A little update

Once again, I find myself apologizing for my lack of regular posts. It feels a little trivial to be posting about Blythe when there is so much sadness going on in my city of late. Today workers were urged to return to work if they could, so in a sense it feels as though Brisbane is soldiering on, even though things are far from back to normal.

Over the weekend we ventured out of our immediate area for the first time in a little while. Once to drop my hubby off to volunteer for the cleanup (or attempt to!), and later to catch up with some friends at one of my favourite places, the Riverbend Cafe in Bulimba. Our ex-Prime Minister and current Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd also likes it there and we saw him buying a coffee as he recuperated from the infection he got from floodwater in his foot while helping the members of his electorate. What a guy!

We passed quite a few places on the way there that had obviously been inundated, but with the huge turnout from the public to assist with the cleanup, the worst of the mud was gone and the rubbish had been removed from the streets (that I saw, I am sure that there are still lots of areas that are yet to even dry out). There is still a nasty smell lingering - a nasty, swampy, rubbish tip kind of smell. I hope that it dissipates quickly from the affected houses as it would be very unpleasant to live with.

The response from the community to help with the clean-up has apparently been quite overwhelming - there were so many volunteers that they had to turn people away! I dropped off my hubby at one of the volunteer muster points on Saturday (the traffic was crazy! - soooo many people were there) and after getting all kitted up with safety gear and braving a tetanus shot (a very big deal for him as embarrassingly he tends to faint when he has injections!), the roads were so congested with people helping out that the buses couldn't get through anymore. So I had to trek all the way back and fetch him without him even getting his hands dirty! It is great that so many people were willing to lend a hand. I just hope that the effort can be sustained until the job is done.

On my last post I mentioned that the supermarket shelves were emptying at an alarming rate that left me feeling a little scared. I went back 2 days later and took these pics with my phone (feeling like a dork while everyone stared at me). This is the bread department.


And here is a section of the fruit and vege department - apparently people aren't that keen on celery, shallots or cauliflower - that was all that was left!




I've been busy sewing some bows which I am thinking of selling to help raise money for the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal. They'll be a measley $5 each and are very cute if I do say so myself. I've got a few different colourways in progress - black, white, pale pink, blue dot, red dot, yellow dot and natural linen so far. More pix to come when they are ready - hopefully very soon.

Just to keep this a little Blythe-y, my favourite girl and bow model Holly arrived safely in America (phew!) for her faceup. Shame that she is away right now as I think the bows look really sweet on her - I would have liked to have her here for the photos, but I'm sure the result of her makeover will be worth the time without her.