Alright, I get that most of this went down yesterday, but I was clearly too busy ogling Captain Kirk to notice. However, today reality sunk in and I kinda freaked out. It all began when I woke up this morning and began to flick through all of the traffic and news reports. I looked at the long, long list of road closures and had a moment. Flooding had affected pretty much everywhere I drive on a regular basis.
There was a landslide around the corner from my local coffee club, the tunnel I drive down every day had been flooded and so had the shopping complex down the road from my place of work. I was doing almost okay until I stumbled upon this picture . . . .
That, is the oval complex located a mere two blocks away from my house. I jog there. Regularly. And I blithely drove past it late last night and didn't see a thing. And this, is a picture of my local park that sits nearby this oval, taken after lunchtime today.
So things got a little bit real for me. My response? Froze solid to my bed. Had to actually seek my delightful Team Leader's advice around what I should do. They were forecasting more rain, and they were telling motorists to stay away. From everywhere. I eventually compromised and went to town for some work stuff, and then went home again to do some computer-based work and bunker down for the next round of rain.
It never came. And I feel a little bit foolish. I know I probably made the right call, but I think this was the first time that I've ever been scared about a freakish disaster type thing. And nothing happened. All of a sudden I have a lot more understanding around the freaked out phone calls I got from my mother last night, asking how I was and where I was.
I don't think I was particularly scared about being washed away. I think it was more the idea of being stuck in traffic for hours and possibly not being able to get home. Being stuck in traffic upsets me deeply, there have been tears in the past. I can tolerate it for an hour, max. Yesterday, one of my brother's friends spent two and half hours stuck in traffic, on a bus, for a journey that normally takes about fifteen - twenty minutes. And my lovely little brother (who is now taller than me!) walked at least 5kms home in the pouring rain because the buses were all stuck in traffic and he knew no one would be able to get to him.
As I drove through the town earlier in the day, there was only one word to describe my beloved Brisbane - bedraggled. And the Brisbane River! It was so engorged!! There were a couple of spots where the water was very, very close to the banks. Thank goodness it's just about over, although it looks like New South Wales is about to get it. How can this much water fall out of the sky? Us Brisbanites are just not used to this kind of thing.
I suppose there are a couple of upsides to all of this. I didn't have to cancel my Pilates session tonight, that was pretty cool. And I can now have my ridiculously long showers without feeling any guilt. The 7 year drought is over, and we have 240 billion litres to burn!
