Tumoulin Girl

Road Trains, Cyclones, Lipstick & Labour

Two days until I can post photos.

A few odd things that happened while I was away.

1. I drove for the first time on a bitumen road. Laugh if you have to; I know how country that statement sounds. I've been driving since I was twelve but never on anything other than bumpty dirt roads. The bitumen sensation was totally surreal. The speedometer shot straight up with the gears and the whole way Dad had to keep reminding me to get off 110kms. For the record I drove 70kms, passed seven cars, and two road trains (e.g. 16-18 wheelers). I was surprised at how un-scary passing the road trains was. I remember stories of Rachel being absoltuely pretrified of them and I had this preconceived impression I was going to be dragged into a G-force and spat out mangled and bloodied with the first road train I passed. Happily that wasn't so.

2. The biggest cyclone in Australian history nearly wiped out our new house. I thought I was being kidded when Rachel and Matt greeted me in Sydney with the news. On the bus on the way down I remembered vaguely hearing commentators on the radio talking about this cyclone about to hit Australia that was as big or bigger than Hurricane Katrina. It sounded so far-fetched I went back to my book, thinking they were exaggerating. But no. I get into Sydney and my brother-in-law is like, "So did you hear about the cyclone?" And Rachel pipes in, "Mum rang and said they can't get a hold of anyone up north. They don't know yet if your house is still standing." Talk about ice blocks down my back.

I rang my Mum and she told me all about it. Apparently the cyclone came in and hit just below Cairns. It took our a little town called Innisfail and flattened it completely. For eight weeks it was predicted they'd be out of power and in the first couple of days half the population had to sleep in army tents on the airstrip all the while waiting for the second cyclone to hit. I can't imagine what it must have been like. The most amazing thing is that despite all the damage the cyclone did to Innisfail, Cairns and the Atherton Tablelands (where we're shifting) nobody was killed. Not one. It's quite exstroidinary when compared to the devastation Hurricane Katrina did to the southern side of America.

All the fruit and vege farms have been totally wiped out. Atherton grew 95% of the banana crop for Australia and overnight of the cyclone wiping all the trees out, the price of bananas tripled. It's quite insane. They say it's going to be at all eleven months before they'll have their trees big enough to produce crops again.

After a long silence, the pastor of our new church finally rang up (him being one of the very few up north to have an old telephone stashed away that didn't need power to work), and let us know everyone was still alive. Apparently the majority of our house is still standing, the worse being the water that flooded the downstairs. They pulled the carpet up for us, and seeing as my bedroom is going to be downstairs I could be running around on a concrete floor for a while.

Our place fared remarkably well compared a lot of other places. Mum says she was watching interviews they did of people online and the interviewer asked one police man, "Why on earth aren't you home trying to fix up your own place?" The guy replied, "I don't have a houes anymore. It's completely gone." For weeks apparently the counsel forbade anyone to send their kids to school because the ground was so soggy all the trees were falling over at the most random times and they couldn't guarantee one wouldn't fall on a school kid. Most places have power now, ours will have it back by the end of this week ready for us when we go down the week after.

What amazes me the most is how if we'd gone with our original shifting date we would have been shifting the exact same week of the cyclone. Mum reminded me of this and I was like, "I'll never complain about how long it's taken us to shift again!"

3. I plastered lipstick all over Andrew's face. In self defence I must say I was obligated to do it. Josh and I went to youth group and one of the preliminary games involved a tube of bright pink lipstick and a blindfold. I'll leave the rest to your imagination, though I must say, squiggly lines of pink lipstick all over a guy's face is quite a fashion statement.

4. A friend of Rachel's went into labour. It was one of those weird experiences. It was Sunday night and I was just getting into bed when Rachel turns from the computer and says, "Rachael in America just went into labour. I'm talking to her on IM." I've read quite a few birth stories within the last few months but never, from any of them, was I prepared for the thought of imagining my sister taling to a woman currently in labour over instant messenger. It was just one of those totally bizarre moments. Weirder yet is the knowing now that she was in labour for 52 hours, the whole time I slept Sunday night, went shopping Monday morning, watched a movie Monday night, and started packing Tuesday. I'm convinced labouring woman are a group of heroes all their own.

posted by Lydia @ 12:57 pm