[rastis]

thanks heidi- it was an ugly storm that lasted for a couple of days and the rain still hasn’t stopped… we all felt like we were being hit by a cyclone 🙁 the wind has moved south now- i think it may be hitting sydney? now losing intensity as it goes… it’s the worst storm i have ever seen… very scary

[Tamara]

Oh my Rastis! Not a good situation to be in. You poor thing! How badly damaged are the photos? Can they be reprinted at all (digital or do you have the negatives?)

Surely Mil will understand? Maybe she may lend a helpful hand? I used to dread something’s about my mil but now she’s no longer around, I miss her dreadfully! Hopefully she won’t be dreadful and will understand – and maybe pitch in for the generator? I love to be optimistic you can tell. Generators are very handy but do make sure it can run more than the basics in order to make life a little easier. We need to upgrade ours as it services only the fridges and basic electricity but you can’t wash, iron or run air conditioners on it – and sewing will blow it up!

[meleliza]

I have no idea how much 300mm of rain is, but being without power and water sounds awful! I hope you can get yourself some rest, even though there’s all the cleaning up to do, that’s the most important thing when you’re tired for two!

[needlewoman]

Mel, that’s a foot (12 inches of rain) in (presumably) a relatively short period of time. When you get that much rain, everything is soaked. The rain has nowhere to go, and flooding ensues. Rastis, my heart bleeds for you = all that rotten cleaning up, and losing valuable food and memorabilia! I really hope there is not too much more rain in store but I’m not confident. Sounds like much of Australia’s east coast is suffering – even my mother’s birthplace, Coolangatta. My thoughts and best wishes are with you, although, you would probably prefer some help with cleaning. As usual with Oz, parts are drowning, and others are desperate for rain. We had a bit this morning – the first we’ve had for over 6 weeks – but not unusual for SA.

Fiona

[Sarvi]

Oh, that’s just heartbreaking, and while pregnant too … hoping for the best for you and that things get easier.

[Tamara]

We are hoping Cyclone Rusty will give us a drop or two. It is just sitting up near Port Hedland at the moment though. We need it to come down a little further to really gives us more than a drop. I think we have only had 5mm since September – or feels like it anyway.

[rastis]

thanks ladies, it’s been pretty horrible weather- unfortunately we were already soaked before the storm hit, we were flooded just a few weeks ago and had rain almost every day before the storm came, so another 300mm in 24 hours was ridiculous- it was an enormous flood here- with water even up over the railway lines (which rarely flood)… not sure if it broke records or not… our tiny community never makes the news, but older locals tell me it’s the worst storm to hit the area since a cyclone hit half a century ago!! and it’s still raining 🙁

i’ve heard the winds have also done some bad damage further south as well, despite the wind speeds dropping some…

and it’s so crazy- i have family in different parts of the country and many of them haven’t had any rain for a long time (or a tiny amount) and i so wish i could send some to all the people who need it… because we have had enough of it here!!

as for the photos, i’m still sorting through them… i’m hoping to salvage most of them- even though the albums themselves were destroyed! they were stored in our garage (which normally never floods!) and the storm was so vicious (with literally trees being blown down around you) we couldn’t get outside in those winds to check what was flooding and what wasn’t…

anyway, i am so grateful that we are all ok which is really just the most important thing!

anyway thanks so much for all the good thoughts… i hope no-one else here is badly affected!!

[Tamara]

I think I can speak for the O&S forum members in general and say we are also grateful you are ok! 300mm is such a lot of rain to deal with in one go. We only average 450mm for the year here! It is weird how mother nature does her thing in some parts but not in others. People will probably talk about this storm for a good few years to come. But hey it doesn’t matter that you didn’t make the news. What matters is you made it through the ordeal.

My grandparents used to live at a little place called Kellerberrin, a little wheatbelt town you go through when heading to Kalgoorlie. They had a freak tornado go through and rip roofs off houses etc. My grandfather was interviewed by the local news and was quoted as saying it was a “War torn war zone!” It is something his family remembers but not the general public. It would have been no where near as bad as what you have just experienced though.

I learned something new this morning! Surprise surprise! I was having a look at the homework for miss 10 this week and decided to find out all about how to do the lattice method of multiplication. It is one of her “squares” of exercises. I didn’t learn this at all in primary school but it looks easy enough so now if she gets stuck I can at least look as if I know what I’m doing.

[Tamara]

Breaking news! Miss 10 picked up her instrument today and the dog wants to “sing” along with the music. Oh how I love noisy music in the house!! Murray reckons N will be earmarked for the Tuba but it didn’t deter him from having a go too. At least we aren’t responsible for more than one brass playing child just yet but I wonder if fil will spare the time give him lessons?

[needlewoman]

Justsewit, you intrigue me – not for the first time since I started reading this forum. LOL about adopted dog joining music practice with your girl; one shudders to think how he will react to the tuba – is your house big enuf? Tubas are monstrous instruments – is your boy big enough?

Lattice squares ring a bell from my distant maths lessons. I wonder if they are the same as “magic squares”? Whatever, it’s great for your cred if you’re on top of them – congratulations!

So glad you didn’t try to save things in the garage if trees were airborne, rastis. I really do feel so sad for all the people who’ve had to deal with flooding. I nearly cried for the poor sods who’d just finished refurbishing their homes after the floods of 2011(?) only to have be flooded again. Bushfires are brutal and destructive but preventable, and fightable; but you can’t stop rain/cyclones, can you? Still thinking of you, R. Take great care (didn’t realise you were pregnant).

[meleliza]

Rastis, I hope you’re able to salvage things. It all sounds awful! Try to take care.

[Nicole]

Oh Virginia,you poor poor darling. I am so sorry.

Try not to stress and over do things.

xx Nicole

[Tamara]

Needlewoman, thankyou! It has startedmout to be an interesting year on the homefront thats for sure. My husband Murray played the Tuba and has an old one that belonged to his grandfather (fil’s dad) that he used as a kid, in the sea container ( which one I dont know). My fil was a big part of setting up the school band and this year marks the 50th year. He is the “resident bugle player” at the town Anzac services and he has been known to travel to other places to play too. The fact that he is legendary for being musical and that all three of his children were in the band has led us both to believe that our kids were naturally earmarked for it also. The instrumental teacher is our neighbour and she knows “old Garth” well. My son is a big boy! At 11 pound 3 at birth he is only going to get alot bigger but then when his mum is over 6 foot and dad is built for rugby, the genetics have come out very strong! At the moment he is learning the piano but proved yesterday that a brass instrument could be in his future. Fil has proposed he teach N at the same time as miss 10 as he gave her a few lessons when she was a bit smaller so she knows how to hold her mouth and not puff her cheecks out etc. if he can get a few lessons in on the cornet the Tuba should be a breeze! After all they are all part of the same instrumental family. They may start him oa smaller instrument first but he has already said he would like to play the trombone. We shall see.

At the moment though, it is knocking some motivation into him regarding gtting ready for and going to school. He seems to think that it is a good time to do this again, four weeks into the term and with only two weeks of being dutiful enough to seem as though he has grown in maturity to not repeat what happened last year. We had a very exhausting session of getting him into the car to the bus this morning. He just would not get ready. So, I packed his uniform and shoes and socks plus an up and go for something to fill the tummy (i had made bacon and eggs), put it in the car then carried the semi naked child to the car crying and cussing me for “getting my way”. With 6 minutes to spare we raced down the driveway where I stoped and repeated that he had time to get dressed before the bus or the consequence would be dressing on the bus. He got dressed with my help but not without beng very very mad with me. I must admit I had steam coming from my ears! The bus was late and was in a hurry so I kissed and dropped told them I love them and have a great day and I shall see them on the bus this afternoon. Now I feel like I need another 8 hours sleep! It was so exhausting! But these are the things tht one has to do in order to help them to realise that going to school is something they have to do. I had the same trouble with miss 10. I dont blame them for not wanting to go. When you struggle to get along with so many different personalities and you feel so isolated and alone. Been there and survived! At least they know home is a safe haven away from the monotany of school but they simple mustnt be allowed to abuse it. They start acting like that and home becomes a place of tension and stress and that is what we had last year.

So now, instead of doing a day of shopping as originally intended, I’m going to re analyse and come up with some sort of solution to deal with this and hopefully nip it in the bud real quick! It is definitely the year of change for my children!

Oh yes! Sorry Needlewoman, my house will be big enough by the time the tuba is reserrected fromthe sea container. Hopefully, we will be occupying the farm house by then so there will be a huge living space to put all the instruments. We are only in a very small, can’t – really – swing – your – cat – cottage at the moment so the cornet will live in her bedroom along with the antique music stand with her Aunty A’s name still on it. We can bring it out for practise if it works to be convenient but at the moment she is just learning the notes and which valves to press when and to get a nice sound. She has been complaining of sore lips as it is the lips that make the sound. I said to her it is like playing the guitar, how you have to toughen the fingers up with practise to stop them from beng painful (I used to get cut finger tips from pressing). In this situation her lips need to soften up and this just takes time.

[rastis]

thanks lovely ladies for all your kind words! we’ve had a mostly dry day today YAH! which is great for getting wet things dry… and my sweet husband (who is swamped with work on top of everything else) organised for someone to help with the clean up so it wouldn’t be such mayhem for his mum to stay when she comes tomorrow- double yah!! i really didn’t know how i was going to get everything done… it’s amazing how filthy everything gets in a flood… still lots of sorting to do through damaged things, but at least i don’t have to worry about cleaning the bathroom and floors 😉

justsewit- outside tuba practise might be the way to go! my cousin learned bagpipes and was only allowed to play them outside… they lived in town, so the neighbours were so pleased! i make my son take his harmonica outside… it still drives me quite mad 🙂

[Tamara]

One of Murray’s cousins plays the pipes – he played at our wedding! Yes the brass instruments are loud but for now they are quite ok. Ask me again at the end of the year and it may be getting hard to tolerate by then. Tuba practice is a long way off yet. N is only in year 2 so has three years of growing and then has to sit his aptitude test to actually be selected – with piano lessons going on it should be easy for him.

Currently looking at some serious updating on parental supervision on the mobile devices. Does anyone have any good suggestions? I’m currently looking at mobiflock my child as it has timetable features – this would be great to stop the late night tablet vigils a certain pre teen has been testing us with.