It is difficult to write about one's house renovations when many other people in the same city have lost their home or their possessions. But life must go on and having 'survivor guilt' is not terribly productive.
A good way to appease that guilt was to go here and donate ad income generated from this blog which after six months is a nice tidy sum. See? Who says blog advertising sucks? Clicking on my ads was not in vain, my friends!
We have not been directly affected by the Brisbane floods except for Jason having two days off work - flood leave.
Jason returned to work in the CBD last Friday. His workplace is in a 1930s building near Anzac Square which luckily doesn't have a basement. Many of the city buildings with car park basements (where the electrical generators are also located) flooded and about five major buildings still don't have power.
Jason said it was extremely quiet in the City that day with just the humming of pumps draining basements in the adjacent buildings punctuating the silence. He said he had a dream-run into work with the roads surprisingly dry and traffic non-existent.
It amazes me how normal life is for us, a few days after a natural disaster, whilst only a kilometre or so away others have suffered such enormous loss. Life is indeed cruel for some.
I'll stop the maudlin flood posts now and be back to normal Fun and VJs proceedings in my next post.
P.S
My friend Susan who manages an art shop in Milton just sent me some photos of how the flood affected her workplace. The ground floor got a few inches of putrid sludgy water. Susan has a sense of humour and I love the image she took below.
The life-size artists' model obviously didn't evacuate during the flood. What a dummy!
 |
| Muddy toes on the life-size artists' model |
I'm glad to read that things have calmed down for you. I know what you mean about the odd proximity of devastation to normalcy. We have been seen the effects of massive earthquakes, mudslides and wildfires to homes within only a couple of miles (or in the case of earthquakes, on our own block.) Yet we've been barely affected. Very odd and disconcerting at times.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's all a bit wierd with the flood, isn't it? I've been away and missed the entire thing, and my house and all my family and their houses were also unaffected. So it's wierd and guilty...but quite right, guilt doesn't help anyone, and it won't get my shop preps done any quicker!
ReplyDeleteI nodded to everything you said. Survivor guilt ... I've been out and about, and in two shops I started talking to the shop assistants about the floods and then started getting weepy both times! Shocking old woman! And we've not even been affected!
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine how those affected manage to pull themselves up and keep going.
I'm glad you're back ... that dummy looks like it started to curl his/her toes up a bit though.
Was wondering where you were. Nice of you to donate your earnings. I just did one of my normal posts today, I can't talk about the floods any more and I feel it is time for some normality to return. It is still on my mind and will be for many I guess as life continues.;-)
ReplyDeleteYour dummy joke made me laugh. Survivor guilt - I have been feeling it too. However, I think it's important for the rest of us to keep things going normally, help those who need it and also help the local economy recover. x
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about it feeling so strange to have life return to normal, when such devastation is relatively close by ... the city has only slowly been getting busier as more and more return to work.
ReplyDeleteIt's great to see the community come together to help.
he/she has big feet...
ReplyDeleteglad you re back
~laura x
I'm glad you're back. I think I would have survivor guilt too!
ReplyDeleteI love the way his toes are curling in distaste! I suppose he is 'sensitive'.
ReplyDeleteVery well done for donating the ad revenue, and I'm glad to hear you have survivor guilt - I ridiculously have a touch of it too, half way round the world, because blogs make what used to be geographical personal.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about feeling guilty, it must be worse when you live in the same city as those poor people. But how great is donating your ad revenue! Fabulous!
ReplyDeleteAnita, I am so happy to hear that you all survived this terrible disaster. I too am feeling rather guilty as our house only had some minor problems with seepage and nothing was destroyed and no-one was harmed.
ReplyDeleteGood on you for donating your ad revenue too. You are a fine Brissie citizen!
Take care and enjoy the last week of the school holidays with your sweet little cherubs.
Natasha.xo
Spot on my dear. Hope you are feeling a little better. Cheers katherine
ReplyDeleteI always wondered if those ads made money... I felt a little like you last week and I'm in another country... thanks so much for the book recommendations - I've read the Little Prince and Devil Wears Prada but I'll put David Nicholls' on my list... I can't quite believe you'd ever get time to read!
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone for your lovely comments. Re: ad income - you certainly wouldn't give up a day job for it especially given my subscriber numbers!! xx
ReplyDelete