So. We are slowly
getting back into our normal lives here in Brisbane. Actually, it's
not been that slow. Kids started school last week and were straight
back into all the soccer grading sessions, Ta Kwondo, Kung Fu and
ballet. Choir starts this week and I am back to teaching and so we
are in our normal headless chicken acts. Hmm - possibly not a good
term to use, since I intend to get more chickens this weekend...
It has been
unseasonably cool this last week, making my morning walk with The
Even Hairier One a joy – the air is full of mock orange blossom and
the chatter of a million birds and the kangaroos have been gambolling
around the dewy grass – and kangaroos really do gambol, much more
so than sheep. Snow and ice, hot muggy winds and the scent of sewage
are all a thing of the past – I hope.
The trouble is that
it's so easy to forget, to move on. People keep saying that “oh
yes, Australia is a land of extremes, we have always had bad
weather,” etc etc. I know that's true, but still, the 1974 floods
were meant to be a once in a life time experience and then the 2011
floods were just bad luck; but they seem to have been followed
awfully closely by the 2013 floods. And I may be misremembering, but
back when I lived in England, only 14 years ago, we didn't always get
snow in the winter and when we did, it was pretty short lived. I
don't remember schools and roads closing – not in the London basin
at any rate – and yet this seems to be a normal occurrence now.
Then there's New York. Two floods in two years, in a city where they
have never been flooded before.
Now, I'm going to go
out on a limb here, as this is my blog so therefore it is my
privilege! But maybe, just maybe this extreme weather is something
that all the scientists have been warning us about for years. Maybe
this is what Gerald Durrell and David Attenborough and highly
qualified, brilliant minds like theirs have been wittering on about.
Maybe this is what the weather is going to be doing for the next few
years – getting worse and worse and more and more extreme, so that
by the time my kids grow up, they won't be able to plan anything in
advance and will have to make sure they always have a plentiful
supply of toilet paper and candles and chickens and live on a hill.
Or maybe, on the other
hand, I am just being completely paranoid. Maybe this is just part of
a normal weather pattern and I should just start focussing my
attentions on the Really important issues at hand – whether
to vote for a man who believes that the world was created a few
thousand years ago and that the Aboriginies should be grateful for
the British invasion, or whether to vote for someone I don't
particularly like or trust just to make sure that said lunatic
doesn't get into parliament. Because this is what is filling the news
at the moment, so it must be the most important matter, mustn't it?
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