooded storm water drain at the height of the storms.The 20-year-old man was with a friend in the drain on Kittyhawk Drive at Chermside at 6:00pm AEST when they were swept away. Witnesses say the water rose too quickly and unexpectedly for the men to get out of the drain safely. A 23-year-old man managed to grab hold of a grate and was plucked to safety by a water rescue team. The body of the younger man was found nearby a few hours later.
At The Gap, firefighters had to work around live powerlines to rescue a couple trapped in their car by floodwaters. Residents at a Keperra nursing home had to be evacuated from their rooms after a building was damaged.
Meanwhile, Queensland's State Emergency Service (SES) worked through the night to clean up damage caused by the storms. More than 145,000 south-east Qld homes and businesses lost power. The SES received more than 10,000 calls to its hotline and answered hundreds of requests for help. Damaging winds ripped roofs from homes and brought down trees and powerlines.
Queensland Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts is urging residents to be patient.
"It's been a very busy night also for Energex workers with power lines down," he said.
"We're just asking people to take a little bit of care this morning, but council have been out very early to try to help clear debris and we'll have a lot of SES workers from both Brisbane and surrounding regions helping throughout the day."
The State Emergency Service has received about 700 calls for help this morning.
Mr Roberts says more calls are expected as residents assess the damage in the daylight.
"There's a lot of people out and about at the moment and I urge motorists to take care, there'll be a lot of streets that might be blocked," he said.
"We just need people to be cautious and to be patient because eventually we'll get around and we'll clean up this mess so we can get on with our lives."
Brisbane's Lord Mayor Campbell Newman is at The Gap in the city's north-west and says it looks like the aftermath of a cyclone. "The damage is absolutely extraordinary - I've not seen anything like it before," he said. "I suppose the first thing I'd say is we really don't need any sightseers out here."We need the emergency services and people who've got a job to do because there are severe problems with the power, debris down on the roads all over the place and a lot of damage to people's homes."
Energex spokesman Mike Swanston says some customers might not have power until early tonight."We had major damage on our main transmission systems from Gympie to Redland Bay last night - it was just unbelievable," he said.
"I've been in network operations for the best part of 27 years and this is certainly one that's put a notch on the wall." Energex spokesman Danny Donald says it has been a long time since bad storms caused this much damage.
"People are talking around-about 1985 was the last time that they've seen a storm like this come through on the Energex network, so we're throwing everything at it to get customers up and running as soon as possible," he said.
On the state's Darling Downs region, Daphne Bogg from Mount Irving says the storm dumped about 25 millimetres of welcome rain but the winds caused damage."It blew over an augur and two big gum trees and we can't get the cars out of the garage until we shift one gum tree," she said."They've been there 36 years but thankfully that's all."But my daughter in Brisbane at The Gap says they can't go outside - there's poles and everything down there."
On the Gold Coast, SES spokesman Chad Trip says there has been numerous calls about roof damage at Canungra and Mount Tamborine with a tree having fallen across the M1 at Robina.
"We had some very frightened people on the phone especially the elderly and the single mothers - those sort of things, they were very frightened," he said.
On the Sunshine Coast, SES spokesman Phil Holden says the region escaped any major damage.
"We had two sandbagging jobs at Bli Bli, a roof tarping job at Yandina, we had to close the Yandina-Bli Bli Road because of flooding and the sand bag job in Nambour," he said.
--------------------------------------------------------------
But we were lucky - we had to put towels at the front door, and the noise was intense for nearly 2 hours as the thunder and lightening was over our house, but we escaped without damage, didnt even loose our electricity. The summer storms are always interested thats for sure.
A man drowned in a flooded storm water drain at the height of the storms.The 20-year-old man was with a friend in the drain on Kittyhawk Drive at Chermside at 6:00pm AEST when they were swept away. Witnesses say the water rose too quickly and unexpectedly for the men to get out of the drain safely. A 23-year-old man managed to grab hold of a grate and was plucked to safety by a water rescue team. The body of the younger man was found nearby a few hours later.
At The Gap, firefighters had to work around live powerlines to rescue a couple trapped in their car by floodwaters. Residents at a Keperra nursing home had to be evacuated from their rooms after a building was damaged.
Meanwhile, Queensland's State Emergency Service (SES) worked through the night to clean up damage caused by the storms. More than 145,000 south-east Qld homes and businesses lost power. The SES received more than 10,000 calls to its hotline and answered hundreds of requests for help. Damaging winds ripped roofs from homes and brought down trees and powerlines.
Queensland Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts is urging residents to be patient.
"It's been a very busy night also for Energex workers with power lines down," he said.
"We're just asking people to take a little bit of care this morning, but council have been out very early to try to help clear debris and we'll have a lot of SES workers from both Brisbane and surrounding regions helping throughout the day."
The State Emergency Service has received about 700 calls for help this morning.
Mr Roberts says more calls are expected as residents assess the damage in the daylight.
"There's a lot of people out and about at the moment and I urge motorists to take care, there'll be a lot of streets that might be blocked," he said.
"We just need people to be cautious and to be patient because eventually we'll get around and we'll clean up this mess so we can get on with our lives."
Brisbane's Lord Mayor Campbell Newman is at The Gap in the city's north-west and says it looks like the aftermath of a cyclone. "The damage is absolutely extraordinary - I've not seen anything like it before," he said. "I suppose the first thing I'd say is we really don't need any sightseers out here."We need the emergency services and people who've got a job to do because there are severe problems with the power, debris down on the roads all over the place and a lot of damage to people's homes."
Energex spokesman Mike Swanston says some customers might not have power until early tonight."We had major damage on our main transmission systems from Gympie to Redland Bay last night - it was just unbelievable," he said.
"I've been in network operations for the best part of 27 years and this is certainly one that's put a notch on the wall." Energex spokesman Danny Donald says it has been a long time since bad storms caused this much damage.
"People are talking around-about 1985 was the last time that they've seen a storm like this come through on the Energex network, so we're throwing everything at it to get customers up and running as soon as possible," he said.
On the state's Darling Downs region, Daphne Bogg from Mount Irving says the storm dumped about 25 millimetres of welcome rain but the winds caused damage."It blew over an augur and two big gum trees and we can't get the cars out of the garage until we shift one gum tree," she said."They've been there 36 years but thankfully that's all."But my daughter in Brisbane at The Gap says they can't go outside - there's poles and everything down there."
On the Gold Coast, SES spokesman Chad Trip says there has been numerous calls about roof damage at Canungra and Mount Tamborine with a tree having fallen across the M1 at Robina.
"We had some very frightened people on the phone especially the elderly and the single mothers - those sort of things, they were very frightened," he said.
On the Sunshine Coast, SES spokesman Phil Holden says the region escaped any major damage.
"We had two sandbagging jobs at Bli Bli, a roof tarping job at Yandina, we had to close the Yandina-Bli Bli Road because of flooding and the sand bag job in Nambour," he said.
--------------------------------------------------------------
But we were lucky - we had to put towels at the front door, and the noise was intense for nearly 2 hours as the thunder and lightening was over our house, but we escaped without damage, didnt even loose our electricity. The summer storms are always interested thats for sure.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Wizards witches and letters
Jacks school play was the other week - an evening with Roald Dahl. His class have been practicing really hard at being witches and wizards.
It was in one of the local private schools and Jack needed to be there for 6pm, so both Jim and I were skipping out of work early for the occasion with Jack getting changed at after school club.
So we were going somewhere we sort of knew but not entirely, not a problem except for the torrential rain. After doing an unintentional tour of the colleage we eventually found where we were going to and parceled Jack off to his class group.
With just enough time to grab something to eat - sausage sizzle again and to say Hi to a few parents, we now sort of know because of the camping trip.
The show started off with the little preppies being Oompa Loompas - the whole audience of 600 were just cuted out as they came out in the costumes and sang their little song - bless them it seems such a long time since Jack did that and was so small.
Each class did their own little show with their favourite Roald Dahl book. The Grade 1's came on and I must admit we had huge grins when Jack and his little group came to the front to sing the witches convention national athem - we are the wicked witches, we all wear stripy britches, we make such nasty potions, we have such naughty notions.... well done Jack. He did really well.
They had a few technical problems during the show but the kids coped really well but by the end of it 9.30pm we were all ready to drop dead with hunger - so as the final goodbye the principal said that if the kids are a bit tired they can go in late the next day - oh yeah - we dont have jobs or bosses.... so out into the water logged field to collect the car.
So a quick trip to the pizza place we passed - Jim got soaked just getting out of the car as we scoffed pizzas into our empty bellys. A good night and Jack loved it but next year - somewhere closer and a lot shorter please!!!
Oh and letters - Jack has written letters to his pals in England and yesterday he got a beautifully written reply - with joined up writing no less from Matthew - its amazing - half a world away only 6 weeks in their ages and so much in common - Matthew had just spent his pocket money on Lego agents (Jack is currently saving up his pocket money to buy lego and just put lego agents on his christmas list), Matthew dressed as a skeleton at halloween, (snap so did Jack) and they both have wobbly teeth. And love Star Wars - the letter and envelope were covered in them and Jack practically danced around looking at them all. Its good to know - boys will be boys whereever they are.
It was in one of the local private schools and Jack needed to be there for 6pm, so both Jim and I were skipping out of work early for the occasion with Jack getting changed at after school club.
So we were going somewhere we sort of knew but not entirely, not a problem except for the torrential rain. After doing an unintentional tour of the colleage we eventually found where we were going to and parceled Jack off to his class group.
With just enough time to grab something to eat - sausage sizzle again and to say Hi to a few parents, we now sort of know because of the camping trip.
The show started off with the little preppies being Oompa Loompas - the whole audience of 600 were just cuted out as they came out in the costumes and sang their little song - bless them it seems such a long time since Jack did that and was so small.
Each class did their own little show with their favourite Roald Dahl book. The Grade 1's came on and I must admit we had huge grins when Jack and his little group came to the front to sing the witches convention national athem - we are the wicked witches, we all wear stripy britches, we make such nasty potions, we have such naughty notions.... well done Jack. He did really well.
They had a few technical problems during the show but the kids coped really well but by the end of it 9.30pm we were all ready to drop dead with hunger - so as the final goodbye the principal said that if the kids are a bit tired they can go in late the next day - oh yeah - we dont have jobs or bosses.... so out into the water logged field to collect the car.
So a quick trip to the pizza place we passed - Jim got soaked just getting out of the car as we scoffed pizzas into our empty bellys. A good night and Jack loved it but next year - somewhere closer and a lot shorter please!!!
Oh and letters - Jack has written letters to his pals in England and yesterday he got a beautifully written reply - with joined up writing no less from Matthew - its amazing - half a world away only 6 weeks in their ages and so much in common - Matthew had just spent his pocket money on Lego agents (Jack is currently saving up his pocket money to buy lego and just put lego agents on his christmas list), Matthew dressed as a skeleton at halloween, (snap so did Jack) and they both have wobbly teeth. And love Star Wars - the letter and envelope were covered in them and Jack practically danced around looking at them all. Its good to know - boys will be boys whereever they are.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Everytime we have a BBQ
On Saturday we had a crowd round for a BBQ, so of course we had rain and gail force winds, it was like being back in the UK but real humidity to go with it, thank goodness for the sea breezes!!!
But we did have a laugh, lots of drinks and bundles of food that lasted till our last guests left at 10.45pm - not bad for a 3pm start.
It had been ages since we had a gathering and we sure did enjoy it and the reasons behind it - as if you need any - my Dad turned 60 on Saturday so while we was preparing for his 50 guests in Ireland we had our little shindig and also coincidentally Jim is is Oz two years this weekend so double excuses.
So Sunday we just enjoyed not doing a whole lot though we did venture to the local toy shop for Jackster to start his christmas list....lego, bionicles, transformers, hot wheels.....lots already. But he does know its only a list and that Father Christmas will know exactly how much or how little he deserves....... :-)
But we did have a laugh, lots of drinks and bundles of food that lasted till our last guests left at 10.45pm - not bad for a 3pm start.
It had been ages since we had a gathering and we sure did enjoy it and the reasons behind it - as if you need any - my Dad turned 60 on Saturday so while we was preparing for his 50 guests in Ireland we had our little shindig and also coincidentally Jim is is Oz two years this weekend so double excuses.
So Sunday we just enjoyed not doing a whole lot though we did venture to the local toy shop for Jackster to start his christmas list....lego, bionicles, transformers, hot wheels.....lots already. But he does know its only a list and that Father Christmas will know exactly how much or how little he deserves....... :-)
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Politics and coverage
I am at work watching the US election coverage - pretty cool stuff.
It is 2.20pm and about 10 minutes ago the BBC recorded - 306 Obama and 145 mcCain - Obama looks like he is the new US president.... but does Australia know this yet - no because the ABC is still showing 195 Obama and 130 McCain no matter how many times I refresh it.
Good on the BBC
and Good Luck Barack, congrats!
It is 2.20pm and about 10 minutes ago the BBC recorded - 306 Obama and 145 mcCain - Obama looks like he is the new US president.... but does Australia know this yet - no because the ABC is still showing 195 Obama and 130 McCain no matter how many times I refresh it.
Good on the BBC
and Good Luck Barack, congrats!
The things we do for our kids...
....like camping.
Jacks year group decided to go camping last weekend and we decided to go too.
When I say decided, it was decided because we both work and we dont get a chance to meet many other parents and so Jack could have fun with his friends and all that kind of stuff.
So considering our idea of camping is usually a 5 star hotel we had to go out and buy everything - a tent (went for a three person, three very small people who like to be snug and cosy, I might add), then mats and sleeping bags and torches and the list went on.
But we arrived on Saturday early afternoon, some had been there from the night before with their large tents as big as a small house with all the mod cons however we got a good spot, Jim did an excellant job of following the bad instuctions and the tent was put up without one swear word.
Jack was feeling a bit unsure at first, keeping us within sight but it didnt take too long once we convinced the kids that they didnt really come camping to play DS and leapsters and other electronic equipment to go play. So they climbed up trails and trees and ran around like kids should and got covered in dust and dirt - it was great.
At dusk it was time for the kids to gather around the camp fire to "boil" marshmallows- Jacks words. He didnt want to but once he tried them he was eager to boil as many as possible - considering there were 14 families and each had a packet of marshmallows each and none were left by the end of the 30 minutes there were lots of sugared up kids. So before bed they went with torches in hand up the trail with a story teller up front telling them to beware of the stumps - so lots of mock and some real screams and ooohhh and ahhs so when they returned for the most part they were content to go to bed - it had been a busy day.
So the grown ups were at last allowed to toast there own marshmallows, eat chocolate, drink more alcohol and chat and listen to the guitar - one of the dads loves playing but his wife has other ideas so I think he was pleased to have the opportunity to be let loose so a few hours later he was still going and it was good.
The next day it was a choice of horse riding or mining - Jack hunted for Thunder-eggs - with our picks we dugs for egg shaped rocks hoping for a beautiful crystal inside - we got two bucket loads of rocks and the experts sorted them for us - we had about 7 possibly good ones but we didnt get them cut - instead we are going to clean them up and decide which one to bring back next time and get it cut then. At $4-$10 dollars on top of the entrance for each one cut - eventually something has to give.
It was lovely on Mount Tambourine and we did have a good time, and we have the tent now so we might do it again but I must admit it was lovely to sleep in a bed again.......
Jacks year group decided to go camping last weekend and we decided to go too.
When I say decided, it was decided because we both work and we dont get a chance to meet many other parents and so Jack could have fun with his friends and all that kind of stuff.
So considering our idea of camping is usually a 5 star hotel we had to go out and buy everything - a tent (went for a three person, three very small people who like to be snug and cosy, I might add), then mats and sleeping bags and torches and the list went on.
But we arrived on Saturday early afternoon, some had been there from the night before with their large tents as big as a small house with all the mod cons however we got a good spot, Jim did an excellant job of following the bad instuctions and the tent was put up without one swear word.
Jack was feeling a bit unsure at first, keeping us within sight but it didnt take too long once we convinced the kids that they didnt really come camping to play DS and leapsters and other electronic equipment to go play. So they climbed up trails and trees and ran around like kids should and got covered in dust and dirt - it was great.
At dusk it was time for the kids to gather around the camp fire to "boil" marshmallows- Jacks words. He didnt want to but once he tried them he was eager to boil as many as possible - considering there were 14 families and each had a packet of marshmallows each and none were left by the end of the 30 minutes there were lots of sugared up kids. So before bed they went with torches in hand up the trail with a story teller up front telling them to beware of the stumps - so lots of mock and some real screams and ooohhh and ahhs so when they returned for the most part they were content to go to bed - it had been a busy day.
So the grown ups were at last allowed to toast there own marshmallows, eat chocolate, drink more alcohol and chat and listen to the guitar - one of the dads loves playing but his wife has other ideas so I think he was pleased to have the opportunity to be let loose so a few hours later he was still going and it was good.
The next day it was a choice of horse riding or mining - Jack hunted for Thunder-eggs - with our picks we dugs for egg shaped rocks hoping for a beautiful crystal inside - we got two bucket loads of rocks and the experts sorted them for us - we had about 7 possibly good ones but we didnt get them cut - instead we are going to clean them up and decide which one to bring back next time and get it cut then. At $4-$10 dollars on top of the entrance for each one cut - eventually something has to give.
It was lovely on Mount Tambourine and we did have a good time, and we have the tent now so we might do it again but I must admit it was lovely to sleep in a bed again.......
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