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A mixed day of cloudy periods and brilliant sunshine. Lots of tasks required out in the yard, but seemed to get bogged down with other matters, the ‘paperwork boy’ they call me!  Also still feeling a little annoyed at an incident with my car, which occurred soon after I reached Sunbury from the city [thankfully not earlier I guess] –  suddenly had a puncture in my rear right tyre. Had not noticed anything on the drive out, at generally the maximum speeds, but all of a sudden, felt something go, stopped in the supermarket carpark and found a completely flat tyre, down to the rim! I didn’t have much luck getting the tyre off myself –  tighten the nuts up with damn machines and then expect ordinary mortals such as myself to reverse the work of a machine!  Anyway, I decided not to fight with it – the wheel was rather dirty and black, and a continued struggle was likely to change the look of everything I was wearing!! Called the RACV – our State roadside service organisation. The response is usually pretty good around Sunbury, and a service van is generally with you within about 20 minutes!!!   Not last night!  Two hours later!!! Apparently a couple of ‘out of the ordinary situations’ had arisen in the district which caused the unusual delay! By the time a mechanic arrived, I was wishing, and cursing the fact, that I’d not ‘fought’ a little more with that tyre!  The situation did give me a chance to have a chat with young Jodie – thinking I might me waiting even longer, I had called her up, with the purpose of asking her to take home the fresh and frozen food items, I’d been silly enough to buy ‘before’ calling the service people. As it turned out, she arrived the same time as they did!

Anyway, my slight ‘annoyance’ on Saturday was the fact that I could not get the tyre repaired until Monday – thankfully, not trips of any significance planned this weekend, so at least I didn’t have to go far, with a flat tyre in the car boot!

I did manage to  finally have a bit of a look at the Tour Down Under [over in South Australia] which is in fact the first major international bike race for the year. I didn’t realise until today that it has been going on in Australia since the late 1990s, perhaps it’s prestige has only just begun to be noticed over the past two or three years, with the influx of  international riders, and of course, in particular, people like Lance Armstrong. Now, following yesterday’s stage of the race, there was a new overall leader.  West Australian Cameron Myer, aged 23,was the new leader after sprinting home at the end of yesterday’s 124 km Stage 4 of the race, into Strathalbyn.  The former leader, Matthew Goss, and also Robbie McEwan, are overall 3^rd and 4^th in the classifications after the 4 stages. Today, in Stage 5,  the cyclists travel 131 kms between  McLaren Vale and Willungra, which includes quite a severe hill section  at Willungra. This section includes a partial beach front ride, with the cyclists looking out towards the great Southern Ocean, though I doubt that many of them would really be enjoying the ocean scenery! I’m also wondering whether my brother, Robert, gets to ride over that area with the amateur tour party he is riding with? Haven’t heard from Robert for a couple of days, so I’m not sure what progress he has been making.

Anyway, jumping ahead, today’s stage was won by Francisco Ventoso [Spain] from the Australian riders, Michael Matthews and Matthew Goss. That left Cameron Myer still wearing the overall Leaders’ Jersey, followed by Goss in 2^nd place, and Matthews in 4^th. Tomorrow would be the 5^th and final stage of the Tour Down Under.

Tonight, I had been looking forward to the night session at the Australian Open Tennis, with two Australians competing [the last two Aussies in the singles’ competitions]. Samantha Stosur was expected to win her game, but while nobody expected young teenage star Bernard Tomic to have any real hope of defeating Rafael Nadal, we did hope he would make a bit of a game of it!! Well for a start, disappointment with our Sam!  Seemed to be played reasonable well in the First Set against a very talented and determined opponent, then all of a sudden, the set was over, and she was coming from behind. Actually still expected her to get up and win from that point onwards, and while Sam claimed afterwards that she felt she was playing quite well, the 2^nd set did not give that appearance, and she was basically crushed by a very good up and coming player, who managed to win all of the points that really mattered. In the end, the score line was not flattering for our girl – Petra Kvitoca of the Czech Republic defeated Samantha Stosur [Australia] 7/6, 6/3.

 Next game up was the much anticipated mismatch  between No. 1 in the World, and No. 199. This little media report summed it up.   ‘Grand slam tyro Bernard Tomic delivered hope to depressed Australian tennis fans with a heartening display against the world’s premier player at Melbourne Park on Saturday night. Tomic made all-conquering top seed Rafael Nadal sweat for two-and-a-half hours at Rod Laver Arena before the Spaniard safely progressed to the fourth round of the Australian Open with a sapping 6-2 7-5 6-3 victory over the teenage wildcard Despite 198 rankings spots separating the two combatants, Tomic had Nadal under immense pressure at 4-0 down in the second set as the 18-year-old upstart briefly threatened to pull off the biggest upset in grand slam history’. Of course, it wasn’t to be, but Tomic’s effort meant the match lasted well in excess of an hour longer than most had anticipated it would.  And for this viewer, yet another late Saturday night prior to an early Sunday morning!

Tonight, up in Tamworth, New South Wales [NSW], the annual  Country Music Awards were held – this is an annual event at this time each January, but because of the floods in parts of northern NSW, it had at one stage been feared that the event might have to be cancelled. However, the organisers had no such intention. Reports from the night’s activities at Tamworth, revealed that singer, Kasey Chambers  dominated country music’s night of nights, taking home four Golden Guitars including Female Artist of the Year. She also won Single of the Year and APRA Song of the Year for Little Bird, from her 2010 album of the same name at the awards ceremony on Saturday night. This is song I have already a few times on my radio shows, and after this win tonight, I was determined to do so again tomorrow afternoon.  The song was written about the trouble she had breaking into the industry before she skyrocketed to fame with her hit single Not Pretty Enough from the 2001 album Barricades and Brickwalls. Her fourth award from seven nominations was for Love Like A Hurricane with Kevin Bennett in the Vocal Collaboration of the Year category. The haul puts Chambers’s Golden Guitar total at 12.  ARIA Award-winning country artist Graeme Connors took out the title of Male Artist of the Year for the track A Good Life.  The other big winner of the night was Jimmy Little who joined the ranks of Slim Dusty in winning the Lifetime Achievement Award, his first Golden Guitar after six decades in the business. Admitted to the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1999, Little has more than 30 albums and has been a regular at the Tamworth Country Music Festival since its inception 39 years ago. Little said it was an honour to receive the award ahead of his concert in Tamworth on Sunday, which is likely to be his last. “I have been performing at the Tamworth Country Music Festival for years and to receive this award on the eve of possibly my final live performance here is such a great honour,” he said.

Back to Bill’s ‘world of sport’ briefly. in a match that I didn’t see [because there is no free to air coverage], the Australian ‘Socceroos’ played their quarterfinal Asian Cup match  against the reigning title holders, Iraq,  in the early hours of Sunday morning. I would read the next day that Australian champion soccer player   Harry Kewell’s last-gasp extra-time header fired the Socceroos into the Asian Cup semi-finals, sealing a 1-0 win in a thrilling clash with Iraq at the Al Sadd Stadium in Doha. Kewell struck in the 118th minute with the match looking certain to be decided on penalties after Australia were unable to convert their dominance against a gallant Iraq. The Galatasaray star nodded home a brilliant Matt McKay cross to secure a deserved victory and avenge Australia’s 3-1 loss to Iraq in the group stages of the 2007 tournament.  The Socceroos will now face Uzbekistan in Tuesday’s (Wednesday morning AEDT) semi-final at Khalifa Stadium for a spot in next weekend’s final against either Japan or South Korea. “Qualifying for the semi final is definitely a great achievement,” Socceroos coach Holger Osieck said.  “Looking at the game itself, although it went into extra time during the regular 90 minutes, I think we had more of the game, we played solidly in defence, we had a good structure, we played up, we had good chances.” “… If I am not mistaken Iraq probably only had one great opportunity, the rest came from half chances and I think that we should have done our job in 90 minutes and Iraq came on very strong in extra time.”  Japan face South Korea in Tuesday’s other semi-final after South Korea also prevailed in extra time on their quarter-final, 1-0 over Iran.

Thanks to a work associate, I came recently across an extract from an article written by Albert Ellis, an American psychologist, who in 1955 developed Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), and was considered by many to be the second most influential psychotherapist in history. Ellis had numerous published contributions within the various fields associated with all aspects of psychology and it’s adjuncts, and REBT was just one such ‘creation, which was originally simply called rational therapy –  both a psychotherapeutic system of theory and practices, and a school of thought. I took it home to show Susan, as it seemed to be related to her areas of study over recent years. One area referred to in this REBT was a list of  ‘12 Irrational Ideas That Cause and Sustain Neurosis’, and that formed the basis of the extract that was given to me. Upon reading the contents,  it occurred to me, that rather that simply being a highly technical and medically inspired set of ideas, they were in fact highly practical everyday realistic [if you like] theories of the ways in which we so often think and react to situations that form a part of our daily lives.

For those looking for a definition of neurosis – well, according to our Australian Macquarie Dictionary ‘Neurosis is a relatively mild mental illness in which feelings of anxiety, obsessional thoughts, compulsive acts and physical complaints without objective evidence of disease, in various patterns, dominate the personality. With this kind of definition in mind, here are the ’12 Ideas’ that Ellis considered were a causation factor in sustaining such neurotic states of mind (taken from The Essence of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, by Albert Ellis, Ph.D. Revised, May 1994.)

1. The idea that it is a dire necessity for adults to be loved by significant others for almost everything they do — instead of their concentrating on their own self-respect, on winning approval for practical purposes, and on loving rather than on being loved.

2. The idea that certain acts are awful or wicked, and that people who perform such acts should be severely damned — instead of the idea that certain acts are self-defeating or antisocial, and that people who perform such acts are behaving stupidly, ignorantly, or neurotically, and would be better helped to change. People’s poor behaviours do not make them rotten individuals.

3. The idea that it is horrible when things are not the way we like them to be — instead of the idea that it is too bad, that we would better try to change or control bad conditions so that they become more satisfactory, and, if that is not possible, we had better temporarily accept and gracefully lump their existence.

4. The idea that human misery is invariably externally caused and is forced on us by outside people and events — instead of the idea that neurosis is largely caused by the view that we take of unfortunate conditions.

5. The idea that if something is or may be dangerous or fearsome we should be terribly upset and endlessly obsess about it — instead of the idea that one would better frankly face it and render it non-dangerous and, when that is not possible, accept the inevitable.

6. The idea that it is easier to avoid than to face life difficulties and self-responsibilities — instead of the idea that the so-called easy way is usually much harder in the long run.

7. The idea that we absolutely need something other or stronger or greater than ourself on which to rely — instead of the idea that it is better to take the risks of thinking and acting less dependently.

8. The idea that we should be thoroughly competent, intelligent, and achieving in all possible respects — instead of the idea that we would better do rather than always need to do well and accept ourself as a quite imperfect creature, who has general human limitations and specific fallibilities.

9. The idea that because something once strongly affected our life, it should indefinitely affect it — instead of the idea that we can learn from our past experiences but not be overly-attached to or prejudiced by them.

10. The idea that we must have certain and perfect control over things — instead of the idea that the world is full of probability and chance and that we can still enjoy life despite this

11. The idea that human happiness can be achieved by inertia and inaction — instead of the idea that we tend to  be happiest when we are vitally absorbed in creative pursuits, or when we are devoting ourselves to people or projects outside ourselves.

12. The idea that we have virtually no control over our emotions and that we cannot help feeling disturbed about things — instead of the idea that we have real control over our destructive emotions if we choose to work at changing the musturbatory hypotheses which we often employ to create them.

One simplified breakdown of all of this was illustrated where Ellis talked about the three main irrational beliefs of people, viz:-

1.  “I must be outstandingly competent, or I am worthless.”
2.  “Others must treat me considerately, or they are absolutely rotten.”
3.  “The world should always give me happiness, or I will die.”

Ellis has come to emphasize more and more the importance of what he calls “unconditional self-acceptance.”  He says that, in REBT, no one is damned, no matter how awful their actions, and we should accept ourselves for what we are rather than for what we have achieved.  One approach he mentions is to convince the client of the intrinsic value of him or herself as a human being.  Just being alive provides you with value.   He notes that most theories make a great deal out of self-esteem and ego-strength and similar concepts.  We are naturally evaluating creatures, and that is fine.  But we go from evaluating our traits and our actions to evaluating this vague holistic entity called “self.”  How can we do this?  And what good does it do?  Only harm, he believes.    There are, he says, legitimate reasons for promoting one’s self or ego:  We want to stay alive and be healthy, we want to enjoy life, and so on.  But there are far more ways in which promoting the self or ego does harm, as exemplified by these irrational beliefs:

I am special or I am damned.
I must be loved or cared for.
I must be immortal.
I am either good or bad.
I must prove myself.
I must have everything that I want.

He believes very strongly that self-evaluation leads to depression and repression, and avoidance of change.  The best thing for human health is that we should stop evaluating ourselves altogether!  And so it continues, but I won’t go any further in this ‘forum’ –  I just felt that the main principles behind Ellis’s theories were very interesting, and as I said above, practical or realistic. No doubt there are plenty of experts in the fields of psychology who would probably ‘draw swords’ with the Ellis theories, while I can’t argue on a ‘scientific’ basis, one way or the other – they were simply a set of ideas I felt was worth noting in my ongoing blog or diary of things and events that interest your ‘personal essayist’ from time to time. Comments welcome.

Meanwhile, it’s a warm Friday here, but with yet another change on the way, as the Victorian floods continue to move down stream to more little towns that get in the way of the waters. Over 70 main communities have now been affected, and we should not overlook the hundreds of farming communities and more isolated settlements etc, between the main towns, which are also ‘victims’ of the ongoing flood surge. As someone described it yesterday, the Victorian flood is onlike the tsunami style surges that occurred in parts of south east Queensland last week – but more in the style of a slowly creeping inland sea taking everything before it, but creating the same degree of personal and business havoc, destruction and loss that occurred up north! While in Brisbane today, the inner city suburbs and CBD are again apprehensive at the arrival of a ‘King Tide’ round about midday!! Everyone is very nervous, particularly those areas where last week’s floods have not completely receded or areas where major cleanups are complete or underway!

Australia’s last three singles survivors took to the courts in the continuation of second round  matches of the Australian Open today. Jelena Dokic’s defeat last night  left fifth seed Samantha Stosur and wildcard entrants Alicia Molik and Bernard Tomic to fly the flag for the host nation at Melbourne Park. Molik will meet Russian 13th seed Nadia Petrova, while Tomic is set to take on 31st-seeded Spaniard Feliciano Lopez during the day session. Stosur, who scored a commanding 6-1 6-1 victory over American wildcard recipient Lauren Davis in the first round, meets Russian world No.61 Vera Dushevina in the opening match of the night session on Rod Laver Arena, and I would be planning my evening activities to be sure I saw that game – though perhaps, Sam might have more chance of winning were I ‘not’ watching!!

Anyway, I watched her match this evening regardless, and she won – at last I have an Australian player to keep watching, well at least one more game. In fact there are two – Bernard Tomic won his match in three sets, but unfortunately, Alicia was no match for her opponent. Today’s Australian results saw Samantha Stosur [Aust] defeated Vera Dushevina [Russia] 6/3,6/2;  Bernard Tomic {aust] defeated Feliciano Lopez 7/6,7/6,6/3 and Alicia Molik [Aust] lost to Nadia Petrova [Russia] 6/4,6/1.  After his match, Tomic insisted that he could upstage history-chasing top seed Rafael Nadal [his 3^rd Round opponent] on Saturday night. Despite the fact that no Australian man in almost a decade has defeated a World No. 1. Tomic believes anything is possible.  Mmmmm, not this time I don’t think, Bernard.

A couple of comments from Brisbane relatives today, a kind of sympathetic return for my concerns about the Queensland floods last week. Jill [sister] noted that  ‘sorry to hear and see Victoria in such a mess. Between Australia and overseas, with their floods and landslides, you begin to wonder what the world is coming to’ [that was a reference to the extremely tragic floods and subsequent landslides which have occurred in Brazil over recent days, with quite heavy loss of ,life, and much destruction.  Meanwhile, from my Uncle Merv [with whom, together with his wife, I enjoyed a pleasant lunch in the heart of Brisbane, back in October when I was up there], wrote back in response to my latest enquiry about their welfare – living in the inner Brisbane suburb of St Lucia, he had told me previously  that their home was safe from floodwaters as they were on higher ground. However, St Lucia was one of the Brisbane suburbs heavily hit by last Thursdays inundation of Brisbane, so I had wondered whether his optimism had been misguided?  Merv wrote that “No, we escaped all ill effects from the floods and only had a 4 day blackout [of the power] which was bad enough but absolutely nothing compared to the flood victims’ problems”.  Merv went on to say that “We want to express our regrets for the problems you are all experiencing in Victoria with your flood problems and trust you will receive all the help you need”.

I mentioned a week or so ago, that daughter Susan gave me for Christmas, the two outstanding Wilbur Smith books that I had not read. I finished ‘Warloch’ just before the end of the Christmas/New Year break, and last night before I went off to sleep, completed the second of those novels, ‘The Quest’.  This story was in fact the sequel to Smith’s Egyptian series – consisting of River God, The Seventh Scroll, and Warloch, and basically continued the story of the Warloch named Taita, described as being ‘wise in the lore of the ancient gods and a master of  the magic and the supernatural’.  As I indicated with the earlier novel, while I found that the reading of this novel meant that as usual with a Wilbur Smith novel, it was very difficult to want to put the book down, that aspect of magic and the supernatural was probably the main aspect of the book[s] that I didn’t enjoy as much as other aspects of the storyline. I just felt there was too much ‘magic’.  That all may well be believable for others, but I find it less so, than the normal historical fiction aspect of moist of his novels which don’t rely over much on supernatural forces.  The book was published in April 2007, so on this occasion, I was a little slower than normal in getting hold of the book.

In brief précis form, the main theme of this novel relates to the situation where Egypt  is struck by a series of terrible plagues that cripple the kingdom, and then the ultimate disaster follows. The Nile fails. The waters that nourish and sustain the land dry up. Something catastrophic is taking place in the distant and totally unexplored depths of Africa, from where the mighty river springs. In desperation the Pharoah sends for Taita, the only man who might be able to win through to the source of the Nile and discover the cause of all their woes. None of them can have any idea of what a terrible enemy lies in ambush for the Warlock in those mysterious lands at the end of their world.  Meanwhile, one of the editors [Hazel Orme] at MacMillan publishers had this to say about ‘The Quest’.

‘What a spell-binding, magical (in more ways than one!) story this is! I was swept into Taita’s quest from the first page and onwards through your vividly evoked African landscapes – the papyrus swamps, the tsetse fly belt, the barren landscapes of the Red Stones and, perhaps best of all, the glorious Cloud Gardens that are rotten at the core – to the thrilling confrontation with Eos. “There are many splendid battle scenes that kept me on the edge of my seat, and I was gripped by all that went on in the sanatorium, which seemed, also, to carry a neat comment about the price of today’s medical research. Taita himself is a mesmerizing character and Eos, the witch, his perfect foil – her beauty contrasting sharply with the horrors for which she is responsible. Incomparable storytelling from the master – as ever, your host of readers will be absorbed in and delighted by this novel, as I was.’

Well yes, I was, certainly keen to read the book through to it’s end, but as usual, I found the extent of violence, and the descriptions of man’s inhumanity to man, occasionally quite disturbing – though having now read all of the 30+ novels that Wilbur Smith has written, I should either be used to that aspect of his writing by now, or in fact, stopped reading them!  I’ve done neither!  I am well warned also  –  on the back jacket cover of this novel, that expert writer of violence and the supernatural, Stephen King, writes simply that ‘Wilbur Smith’s swashbuckling novels of Africa – the bodices rip and the blood flows. You can get lost in them and misplaced all of August’. Looking at it in that manner, it seems that I have misplaced the three weeks since Christmas!

I wonder how many more novels this author can produce?  He will be 78 this year!  Well, there is at least one more on the drawing board, in fact it may be very close to being available by the publishers –  called ‘Those In Peril’, due for release in 2011.  I shall enquire.

Meanwhile, last night, I commented to my brother, Robert, over in South Australia with the cyclists, that his photo with Robbie McEwan, was beginning to increase in value [with McEwan the Tour leader after Stage 2].  His brief response to me today noted that he had ‘Met Robbie again last night, as we had drinks with the Radio Shack team [minus Lance Armstrong]. Got a good shot of Cavendish today, trailing the field covered in bandages [he had a bad crash 4km from the finish yesterday].  As for my Rob’s own riding with the touring team he is over there with, he noted that ‘he was going well. ‘Maintaining my status, i.e, the rest of the group want me drug tested!!’   At 62 years old, he is probably the oldest rider in his group, but knowing Rob from his training regime, etc, he would be keeping well up with the rest of them. In the meantime, the real race, the Tour Down Under, completed Stage 3 of the race today, and there was another change in the overall leadership. This featured a King of the Mountain stage and a sprint, over a total distance of 129 kilometres. The winner was Australia’s Michael Mathews, from last year’s Tour leader, Andre Greipel, with Matthew Goss of Australia in 3^rd place. That placing was enough to give Goss back the overall leadership position.

Incidentally, the 20^th January is a significant date – back in 1973, that was the day on which I was married. While that marriage is no longer an issue, one of the many memorable occasions about the wedding, which was held down in Ballarat [a city notoriously referred to as the coldest place in Australia – totally wrong of course] where the temperatures that Saturday afternoon were in excess of 100 degrees Fahrenheit, probably closer to 40C, and those conditions were accentuated by the fact that the reception centre [a building in the middle of Lydiard Street, Ballarat, close to the Art Gallery from memory] had no proper air conditioning in those days! I do recall a bit of a ‘dispute’ between one or two guests and the staff of the establishment over whether the curtains in the place should remain shut, or be opened [to let in some air] – that ‘debate’ involving curtains being opened, then shut consecutively, went on for some minutes. I actually can’t recall which ‘side’ got the upper hand in the end.  Merv [referred to above] together with wife Margaret and two of their four sons drove over from Whyalla, in South Australia for that wedding – I recall the boys arriving at the church in shorts and thongs!! Again, I can’t recall if they came to the reception, but I believe Merv may have been one of the ‘combatants’ in the curtain saga, along with Shirley’s father, Louis, who had earlier in the proceedings had an argument regarding the time taken for photographs – I think our wedding guests might have justifiably become a bit peeved at the time they’d had to wait between the church service and the beginning of the reception, understandable in view of the climate of the day. Did we go up to the Botanic Gardens for those photos?   My memory seems to be deteriorating on many aspects of certain occasions.



The relations [on my wife’s side] who are currently affected by the floods in northern Victoria, are apparently not doing too bad, despite the dramatic affects on many families and businesses. The farm, south of Kerang [which town by tonight was completely cut off and surrounded by water, with all exit/entry roads closed] was pretty wet, with a lot of water on the property. However, Barry had managed to find a slightly higher piece of land to which he had moved his livestock too, while he engaged in a fair amount of drainage and digging works, as he attempted to keep the water away, from presumably the house, and other important features of the property. Meanwhile, his nursing wife, Lois,  was ‘stranded’ in the town of Boort, while his son, was further up the water line in Swan Hill, which hasn’t yet been largely affected by the flood waters. Interestingly, much of the northern/central districts and towns that have been the worst affected by Victoria’s floods, are where the Kirk ancestors established their homes, and coach building businesses in the latter part of the 1800’s, and having visited them all at different times, I am broadly familiar with them.  It is very flat country for the most part, another reason why these places are so susceptible when ‘too much’ water suddenly makes an appearance!  Overall, as of late tonight, there are 62 towns in Victoria which have suffered in some form or other, from  the current flood crisis, covering much of the north central and western regions of the State.

I had to take my lawnmower in for a service today – a bit annoyed to be told it might be a week or two before I could have it back!!  My lawns were already in need of some attention, and I always feel a little guilty when any aspect of the front of my property is looking untidy. Normally, by the middle of January, there would be much in the way of lawn growth to be concerned about, but with our unseasonally wet  summer, growth has been quite persistent!!!

Now from Stage 2 of the Tour Down Under  –  today’s race of 146 kms, between Tailem Bend and Mannum in South Australia, was marred by some bad crashes near the end of the stage, which saw, amongst other riders, the English champion, Mark Cavendish virtually relegated to the rear of the field, overall, and also led to the loss of the lead to yesterday’s winner, Matt Goss. Australian cycling legend, Robbie McEwan now leads the Santos Down Under after finishing second today.  Stage 2 result was – 1. Ben Swift. 2. Robbie McEwan. 3. Graeme Brown. Lance Armstrong came in 42^nd, and Stuart O’Grady, in 49^th position. McEwan and O’Grady were the two cyclists that my brother brother, scored photographs with on Sunday night, and certainly in respect to McEwan, that photo is growing in value and prestige, as each day goes past.  As mentioned, Robbie McEwan now wears the Leader’s Jersey, followed by Mathew Goss and Ben Swift. O’Grady is 33^rd, Lance Armstrong, 60^th and Mark Cavendish 130^th of the remaining 133 competitors.

Meanwhile, my jinxing of our Australian tennis players continues! Every time I make a point of sitting down to watch one of our Australian players compete in the Australian Open Tennis Championships, they seem to manage to lose! Tonight was no exception.  My favourite Aussie ‘import’ player, was on centre court in a Round 2 match. The following description explains the outcome.  Australian Jelena Dokic’s attempt to again use the Australian Open to regenerate her career fell flat as she tumbled to a straight sets defeat to Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova on Wednesday night. The unseeded Zahlavova Strycova won the second round clash 7-6 (7-3) 6-1, to set up a third round meeting with China’s Li Na, a semi-finalist in Melbourne last year.  Dokic, whose ranking has slumped to No.137, played the sort of tennis in the first set that provided hope she might again defy that lowly status, as she did two years ago, with a surprise run to the quarter-finals. But, after the Czech world No.63 took a see-sawing first set in a tiebreaker, she raced away with the second, completing it in just 24 minutes to ensure there would be no fairytale for the Australian wildcard entrant this time.  It was a bit of a disappointing slump in the second half of the game, though I must admit, I would have been surprised if she had won, in view of her poor form over recent months.  I think Jelena was the only Australian to play in a Singles game today.

Feeling a little frustrated at present. The Taxation Office has asked me to confirm some figures that I’d included [or actually, not included, they claim] on a tax return of 2 years ago. I believe I have done all that was required at the time, however I’m having trouble finding the paperwork that relates to the year in question!! Have all material for years preceding, and last year, but can’t find my copy of the period queried.  Is really annoying, as I am generally very precise in keeping and maintaining records of that sort!!  A hasty search tonight did not reveal what I was looking for – looks like time this weekend is going to have to be allocated to a thorough search!  Other things I would rather be doing!

After watching so much of the media reports about Australia’s floods. I decided that last night, another movie on the ABC channel [with no commercials] was called for. The ABC’s current program of Australian movies continued with a 2008 film called ‘The Black Balloon. – an Australian/British AFI award-winning drama and comedy feature film

Quite a pleasant little film, though at times a bit disturbing, it dealt with the semi-autobiographical story by Elissa Down, and starring Rhys Wakefield, Luke Ford, Toni Collette and Gemma Ward.. Story of a young man’s coming of age [Rhys Wakefield as Thomas Mollison] and the examination of his relationship with his older autistic brother [Luke Ford, as Charlie]. Thomas wants the life of a normal teenager but it appears to him that his severely autistic brother means that dream is nigh impossible.

As I watched this film, it became obvious just how difficult a family situation would be, not just for the parents concerned but any siblings of the autistic child. Whilst in the main, the family was able to maintain a calmness about their responses to most of the antics of Charlie, occasionally frustrations would boil over when communication with Charlie became extra difficult in trying to persuade him to a particular course of action. The gist of the story was based in particular on the affect of such frustrations on Thomas. I came across various previews of the movie, some far less flattering than others. A good description was the Black Balloon courses with a first hand feel for languorous Aussie summers [most of it seems to take place during a period of warm days], the shifting scales of love and hate in sibling relationships, and the earned wit that helps families cope with difficult situations.

In summary form, Thomas and his family move to a new home where he starts at a new school. All he wants to do is to fit in, but when his pregnant mother has to take things easy, he is put in charge of his autistic older brother, Charlie. Thomas, with the help of his new girlfriend, Jackie, then faces his biggest challenge yet. Charlie’s unusual antics take Thomas on an emotional journey that causes pent-up frustrations towards his brother to pour out. A deeply personal film for writer/director Elissa Down [who had two austistic siblings herself] The Black Balloon is a gentle yet unflinching look at a family strained by the pressures of caring for an autistic teenager. At his new school, Thomas meets Jackie Masters (Gemma Ward). When Thomas and Charlie’s pregnant mother Maggie (Toni Collette) is confined to bed rest, Thomas must take additional responsibility for his brother, at the likely cost of his developing relationship with Jackie. One had to admire Luke Ford’s part in the film. As indicated, the storyline is focused on the ways in which Thomas [who has an ongoing role in the Channel 7 soapie ‘Home and Away’] is affected by his brother, but as another writer commented, the performance that stands out is Ford in the role of Charlie, who  maintains the many physical and behavioural traits common to autism throughout every scene and is entirely convincing in his role.

I found the following to be a useful précis and review of the film , which may attract other viewers to have a look at the movie – a look at the themes and preoccupations of the movie

‘Many teenagers are embarrassed by their parents and family, but Thomas has the additional embarrassment of having an older brother that behaves like a toddler, complete with star reward chart and a monkey ears cap which acts as his security blanket. An early scene has Charlie, dressed in his monkey ears cap, underpants and sports shoes, escaping through the front door, which has been left carelessly unlocked. Viewers will both laugh and cringe with embarrassment as Thomas, barefoot and dressed in his pyjama boxer shorts, chases Charlie through the streets near their home. The complex nature of relationships within a family where one member has a severe disability is highlighted brilliantly as Thomas tries to reconcile his affection for his brother with the frustration his behaviour causes, the hurt of constantly being overlooked as Charlie’s needs come first and the guilt of hating his brother at times and wishing that he was normal. Thomas’ father, Simon (Erik Thomson), plays a less significant role than his mother Maggie (Toni Collette) whose strength, love and commitment holds the family together. As the movie reaches its climax, viewers will find themselves sharing Thomas’ anguish, feeling sympathy for Maggie as she tries to balance the demands of providing for the physical and emotional needs of both of her sons, and feeling compassion for Charlie, whose problems and issues are not of his own choosing. The lack of compassion shown by some of the neighbours and the mocking attitude of Thomas’ classmates will leave modern audiences frustrated. It can only be hoped that modern society would have a less critical and more supportive and informed attitude’. After watching the movie, I wandered in fact whether today’s society would be any more compassionate – there is a scene at a check out supermarket counter, where Charlie throws a tantrum, and his father ‘loses it’ in attempting to restrain his son. Most of the other customers just stood around, said nothing, though probably in a state of shock at what was happening.  I’m thinking that today, someone might just step in, and object to the manner in which Charlie was virtually dragged from the store by his father.

Overall, a film worth having a look at, if only to bring an awareness of the extreme difficulties, and sacrifices that members of some families make in caring for or accepting an autistic child as one of the family.

The Australian Open Tennis Championships began today in Melbourne, and for a change, hopes are high for at least a couple of Australian good performances, but I think I will wait a day or two before making any predictions.  Sat down briefly tonight to watch Australia’s Jamila Groth play her 1^st round game against the tall Belgium girl Wickmayer. A tough 3 set match, which didn’t quite go the way of our girl in the end. The Belgian won the match 6/3, 2/6, 6/4. Our girl was brave in defeat, but the tears of disappointment were not far away. Earlier, the little Aussie hero of 2 years ago, Jelena Dokic had won her way through to the second round – I think from memory, she had to qualify to get into the tournament.  The Australian results for Day One  saw only one  win from just four competitors, and were as follows:

Womens’ Singles:  E Rodina [Russia]defeated Olivia Rogowska [Australia] 6/3,6/1;  Yanina Wickmayer [Belgium] defeated Jamila Groth {Australia] 6/3,2/6,6/4; Jelena Dokic [Australia] defeated Z Ondraskova [Czech] 6/3,6/2.   Mens Singles: Ivan Ljubcic [Croatia] defeated Peter Luczak [Australia] 6/3,6/3,7/6.

A number of Victorian towns were expecting to be hit by flood peaks tonight. One of those areas was Horsham, in the wheat belt of the state’s west. One of my recent regular family history contacts comes from Horsham, and in response to my enquiry earlier this morning as to have she was faring with the advancing floodwaters, her response came back headed ‘High and Dry’.  Ann wrote:\ re flood. I’m okay as I live about 3kms from the river, on the other side of the railway line. This is often referred to, by those who think they’re better, as the wrong side of the tracks. Believe me, the wrong side happens to be the right side at the moment. The water is really rising, just like the good old days that I remember well. Quite spectacular, if your property is safe. I think the highway is cut through Horsham as the water has come up, blocks from the river, in a water course. The aquatic centre is surrounded, and the end on the main street blocked off. At the weir it’s an amazing sight, the water is the same height on the river side and down side of the weir and there’s usually about a 10ft drop there. I have friends who have sand bagged their houses and one friend has brought the contents of his deep freeze to me in case the power goes off there  with the water, and I have another friend’s car parked in my yard. The river hasn’t peaked yet, so who knows what will happen. I can’t understand why some people built where they did, as why believe what you’re told that there’ll never be another flood. Of course when the waters pass through Horsham, it’s Dimboola and Jeparit’s turn. There is talk that the bridge will be closed, which will cut Horsham in two. Up to 500 homes could be affected.

On  another sporting front. The Australian equivalent of the Tour de France commences in South Australia [SA] tomorrow – in view of the water conditions of the eastern states, the organisers of the Tour Down Under [TDU] are probably very thankful that the bike race is over in South Australia – the cyclists might have a bit of trouble getting around the course anywhere else at present. Many of the top  cyclists [including Lance Armstrong in what is supposedly his last professional ride] are competing this year.  My cycling brother, Robert from Sydney, will be over in SA also, as he has been in France on a number of occasions while the Tour de France was in progress. And as on those occasions, Robert is taking part in an 8 day ride with the TREK cycling organisation that coincides with the TDU. I haven’t ask him for any reports, but I do hope to hear from him at some stage during the rides. He expects it to be ‘good fun’ and a ‘little hard work’. On Sunday night, he attended a function with his TREK organisation, and managed to get some a couple of photos taken with Australian cyclists Robbie McEwan and Stuart O’Grady.

A strange weekend here in Australia, with floods continuing to dominate most aspects of the media, but more crucially, the lives of thousands of Australian families, and businesses. No state on the eastern side of the continent has estate the consequences of extreme rainfall, and the floods that have followed it. Reports such as the following, which appeared in the Washington post of all places, paints a grim picture as the weekend comes to an end.

‘Australia’s flooding crisis headed south Monday into Victoria state, where record floods were predicted for several rural communities facing rivers swollen from heavy upstream rains.  Officials expected floodwaters to drown out highways and isolate dozens of towns in the north eastern part of the state in some of the worst flooding there in a century’. [Meanwhile] ‘Flooding has also spread from Queensland into New South Wales, where nearly 7,000 people are reliant on airdrops of food and other supplies after being isolated by floodwaters’.

 Up in Queensland, and Brisbane, where I guess you could say it all  started,  we had the amazing sight over the weekend of thousands of people queuing up for buses, etc, to be taken to the main flood affected areas of the city, where they became volunteers – helping in most cases, people they had never met before, to clear their homes of damaged furniture and other possessions, clearing out gardens, back yards, driveways, etc, of the tons of debris, mud and other material, that had been left behind by last week’s flood waters, After a bit of confusion on Saturday, things became much more organised by Sunday – huge piles of rubbish been placed on streets to be picked up by as convoy of dump trucks, or any vehicle that could transfer the ‘flood’ rubbish to makeshift rubbish  dumps, which were in turn eventually cleared and removed to official landfill sites.  It was all a brilliant example of  a massive community effort  –  I guess in the smaller towns and communities that had been affected by the Queensland floods, you would expect this kind of community people response to the needs of others affected by such a disaster. But in Australia’s third largest city  –  well it came as more of a surprise, a kind of mass response where people of all ages came from every direction of the compass simply to ‘help’ those who had suffered from the week’s events.   Some of the individual situations depicted by the media had quite an affect on this viewer.

The death toll, in the meatime,  from the Queensland floods is now 18 dead, with the discovery of a woman’s body in the rubble of a home near Grantham, and the body of a middle-aged man found in a pile of flood debris near Lockyer and Gatton Creeks, between Helidon and Withcott. 14 people are still officially missing. The search for more dead bodies in the stinking mud and debris in the Lockyer Valley [to the west of Brisbane] has now been extended and will continue for several more days. Many soldiers are searching on both banks of the deep and dangerous Gatton Creek, where waters are still flowing fast after the flood tsunami last week.

At the same time, it was disturbing to realise the extent of damage that had been inflicted on such a large part of inner suburban and the CBD area of Brisbane. While homes and businesses are likely to be a much longer repair issue, it was noted the determination of the government authorities to get the streets and roads cleaned up and cleared of the metres of mud and debris as quickly as possible – the aim being to open the streets, get the traffic flows moving again, and generally where at all possible, allow citizens the opportunity to get back to work as soon as possible. 

Down here in Victoria however, over this weekend, and extending through from Friday, ‘Victoria’s flood devastation was reaching a peak, with by tonight [Sunday] some 45 towns throughout the state having being affected by some degree of flooding. In some of our country towns such as Horsham, Charlton [my ancestral town], Rochester, etc, the floods or potential flooding was being described in terms of  one in a 200 year flood event, or the worst recorded in modern history for parts of the state, and as I write this, there are a number of towns in the north and the west of the state still to potentially face the worst of it. Most of the major rivers in those parts of the State, are overflowing in capacity, and continually threatening towns downstream.  In many ways, the affects overall, have not been as severe as what happened up in Brisbane, but I think that as far as any resident down here whose home or business has been flooded this weekend, that would be small comfort, Meanwhile, it is anticipated that many more towns could be affected in the days ahead by the extreme rainfall that has battered the state, and many of those towns have already endured two other floods over the past five months.  No drought at all that the drought of the past decade has broken, but for many farmers who were close to breaking point before the rains started to come, the ruination of crops through these floods  –  the prevention of sowing, and of the planting of a new season crop – one shudders to think where such people can turn to now!

A couple of reports from the Age newspaper give some indication of the seriousness of the current situation:-

Echuca and Horsham are set to be hit by their worst floods in 100 years as Victoria deals with unprecedented conditions.  The swollen Campaspe River could flood up to 100 Echuca properties when it peaks tonight Hundreds of businesses and homes could be flooded in Horsham on Monday and Tuesday when the Wimmera River near the town peaks at midday on Monday. New emergency alerts were issued to two other north-west towns today, with Culgoa residents given an evacuation order, while a flood warning was issued for Quambatook.  Around Victoria, more than 3500 people have fled their homes, 43 towns have been affected and more than 1400 properties have been flooded. From the air, parts of north-central Victoria resembled massive inland lakes today.

State Emergency Service (SES) operations director Trevor White said the flood event was one of Victoria’s biggest since records began.  “In some of our river systems, we are seeing unprecedented stream rises, the bureau hydrologists are working in close liaison with catchment management authorities at the local level,” he told reporters. “The situation is quite dynamic … as the modelling continues and we continue to monitor stream rises as it moves downstream of the current peak flows some of those figures will be adjusted.”  On Sunday Premier Ted Baillieu visited Echuca and flood-ravaged Carisbrook, where he said essential services must be fixed in the town, including its sewerage system.  “Clearly these floods are causing significant grief around Victoria and arguably this flood event is one of the biggest in Victoria’s history,” he told reporters.

Ironically, for most of this weekend, the sun has been shining, and it has become quite warm, but obviously the waters that have built up over recent days, are still on the move, hence the fear of further towns ‘down river’ still in the line of danger.  The weather allowed me to get out into my garden for a few hours on both days, though I would be disappointed on both occasions that I didn’t get a fraction of what I had intended, completed. The heat of the day, in both instances,  and the undeniable truth, that I simply can’t spend a full day in the garden, as in past years [certainly not with the nature of maintenance work I currently have on hand] is proving to be a bit of a hindrance.  I would be surprised if we get the same degree of rainfall over the next 6 weeks or so as the first half of summer has brought us – one must anticipate a few weeks of typically hot Summer weather from this point onwards!  Certainly, the Bureau of Meteorology is predicting drier weather in the affected flood regions this week.

Moving away from the flood concerns, I finally caught up with my travelling son – he returned from London on Monday night, but I’d not had the opportunity to catch up with him since then.  He was back at work now [as a baker] and called in to see me briefly on Saturday morning, before he travelled down the highway for a game of cricket with the local team –while his visit to England, Scotland and Paris had been relatively brief, and limited in where he was able to go. I was pleased to hear that he was keen to return at some future time. The cricketing mate he went over to Europe with, was in fact still on the continent somewhere –he obviously had more funding behind him [and perhaps time available] to be able to extend his trip.

Thinking of cricket, I noticed that the Australian and English Women’s cricket teams were currently engaged in a 20/20 cricket series here in Australia at present. The ABC actually telecast the third of those games [best of five] today, and while I’m not really a fan of the 20/20form of cricket, a had a look at part of the match – it’s not often that our women cricketers get much media coverage, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to watch a bit of it, in-between periods out in the back garden.   It seems that the English are also quite dominant at present on the women’s side of the game, having already won the first two games of the series, albeit narrowly. Today was no exception, with the same outcome, although our girls had a bit of a chance near the finish.  That result meant England won the series!  Better news with the Men’s team –  after a disastrous Summer so far, in all games against England [losing both the Ashes series, and the recent two match 20/20 competition [which I took little note of], today in Melbourne, saw the first of the One Day international games between the two countries, and in a high scoring match, Australia for a change, on recent performances, came out on top!!  A world-class score of 161 runs by Shane Watson, helped Australia to a 6 wicket victory over the English  –  my internet cricket loving friend over in the UK has been ‘very noisy’ of late, with her ‘advice’ about the poor performing Australian team – I wonder if I will hear from her tonight!! Final scores – England: 294. Australia: 4 for 297

Meanwhile, the Australian men’s soccer team, competing in the Asian Cup finals, played their second game over the weekend, and achieved a 1-1 draw with South Korea. A better result might have been hoped for, as they now have to avoid losing to Bahrain later this week, if they wish to progress further in this competition!

While the crisis up in Queensland continues, and in many areas, the big longterm clean up commences, and the economical and personal costs are assessed, for us down here in Victoria, our attention has been directed to our own State. Heavy rain throughout the state, from yesterday and overnight, and continuing throughout today, has generated Victoria’s own flood crisis.

In central and western Victoria, small towns are being evacuated as flood waters approach, rivers and dams are overflowing, country roads [and city roads here in Melbourne] are being closed, and  evacuation relief centres are being set up in various locations near the major areas of concern.  I have a personal concern today – my daughter, Susan, had to drive north today, to Bendigo, in order to enrol, etc, for her new university program, and her younger sister, Jodie went alongforthe ride, for which I was grateful. So far, the highway they need to return on, is one of the few highways or roads in that direction which has not yet been cut off.  However, monitoring the radio reports, I’ve heard advice from the police that people should avoid using the Calder Highway between Bendigo and Sunbury, or at least drive with extreme caution  – huge potholes are developing in parts of the road, making driving rather hazardous, where vehicles generally travel at between 110-120 kilometres per hour!@  I’ve warned the girls of that danger, but certainly won’t advise Susie to try a different route in view of the number of roads that are cut off, and/or under water.  So I guess I am watching the time pass, and waiting to hear from Susie when she gets back to Sunbury. Not a good day to have to do a trip of that nature! A recent report indicated that more than 350 people have been evacuated from their homes as torrential rain falls over western Victoria. The State Emergency Service (SES) has issued evacuation warnings for Halls Gap, Beaufort, Great Western, Charlton and Glenorchy.  Meanwhile, the Loddon, Campaspe, Avoca and Wimmera rivers are on major flood warnings. An SES spokeswoman said about 365 people had been evacuated from their homes and taken to relief centres across the state, with more evacuations likely. Around 100 of those were evacuated in Halls Gap and moved to shelter in Stawell as 85mm of rain hit the region overnight.  In Charlton, about 2000 phone and text messages have been sent to residents advising them to go to the relief centre at the local sports stadium. Much of Victoria has experienced heavy rain in recent days. Over the next two to three hours, 20-30mm of rain was expected to fall on the Campaspe River, affecting townships along it.  About 20mm of rain was also expected to fall in the areas of Kerang and Charlton, the spokeswoman said.   Meanwhile the city of Ballarat has been hit hard with flash floods, etc, and I’m certainly glad I am not out in any of those areas at present. I still need to get back to Sunbury from my workplace – there are no major reports roads between here and there, but I’m expecting the traffic to be chaotic!! Not looking forward to that drive!

 This scribe will not be here for a few days – computer is out of action at home, and I don’t expect to have access to it for the next few days. Hopefully, by then, the weather everywhere will be much improved 🙂

The following represent some of the headlines and lead stories from the worsening flood situation in Queensland. Meanwhile, similar problems exist in parts of north east New South Wales, while in Victoria, flash flooding occurred overnight due to heavy downpours in places such as Kyneton [in central Victoria], just 45 minutes north of here. However, Queensland represents that part of our nation where the most heart break and desperation is taking place

• Last night, it was warned that Brisbane is headed for its worst flood since 1893, with up to 40,000 properties at risk of being affected. A disaster has been declared and an evacuation centre set up at the RNA Showgrounds at Bowen Hills, and other locations. Queensland Premier Anna Bligh warned that river levels would rise above the heights experienced in the catastrophic
• This morning, BRISBANE woke up to a mighty river peaking lower than 1974 levels, but nevertheless devastating for dozens of suburbs and tens of thousands of homes

• Whole blocks of the CBD of Ipswich, west of Brisbane, are under floodwaters metres deep this morning with a peak expected at 11am.
  • Meanwhile, the towns of Helidon and Grantham in the Lockyer Valley lay in ruins following the flash flood that struck on Monday.   Disaster is unfolding in eastern Australia with flooding affecting vast areas of Queensland. SPECIALISTS sift through muddy waters under a bridge in a grim search for the missing THE death toll from the Queensland floods now stands at 13 after confirmation of the death of a man, 50, in Ipswich.

• Just one of the individual ‘life’ tragedies of this week  –  ‘It began as a frantic phone call for help – but ended in minutes as a heartbreaking goodbye. When Brenda Ross called her sister Beth Fraser on Monday afternoon, she was waist-deep in surging floodwater as her Grantham home collapsed around her. Ms Ross, 58, pleaded with her sister for help, saying she was trapped with her son Josh, 25, and partner Chris Face, 60, by the unrelenting torrent that was tearing her house apart. Although Ms Fraser lives only streets away in the small village of just 300 people, she knew it was too late to help. “[My sister] told me the water was up to her waist,” Ms Fraser said yesterday. “I come from an emergency services background, so I knew what that meant.” As she listened to her sister fighting for her life, Ms Fraser took a deep breath and said her goodbyes. “I said to her ‘I love you darling, I love you very much’,” Ms Fraser said yesterday. Neither Ms Ross nor her only child Josh were strong swimmers. Their bodies, along with that of Mr Face, were found by specialist disaster identification experts amid the mangled rubble of their home. “They are all gone, it’s as simple and heart-wrenching as that. I’ve lost them all,” Mrs Fraser said. She recalled how, after speaking to her sister, she spoke to her nephew Josh in a desperate bid to see if there was anything more he could do to save himself, his mother and stepfather. “I told him to get his valuables together and put them up high, but he told me they were in the loungeroom,” Mrs Fraser said. “So I calmly asked him: ‘Can’t you go into the loungeroom and grab them?’ but he said: ‘Bessy, the loungeroom has broken away from the house’.”

• Around 127,000 flood-affected Queensland residents in Queensland are without power, and it’s unlikely many will be reconnected before the weekend.  Energex began cutting power yesterday morning to homes and businesses in the Brisbane CBD, and that continued throughout the night. A number of buildings in the city’s inner-city suburbs are also currently without power, as are residents in nearby Ipswich. Homes in the Lockyer Valley, which was inundated by floodwaters earlier in the week, are also still without electricity.  Energex spokesman Bill Lyon said it was highly unlikely that most buildings would be reconnected before the weekend. “We’re not expecting to have power back on to the vast majority of the people until at least the 12 to 14 hours after the flood water goes down, so that’s probably another two to three days,” he told Sky News this afternoon.

11.36am: In Grantham there are reports that divers have been finding bodies under the bridge in the town. Photographs from yesterday showed the bridge piled up with cars and flood debris.

Today’s Daily Telegraph reports:

Bobbing in the murky, debris-strewn water below the Grantham bridge are up to 30 crumpled cars, violently wedged against the pylons after being washed downstream in the ferocious flash flood that hit the country town on Monday.

But it is the likely contents of those mangled vehicles that has police and emergency workers filled with dread.

“You’d have to think with 30-odd cars here, we’re about to find some pretty unpleasant things,” a police officer at the scene said yesterday.

At around 1.20pm today, there were still 67 people unaccounted for in the Queensland floods. The official death toll was now twelve. That figure was likely to rise considerably over the next day or so, as the search and rescue teams begin to move into the areas that were utterly devastated by the tsunami style flood surge that went a number of towns on Monday afternoon – only able to do so once the water started to recede. Already, cars which hasd been caught up in the flood surge, were being found two kilometres, some up in the trees, houses, which were swept off their stumps, if still intact, as much as 500 metres from where they started. What hope would people have in those conditions if caught in the waters!

It’s ironical, that today in Brisbane, as the 3rd largest city in Australia, slowly went under water, that the sun was shining – down here in Victoria, we were having periods of sudden rain storms, and in fact, in some parfts of this state today, floods also became a concern, though nothing to compare with what is happening in southeast Queensland. I read somewhere today, that the area in Queensland affected by these floods, was equivalent to the size of Germany and France in land mass!! I guess that gives non-Australian readers, some idea of the size of the Australian continent, as we are only talking about a third of one of the Australian states. Meanwhile, as the Queensland Premier, Anna Blyth  [who inadvertently is probably, by accident, not doing her re-election chances any harm by her confident performance as the ‘one’ in charge over recent days] noted, the search and rescue teams are expected to face a “gruesome day”, as they move out into the worst hit flood zones today,  and  many families were expected to face heartbreak as more bodies were expected to be discovered. She said that “The one good news is the rain has cleared, so we’ve now got a number of search and rescue teams all ready to deploy into that valley to really start what might be a very gruesome search this morning for bodies and our police and emergency workers there are going to have a very tough day today.”

When I got home this afternoon, I grabbed a brief window of opportunity inbetween rain showers, to go for a walk. Ground which two weeks ago, was finally starting to dry out after the December rains down here,  was once again soggy and muddy under foot, but I was certainly glad that we were not getting the same levels of rain that Queensland has been facing. I returned home to see the full horror on the TV of what was happening up north. This morning’s paper had warned us that ‘The nation confronts it’s worst flood disaster in living memory, with 30 people believed dead and 78 missing in southeast Queensland, as the wall of water bearing down on Brisbane threatens to engulf thousands of homes [and businesses] and put more people at risk’. Well the TV pictures tonight, showed very clearly that Brisbane had become a disaster zone – the Central Business District of Brisbane [where I was wandering around a few weeks ago] was basically underwater, as were up to 20,000 homes already  – with the flood peak expected at 4am tomorrow morning. I must admit that I found it hard to comprehend the volume of water that was required to turn such a large portion of Queensland’s capital city into a huge lake – with skyscrapers and other large buildings surrounded by water, and in many cases commercial buildings and homes almost submerged in many areas –  how could this happen, in a country where drought has been such a dramatic concern for so many years, and now  there is just so much water – a city in an ocean. In Brisbane, the  CBD tonight is closed, it should be deserted but there are obviouisly still people who have remained [unwisely] in high rise buildings, despite being advised to get out. Many of the surrounding inner suburbs are under water, power has been turned off in most of those areas, so I would imagine that there will be a very worrying night ahead for thousands of the city’s residents. My Uncle Merv and his wife, who I visited whilst in Brisbane last October, live in one of the inner suburban areas – I contacted him today, but they were quite safe, on higher ground –  couldn’t really go very far, but as Merv noted, they were far better off than thousands of others.

Ironically, there are also floods happening in northern New South Wales [much of it a flow on of the Queensland waters] where heavy rains have also occurred, and even here in Victoria, there have been some areas in the west of the state that have been affected by floods today. I guess you could say that the weather is going crazy in Australia at the moment – even flood warnings have been issued in central Australia near Alice Springs where storms and flash floods have caused some concern. Off the north west coast of Western Australia, cyclones are suddenly a threat, while down in the south west of the continent, near Perth, we had losses from bush fires!!!

 Had a couple of conversations with, initially, my brother-in-law up in Brisbane earlier this evening, and later in the night, with my sister, Jill [the couple I spent a week with in October last]. They confirmed that their part of the city, as I’d expected, was quite safe and secure, high enough ground not to be worried byfloods,but obviously, access to the city andother areas was limited.  Our conversastion wasn’t limited to just the floods however – some concern over the current whereabouts of younger brother, Ian, who seems to have ‘disappeared’ from contact with the family. That matter to be followed up over the next few days. Meanwhile, more study ahead for two of my ‘children’  – Susie, who has just completed her Science degree has decided to do an extra year in order to gain a teaching qualification at the socondary school level, while eldest son James has decided [somewhat unwisely in many ways] to leave his fulltime job, and undertakes two years of university study in order to gain a teaching qualification also, this time at the primary school level. One thing about James, in that respect, he has always been very good at interacting with younger children, so in some ways, his decision is not so surprising.  Susan’s decision suggests that she will be with me for at least another year!