Jan 26th is the anniversary of the first arrivals at Jackson Cove (later to become Sydney) from England, and hence the declaration of British Sovereignty. Its celebrated as a public holiday and everyone celebrates being Australian with parties and big public firework displays. As this year Jan 26th fell on a Saturday, there was an additional days holiday on the Monday. Everyone had there own plans for how to spend this long weekend. it also marked the end of the long summer holiday break for schools, and the start of the new school year. Being the southern hemisphere, this was the height of summer. My family were going to celebrate by having a BBQ lunch at Jane's house on the Sunday. I was looking forward to seeing everyone together.
Jane has a beautiful single storey house set in a garden of palm trees in the Riverhills district of Brisbane, with pretty swimming pool and large covered BBQ area. It was about 15 yrs since we had seen each other, and we had plenty of catching up to do. The cry of the kookburras pierced the background sound from other birds, and the thunder of the heavy rain. It really felt like I was in the middle of a rain forest. The TV informed us that it would rain heavily all weekend. Jane and I set in for a weekend of chat.
As Saturday progressed, it became apparent that the cyclone had not lessened but in fact had picked up speed and was moving south. It was no longer expected to not affect us. The wind was bending the trees and the rain torrents were beginning to go sideways. Jane and I dug in further for more chatting and TV.
The weather didn't stop everyone getting through ion Sunday for the BBQ, which Nathan cooked in the covered area outside, and we ate inside. Good times.
TV informed us that most of the public celebrations for the weekend were cancelled, so there would be no fireworks. Furthermore the airport was closed and 5 tornadoes had struck up the coast, and there was no knowing if they would strike us. We didn't need the TV to tell us things were getting worse, it was self evident. Non the less Wes drove us back to town without incident as the rain continued sideways. The next morning (Monday) I was due to go into the bush to stay 2 nights with cousin Pam in Emmaville. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmaville,_New_South_Wales
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