Coming to you from Brisbane today. We're down for a few days for some appointments and catchups. Thought we might try and play 'tourist' in our hometown as well while escaping the madness that is Noosa over these holiday weeks.
And what a great few days we've picked to come down as yesterday was Brissy's hottest day in over two years at 36 odd degrees with it hitting 39 degrees in the western suburbs where we've been spending most of our time. It was actually 41 degrees on the in-laws backdeck according to their thermometer.
We'd picked yesterday as our 'tourist' day as well so it was mighty warm catching the CityCat into Southbank and walking around the Cultural Centre in the morning. Let's just say I've never been so keen to get myself into the State Library before. It's air con was bliss.
Today is not as bad at 32 degrees but the thing about Brissy that gets you is the humidity. So even early this morning at 6:30am when we went out for a walk and it said it was only 24 degrees, well, it was a damn sight more uncomfortable than that due to the 90% humidity and steamy conditions under the clouds. It must be 30 odd degrees right now around lunchtime but I'm sweating madly just sitting here typing despite the fan being on full ball. The pool beckons once I've posted this that's for sure.
Tomorrow is meant to be back to yesterday's temperatures so not looking forward to that at all. So summer has definitely arrived you could say. Particularly as a lot of people were talking just a week or so ago about how mild the summer had been thus far. Be careful what you pray for I reckon as it's certainly come on with a vengeance now.
Another thing about being back in Brissy for a few days is the timing around the first anniversary of the floods. Longtime readers will remember this post from last year regarding the Tale of Two Brisbanes at the time and the immediate impact the floods had on all of us all over the city.
While there's plenty of local media around the anniversary, including all the TV stations and Curious Snail trying to cash in with 'specials', the continuing impact of the floods didn't really hit home until this morning while on that walk.
We're staying at a friend's house in Chelmer while they are overseas. They were flooded about 1.5m up on the first level and it has taken the whole year for their home to begin to resemble what it once was. For instance, as I type, some tradies are out the front rebuilding the front wall and letterbox. And these are people who actually had insurance and were fully covered.
But the walk revealed a hell of a lot in that nearly a quarter of the nearby homes are either derelict due to owners not having the money to rebuild or mere 'shells' awaiting a rebuild/renovation. Some of these homes still have the flood mark lining their fences and walls leaving a humble reminder of what happened here just 12 months ago. There's also plenty of homes that you can tell have only just been finished with new builds popping up everywhere where it was obviously decided to gutter the flood-hit shell and start all over again.
We were also suprised to hear that the local park where the son was having a play has only just reopened after starting up a conversation with another parent. Other parts of the walkway along the river near Tennyson remain closed also, with an assortment of orange safety tape aligning the banks and footpaths.
Having not been directly affected by the floods ourselves and since moving to the Sunny Coast, we'd somewhat forgotten about them and their impacts on our city and its people. It certainly didn't feel like it was only a year ago up until this morning, but I must say that walk served as a timely reminder and took us back to the day we were up to our knees in mud while helping our friends clean up.
Very different conditions at the moment then in comparison to this time last year. Back then, it was more rain than I'd ever seen before with the daily forecasts of more being met with dread and fear. But now it's just bloody hot with regular glances to the heavens hoping for a storm to cool things down.
Oh please, let one come this afternoon or this evening. It's just not natural to sweat while merely cleaning your teeth.
EDM.
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