Weather worries

 

What a well deserved tribute to Alexandre Bilodeau for winning the Mens’ Moguls… he is a sportsperson that the Nation has every reason to be very proud of – caring, humble, and charming in the nicest possible way. Isn’t it nice to have an inspiring sportsman who is also a ‘decent’ person?! I have wondered why we sometimes bestow the mantle of inspiration to certain sportspeople, when WHO they actually ARE, is so opposite to WHAT we should be upholding as an inspiration to society! And what a contrast to the ‘other’ gold medal contender! I watched a number of separate video interviews with Bilodeau and Beggs-Smith. I think Beggs-Smith needs to enlist the help of a good public relations trainer in the first instance! It is SO difficult to warm to someone who is so outta touch with their emotions that they can profess to not to having any emotion (and what pride is there in that I ask you?!), and yet who show such obvious emotion on the podium. Disappointment is an emotion...isn’t it?! Get real dude! I am one Antipodean who was absolutely THRILLED that Bilodeau got GOLD. And now Canada has TWO golds! Hurray!

I hear that there are a few weather woes over yonder however. Small consolation, I know, but we’ve got them too! Yesterday, the storm clouds rolled in very quickly.

With temps well over 30degs C and the humidity sitting at 92%, we were sweating it out by mid morning! I’m sure everyone who had access to airconditioning was sitting under the aircon! By lunchtime, the heavens had opened.

 

121 ml of rain fell in the short space of a few hours. There were flash floods EVERYWHERE across the state. At the boys’ school, the soccer fields and athletics oval became a huge lake as a rushing river tore through the middle of the school. Solid picnic tables & unchained bicycles were swept away as the river rose over a bridge that links the primary school to the secondary school. Water even rose as high as the floorboards of the music suite, and a class of students were stranded there until the floodwaters subsided a little! Elsewhere, cars were abandoned and buildings were under water. So much excitement! So much mud!

Normally, this is the outlook we enjoy from our backyard -

This was what our backyard looked like, not that long after the deluge!

We may not get as much constant rain as in the Great White North, but when we get it, we GET IT! Having said that, in this sunscorched land, the water doesn’t ever hang around for long. Last week, we also woke up to the wonderful sound of rain on the roof. These were some of the sights we saw -

 

  

By the next morning, this was what we saw -

 

 

 

Incredible huh?!

Oh, and I nearly forgot. Here is a photo from about the same time, taken especially for Big Bear…..since he LOVES flowers….