Memories Past

I just put my new rego sticker on my car.

I remember as a kid, that was one of the most exciting things to watch Dad do.  It only happened once a year (twice later on when my parents were able to afford a second car), and I can remember each year tottering out after Dad to sit on his lap while he peeled the old sticker off with a knife, then cleaned the window with alcohol before applying the new one very carefully so it was straight and didn't have air bubbles in it.

By the time I was 10 he would allow me to put the sticker on, but his hand would be over mine, guiding, and making sure the sticker was on right.

These day's it's just another chore... and you no longer need the knife to peel these modern stickers off.  But it does give me time to think as I clean down the spot and then apply the new sticker just like I watched Dad do so many times, pushing the air out and re-adjusting the line so it's straight.  

It's funny that something most people would do in a 5 minute job on a Sunday afternoon becomes so much more because I do it just like Dad, take more care than most people probably would, and then usually smile at the end of it amazed that something I use to think was such a 'big person's job' was now something I do all by myself.

Dad always looks after his cars as well as he can, and it's something that has rubbed off on me.  So being the little tyke back in the day in awe of sitting on Dad's lap while he worked on his precious cars really makes me reflective as I find myself doing it these days.

And also makes me look forward to maybe one day having a little boy of my own sitting on my lap thinking that changing the rego sticker is the most exciting thing in the world!

Work Place Health and Safety

We've had a WH&S audit here this week. One thing they didn't pick up, and I feel I will have to lodge a complaint about is the dangerously bad substance they store in our kitchen for general consumption.

97 cents per litre

I put 40 Litres of petrol in my car tonight, and it didn't cost me $40.

Nice to see fuel drop below that 1:1 ratio again- high time!

Photo

I took this on my phone as i was driving home yesterday. The weather round here recently has been totally chaotic. This storm pretty well missed us last night, but hammered the Gold Coast. Looks like we get a days reprieve today, but they are predicting a huge storm on Saturday.

Aftermath

Waking up this morning it was kind of strange to see blue skies.  When I went to bed at 1am last night it was still hammering with rain, as it had been for about 3 hours.

It wasn't until I drove to work I saw what had really gone on.  I knew we'd had a massive 200+mm of rain over night, our gauge fills to 170mm and it was full, but others had said their 200mm ones were full too.

Driving down my street I saw a house a few down from us with its fence hanging out over the road, obviously not where it was suppose to be.  Grass had been swept away... basically we're pretty well at the top of a hill and everything from just below us down had most of their garden, fences and anything else lying around swept down to the bottom of the hill (there was a nice pile of dirt and belongings in the intersection). People were turfing out water soaked gear they'd left outside, one veranda looked totaled with wood collapsing from under it.

The schools were closed, and driving past I could see fences leaning over and moved... ovals flooded (Mum told me later it was actually the sewage that had flooded and covered the oval - nice).  

If you check out news.com.au there are photos from around the Ipswich area and the immense flooding - it seems in the span of maybe 5 or 6 hours between 200 and 300mm of rain fell over quite a large area, causing the worst flooding we've seen here since 1974.

As I've been writing this the rain has started again and BOM shows another big storm front moving through, so we haven't seen the end of this yet - it is quite amazing.

I'll leave you with this photo - take note, the river usually flows at least 40 feet if not more below this bridge (though the channel is quite narrow this is a huge rise!).

Wow

So it continues

Reporting on location

Laptops and wireless are wonderful things.  Internet in the middle of a cracker storm.

Nothing destructive as yet, but the rain is amazing, so much, so hard, so fast - everything is getting overrun.

And BOM just keeps impressing!

Incoming

Ahhhh check this out.

Current radar image from BOM on the Brisbane weather radar. I think we're about to be hit with a doozy of a storm... hopefully not as destructive as the one that hit The Gap on Sunday - but I'm turning this computer off now just in case.

Looks like Ipswich is right in the path of a big patch of red!

See you on the flip side...

Still Raining

Driving into work this morning... The rain hasn't let up since the storm on Sunday. So please remember those people who lost roofs, windows or had holes punched in their homes. The rain is expected to last all week, so it's really hampering the clean up efforts.

Membership

As of yesterday, I am now a member of City North Baptist Church.

Big Storm

Brisbane was hit pretty hard from a huge storm last night. We didn't cop to much out Ipswich way (well at our place anyway), but as I headed into church I saw tree after tree which had been felled in the high winds.

Parts of Brisbane have actually been declared a natural disaster zone.  Friend of mine have 30m trees down in their yards.  One friend told me that he turned up to his church and there was no power, and carnage everywhere, so instead of holding a service they walked around their church's neighbourhood and helped people move trees, clear yards and cover holes in roofs.

We had a small number at City North, and had power, so held a cut-back service before heading to Macca's - though everyone else had too cause it was the only fast food joint around that had power.

250 000 homes without power, some friends in Brissy are still without power over 24 hours later. Some suburbs are being told to boil drinking water because a huge water tower had it's roof blown off.

Feel very strange being right in the middle of it all - but not overtly effected by it at all.

Remembrance Day

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24628065-5016619,00.html

THE guns may have fallen silent at 11am on November 11, 1918, but for many Australians like Penelope Ransby the personal stories of the Great War sound out as strong as ever 90 years on.

When war broke out in 1914, her grandfather, Evelyn Wilton, was working on a farm he owned with his two mates, Lance and Chris Andrews, in Western Australia's Margaret River region.

Few places could have been under less direct physical threat from the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire) than their farm but, sure enough, the three men left to serve the British Empire in battle.

In time, two of them would make the ultimate sacrifice.

As Ms Ransby prepared with the nation today to remember the fallen with a minute's silence at 11am, she shared her family's story with news.com.au.

"These guys had so much to offer and it was all taken away from them," Ms Ransby said.

"There is no longer any living memory of what they did so I think it's more important than ever that we remember them.

"Unless we do that it will be forgotten forever."

The brothers Chris and Lance were thrust into Gallipoli but did not serve together. Chris was in the Australian Imperial Forces, Lance in the Royal Marines.

On April 27, 1915, Lance was shot in the leg at Bloody Angle. But he could be considered lucky because at a time when many were dying as he was evacuated to England for medical treatment.

As Lance was heading to England Chris was sitting in a Gallipoli dugout writing letters to friends and family.

"I am longing to get back to the dear old Margaret (River) and never want to leave it again," he wrote.

"I did not like leaving Margaret at all. I am sure it is one of the choicest spots in the world. I fully expect to be back before the end of next year."

Instead, as he stepped out of the trench to hand the letters to his Colonel, he was unaware he was being watched by a sniper. The bullet hit him in the stomach and he died on died May 11, 1915.

"A mound, a small wooden cross and a few pebbles alone mark the last resting place of as brave a gentlemen as ever walked," wrote Chris's comrade-in-arms Private Horace Bruckshaw.

Lance would return to the front and even volunteered to join the Australian forces in Gallipoli so he could see where his brother had died.

After four long years of service, and only three months before the armistice we remember today, Lance was killed in action as the Allies captured the French town of le Barque on August 25, 1918.

Evelyn would have his own brush with death when the ship he was serving on, the Drake, was torpedoed by a German submarine on October 2, 1917. He survived but 19 of his shipmates did not.

There would be a final cruel blow to the dream of three men who had looked forward to the war's end and a return to their Margaret River property.

The task of running the sheep and horse farm proved too much for one man. The frontier lifestyle also took its toll on Evelyn's wife and young children who would return to England without him.

Evelyn ended up selling the farm moving to Hobart to live with a  sister he barely knew. He died in her care in November 1960, aged 60.

More Indy stuff

Continuing to process things I did at Indy.

Here's a crude video off my mobile phone of a pitstop during the race.  Their efficiency is impressive.

This is where I stood (in a medic station) for the entire race... tough job being the chappie :-)

Update

Well I visited Grace in hospital today.  She fell into some hot water yesterday and has burns on both legs.

She'll be ok, not sure if there will be scarring, and it will take a long time to heal.

Keep praying for her, she was very sweet and quiet today. But it will be hard for her parents once she comes home.

Please Pray - Linking through the Blogosphere

Please pray for my little friend Grace,  she's had an accident this morning and we ask God to heal her, look after her and her parents at this time.

Amen.

Surfer's Paradise Indy Cars 2008

A lot goes on down at Surfer's Paradise during the Indy Carnival... and after a few weeks of laziness here are some photos I took down there over the weekend.

V8 Supercars:

Indy Cars:

F-111's

And Other Stuff:

Everything else is over on http://flickr.com/deanoqld 

Brisbane Eye

I'm at Southbank tonight with the City North youth group, and this is the first time I've seen the new ferris wheel up close. It is an impressive structure. I wish I had brought my DSLR camera with me. Beautiful!

And the world changes...

I get a funny feeling anytime I watch something that I know will be part of history forever.  I've always loved history, studied it during my senior school years and seriously thought about studying it at uni.

I felt that feeling today watching John McCain concede defeat in the 2008 US Presidential race and Barrack Obama give his victory speech.

I don't really have much of an opinion, or know what will come of it.  But I just got the feeling I was watching something historic.

The Saddest Day in Our Nation...

... is tomorrow.

I hate the Melbourne Cup.  Celebrating affluence in it's worst instance, wasting so much money - NSW TAB is estimating over $100 million to be spent plus millions more with bookies, even with the current economic crisis.  

Plus the amount spent on food, clothes, hats!!!! It's terrible.

Close to $200 million spent on nothing, celebrating a day for no reason... when there are so many in our nation who are in such need, let alone the amount of poverty world wide.

It's a disgrace that we spend so much. I'm not even joining in the special lunch they're throwing at work tomorrow... I mean the only excuse to have this lunch is this horse race and hugely selfish cosumeristic celebration.

I just don't feel I can join in at all and not feel guilty.

How Great

How Great is Our God

(Chris Tomlin)

The splendor of the King, clothed in majesty 

Let all the earth rejoice 

All the earth rejoice 

He wraps himself in Light, and darkness tries to hide 

And trembles at His voice 

Trembles at His voice 

How great is our God, sing with me 

How great is our God, and all will see 

How great, how great is our God 

Age to age He stands 

And time is in His hands 

Beginning and the end 

Beginning and the end 

The Godhead Three in One 

Father Spirit Son 

The Lion and the Lamb 

The Lion and the Lamb 

How great is our God, sing with me

How great is our God, and all will see

How great, how great is our God

Name above all names 

Worthy of all praise 

My heart will sing 

How great is our God 

Name above all names

Worthy of all praise

My heart will sing

How great is our God

How great is our God, sing with me 

How great is our God, and all will see 

How great, how great is our God