Thankful Sunday... A Day Late

Oops!  I forgot to do my Thankful Sunday post yesterday!  And it was Easter and all!

Oh well, better late than never.  So this week, I am thankful for:

A blissful four day weekend, cool and rainy, that I could just relax and enjoy.  It was just a nice mix of mooching at home and social activity.  It's rained all weekend (my favourite kind of weather) and I've enjoyed watching movies and reading when I'm not socialising.

I'm also thankful that the lovely Adriana called me up last week and invited me to the football on Saturday night.  I got to see the Brisbane Lions soundly thrash the Sydney Swans for the first time in about 5 years.  Always a great thing, to whale on Sydney.  I enjoyed the evening with Adriana and her lovely nephew.

And to end this thankful post, I'm thankful for you my readers!  Every time I log in and spot a comment from someone, it reminds me why I write this blog.  Don't be shy if you read, just say hello so I know you're there.

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

... I wish I was snoring....

How much rain is Brisbane having right now?  For those of you not here in Brissie, it has been downright torrential all day, with a hard wind to go with it.  I mean BUCKETING down.

I woke up this morning and thought it was kind of weird because it was still dark.  I opened my curtains (I have those good rubber backed curtains that keep out lots of light) and was amazed at how intense it was outside.  It felt apocalyptic.  I'm sure I sat at the bus stop waiting for four horsemen to ride by.

However, despite the rain being somewhat intense, I love it.  I love that the temps are dropping, I love the cozy, close feel of the world when it is really raining hard, I love the soft light of a rainy day, and most of all I love that sound.  It's just the most delicious sound in the world.

The only bummer is that of course, it's raining on a week day, when I have to go to work.  I just want to stay at home, curl up in bed with a book and a mug of hot chocolate, read and doze and daydream all soggy day long.

Instead I have to schlepp into work, sit at my desk with the hems of my pants all wet, listening to all that delicious wind and rain outside being wasted on a work day.

But one thing that has amused me all day are all the abandoned, broken umbrellas all over the city.  Every rubbish bin has one, and a lot of them have blown all over the place.  I saw a lot of people carrying broken ones too.  This is because people buy cheap ones because they forgot to bring one, and inevitably they fall to bits on the first wind.  Then they blow all over the city like this poor lost lonely guy:

This photo was in the Brisbane Times this evening.  I like it, poor, lost, lonely, broken umbrella.

I've just discovered another lovely thing about wet weather... tonight the frogs are singing!

Storms in Brisbane

I just have to share this video, which was posted by one of my colleagues on her 23 Things blog.

This is footage from the big storm last week (16th of November, 2008) here in Brisbane. I didn't really think it was that severe at the time, but then the next day heard about all the damage and then heard that it was the most severe storm Brisbane had seen in decades.

And this video footage confirmed just that!



Pretty intense hey? I just love we Australians though - who else in the world would laugh and call it a "ripper" and stay out on the back deck during that chaos?