Preparing for Ita

As you may or may not know, Tropical Cyclone Ita is around, and heading for us (actually, not heading for us yet, but forecast tracks tend to drift South).


I was working in Mareeba today, and they were making their preparations - bringing the most expensive aircraft into the hangar (like sardines); staking and roping the others to the grass; removing all loose materials from around the hangar, and trying to squeeze the trailer in with the planes. No one up there will be working tomorrow.

In Cairns we will probably work in the morning, while keeping a good eye on the forecast - and then come home to do our own preparations, prior to the forecast arrival time.

We would value your prayers that the cyclone would not come too close, or be too damaging.

The sardines in the tin:

Our House and the gardener!

For those of you who are interested in these things here are a few photos of our house and the new gardener!

I guess our house is pretty Australian, or pretty normal for these parts. The differences from a 'normal' English house are:

It is all on one level. Almost all houses here are. Although the Queenslander houses have their level raised up.

There is no carpet, everywhere is tiled.

The lounge, kitchen and dining room is all one open area.

All the rooms are fitted with fans and air conditioning.

All the windows are screened to stop the bugs getting in.

There is a covered outdoor area to sit. Almost all houses have these here as it is too hot to sit in the sun.

The house is cyclone proof or supposed to be. I guess it survived a category 5 cyclone in 2011, so it must be OK.

There is a big garage. All the houses I have been in have garages. I know many do in the UK too, but I think here they are more widespread because of the heat and the need to keep your cars cool.

The big country

No offense guys, but I think some people have no idea how big Australia really is. So to help you out, here are a few pictures. In case you have forgotten, we live in Cairns which is in the state of Queensland. (Top right) The state capital is Brisbane.

Autumn

Apparently it's autumn - or that's what they said on the radio this morning - and we're heading into winter. As far as I can tell, the only difference is that instead of it being unbearable hot, it's now not quite as unbearably hot, but almost!

I think this is a strange place to live. On the one hand it is a fairly wild place. There are crocs in almost all the water holes; snakes, sharks and box jelly fish, and you really have to be careful where you swim so as not to come a cropper. We are also surrounded by rainforest, which means lots of snakes and spiders. Someone told me a story of how she went out to get the washing in one evening and a huge python fell off the washing line! It is baking hot and we have torrential rain, dengue fever and cyclones.

On the other hand life is incredibly normal, and compared to Kenya, mundane. People live in normal houses (well almost!) New houses have to be built to cyclone specifications, and lots of people live in 'Queenslanders' which are wooden houses where  the living areas are upstairs.

People go to work and school - albeit in flip flops and shorts and t-shirts for the former, and smart shorts and knee high socks for the later. The kind of look that would have you beaten up at school in England.

People shop - you can have your shopping delivered from the main supermarkets, or if you want something a bit different, there are night markets down by the ocean front. 

You just have to be a little more prepared for natural disasters; wear sun block followed by insect repellent (I googled which to put on first), a hat, and watch out for crocs -all pretty normal really!!!

Come and visit Cairns!!!

Ruben and his friend the lawn mower

Everyone keeps their lawns nicely mown here. Feeling the pressure to keep up and not having one of our own, we borrowed a friend's mower. Ruben was thrilled! 

Bats

When we were driving in town the other evening, what we thought was a huge flock of birds flew over our heads. On closer inspection we realised it was a flock of bats.  It was really quite strange to see so many bats together and so close to us in the daylight.

When we were in town last Sunday afternoon we drove past the colony that hangs out in trees in the CBD. The noise is deafening as you drive past and there they all are hanging from the trees.

New blog - finally!

Sorry for the gap in blogging. We finally moved into our new house on the 12th February but were unable to get internet until 25th. We have also been attending parts of the MAF Asia Pacific Orientation course. We were exempt from some sessions as we did the European one in 2006. Some of it was interesting, but on the whole it was nothing that we haven't lived in the last 8 years.  Daniel also did some security training as he may still travel to 'dangerous' places. One thing I did learn was about the Holmes-Rahe life stress scale that details 54 life events with their associated stress level as a number.  For example death of a spouse is 100 and live/work in a foreign country is 50. Studies performed in the USA show that 200 points in one year put a person at risk for serious physical illness or a serious psychological problem. The average overseas worker has about 600 points a year. When I worked mine out it almost came to 600. It was kind of reassuring that it is probably fairly normally for me to feel a bit stressed out and mental some of the time. In fact according to that study I am doing OK.

The new house is great, although we came home on Thursday to a big sign on our door to say there is a dengue outbreak in our neighbourhood. 'They' are coming on Monday to spray the house. Dengue is not endemic here but it is brought over from other countries and spreads in the rainy season. I keep telling myself we lived in a malarial country for years so this should not be a big deal!! More stress!

I also managed to miss Caleb's birthday on the blog. Here are a few random photos I have taken recently.