Birubi Beach is flat!!!!

Birubi is well known for its beautiful beaches resembling a hilly desert.  Only the other day after the storms it was flat! 

After visiting Birubi I went back to Shaol Bay for a lovely walk. Nothing beats the seabreeze in your hair! 

On getting home trucks were cleaning up the Hazardous trees! Great job guys. 

Saved By A Toilet Block!

Firstly great news! The storm Saturday night missed us! YAY! Bad news anther low is predicted for the end of the week.

So with the storms still fresh in our mind, I thought I would share about the time just over 12 months ago when a toilet block saved our lives from a storm here in the bay.

I had organised a BBQ down the beach with a couple friends. One I had not seen since school and had only just really found out she lived fairy close to me, in Maitland. 

So the boys were cooking out food, and dark clouds were coming closer...

Of course the responsible thing to do is laugh and have a joke saying that a bit of rain never killed anyone. After fart arsin around for a bit the wind started picking up and my friend tell me to look at the water. Wow it was something I had never seen before, the water looked like it was dancing. That was when i knew things were going to be bad!

I yelled at my 2 boys telling them to get in the toilet block. Everyone followed. We had just got in the seconds before trees starting coming down. Shit we arn't all in there. One of my friends and her partner and young boy were not with us. Maybe they wen't to their car. It was to scary to look tree limbs were flying around the place everywhere. The wind was howling like I had never heard before. Banging and clanging on the roof. At one point I wondered if it would fly off as it was lifting. 

I looked at my 2 boys and my other friends boy. They were so scared. Truth was so were we! It was so hard trying to keep it together for them. Telling them it would be all over soon. It was over within about 10 minutes. Longest 10 minutes of my life ever!

This was what we were greeted with when we walked out the toilet doors.....

A mess! One of us checked for power lines down, One was down over the roof of the toilets.

Thats ok where are my friends??? Yep in there car. She had been pelted with a tree limb trying to get into the car and was bleeding all over her back. Other then that we were all ok and that was the main thing. All our cars had a few minor dents from trees, and we had lost the snags off the BBQ. But we were ok.

After going home for a bit and getting showered and warm we went for a drive to see the other destruction. In 10 minutes a mess was made!

The clean up from this storm took months! 

Flashback.... Toowoomba & Grantham Floods 2011

As I sit here looking out the window, i can see dark black clouds peaking their ugly mugs over the seldom trees we have left. We have storm warnings. Sydney has just been lashed with a hail storm that has made the place look like it has snowed.

Hubby is in Newcastle for Anzac day, so it will be just me and the 2 boys this time round. I've just put the car in the shed! So glad my shed is clean enough for the car. Usually i have craft supplies spread all over the place. 

****

This weeks storms bought back memories of the 2011 Toowoomba floods. Where water ripped through the town  like an inland tsunami.

I was living in Toowoomba at the time. I remember it had already been raining heaps into the lead up of it. I decided to head back home to Kingaroy on the Saturday arvo, I was over cleaning my shop to reopen the following week and I was a bit miserable as me and my partner had broken up and it was proving hard staying in the same place as him. This trip home I remember as being rough already. There was so many wash outs and flooding already it was crazy.

I did plan to head home back to Toowoomba Sunday but due to road closures I couldn't. So I stayed an extra night. The roads were open Monday but I had this nikkering feeling to just wait. My brother wanted to get from Brisbane to Kingaroy and decided to go Toowoomba way as the other way was flooded. I was so uneasy about this. 

I kept telling Mum to find out how faraway he was.  Mum and I had ducked down town to get me a new phone as I had smashed my old one Saturday night in a drunken rage. While we were organizing it my brother called to say they were stuck outside toowoomba as the rivers had rose.

At this stage little did we know about what he had literally missed by minutes. My mums phone rings again, urggg its my silly ex. Nearly didn't answer it as I was sure he was ringing to give me a hard time about something. I decided I better. When I answered he was in a state of panic, everything is flooded, I have never seen so much water. The shed is wrecked. 

Wow, shit. I didn't think it was that bad. Until we got home to Dad glued to the TV. Come and see this. My heart sank, it broke as I seen the images on TV. It was way way way worse then I thought. Lives had been lost. The death count kept growing. The worst area hit with no notice. Grantham. People on the roofs of their houses while it got washed away. People on the roofs of their cars floating in what looked like a river.... a river of brown murkey deadly flood water. 

Pretty sure we did not leave the TV for the rest of the day seeing all the images come through. Finally my brother was let through as the water went down. We were so happy to have him home. He missed all this by minutes. He was so lucky! 

So seeing the houses swept away in Dungog was hard. It was all a reminder of the past. Everybody knew somebody that had been affected majorly in some way or anther. I was lucky. My house only had minor flooding and my shop was fine. So lucky it turned to guilt seeing how many were affected. 

It was a week before I was able to make it home due to all the road damage. I was amazed when I got home as the place had already been cleaned up so much. People didn't mess around! Up until this day you still hear peoples stories of these floods. 

****

I am sure it will be the same for these storms we had this week.  Everyone has their own story.

Here are some of the devastating pictures of Dungog. RIP to the people that lost their lives. 

Please remember to take care <3

Lest We Forget

xxx

Life, Is To precious.... WHY risk it?

This Image, is so powerful, so heartbreaking. At the same time it can make you feel so frustrated and so angry. Why do people still take silly risks? Silly risks that can end your life. 

If it is flooded, Please don't risk your life... FORGET IT!

The lady driving this car was headed to the shop for bread. She lost her life when the car was washed off the road due to the flood waters. 2 people that also put their lives at risk to help her had to be rescued themselves. 

In the last 6 months I have lost 3 friends one to a single vehicle car accident, one to a bike accident and one to a heart attack at the tender age of 25. Its a real eye opener to how precious and short life is. 

This is anther image circulating the internet that is really annoying the crap out of me! ...

For one that road should be blocked off. Even with it not, if that is sea water I would never even consider it. 

More to come .....

Wild Wild Weather, and the aftermath that turns people a bit crazy!

Monday night and the early hours of Tuesday morning we were struck with out first Wild storm, A storm that had wind gusts of a category 2 cyclone. Lucky enough Hubby had been sent home a little earlier from work. Around 11 pm, but even then he said it was a scary drive. Its generally around a 30 minute trip, the roads works were a mess and trees were already down starting to cause havoc.

After midnight it got worse and we lost power. The thunder was that bright and loud both the boys woke. So was a great reason to all camp out in the same room. It was hard to sleep as it was so very noisy. I was dreading the next day, as I find it hard to wake most mornings I knew having next to no sleep and trying to get J to school was going to be a mission as he also barley had much sleep. In the end I ended up having a couple of Phenergan to help me.

When we woke the next morning it had calmed down. Still every now and then we got big gusts of wind or a bit of thunder. My friend messaged me to let me know it was to dangerous out there and that the school had asked the parents to keep kids home if they could. They had skeleton staff to supervise them. Fine by me, so I went back to sleep. Our power had come back on, but everywhere else was out.

By midday things has settled down more and hubby wanted to go for a drive... what we seen was horrific!

Cars crushed by massive trees

Power Lines down and

Trampolines that probably looked like UFOs flying through the air.

The local Whale Mascot was 'Beached as Bro'.

Hubby's morning shift at work had all been sent home, nobody bothered to inform night shift what they were doing! So ringing and nobody was answering because no one was there and phone lines were down! Finally with a few of them ringing they got hold of an office admin who said no one was being let it. Thank goodness for that because there was no way I was letting hubby go, not when the premier was telling everyone to get home because the second storm was on its way. 

I remember it was eerie quiet. There was no wind, no rain no nothing really. Just still. I could hear chainsaws in the back ground, I assume they were trying to get as much done as possible before we got struck with round 2. 

It didn't last long before the crazy bitch was here again! As strong as before. The wind was howling, trees were literally bent in half, it was raining so heavy that you couldn't hear each other talk.

Every second tree around us was coming down. It was like they were match sticks just being pushed over. 

By 7 pmish it was all over, we even had stars in the sky. We walked out to the road and there were trees everywhere. Its amazed me how such big heavy trees can uproot so easily. We also still had power, Don't know how to be honest! 

Wednesday we woke to chainsaws. School was once again  Skeleton Staff and they were asking that we kept them home. I was still shocked that we had power when everywhere else didn't. Most businesses were closed. Everyone was just cleaning up the aftermath.

We had been told that the worst was over, That there may only be a bit more rain. Power could take days to be fixed. Minimal shops are open. Flooding around us was increasing. However only a small bit of flooding would impact us. We are not cut off, we can freely come and go with caution. But people have turned a little weird. Lining up for kilometers to get..... FUEL??? This has caused a lot of confusing as to why.  Yes its the only fuel station open, but trucks can accesses so we defiantly are not going to run out!  But still they are all lining up to get it. This caused a lot of chaos for people trying to access near by shops. 

The community spirit in Nelson Bay and close surroundings has been quite magical to be honest. However I fail to understand why there are some people who tend to over dramatize things, make up complete utter bulshit or make out they are hard done by. They bad name businesses or say ausgrid is not working quick enough to restore power. Gosh people they are doing the best they can. Make things work for yourself. 

In that being said our area has been very lucky compared to many other places. I am not even sure if Dungog exists anymore.....

More to come xx

Intro?... Yeah ok whatever

I am not real sure why I have decided to write a blog. Maybe there is something I am meant to share with the world. However I have had an urge to do it for a while. I always reckoned when I was younger that I could write a book on my life and people would read it. Not sure if my life is that interesting now, so we will see how we go.

I guess, I am meant to introduce myself a bit? 

Well I am female, currently 31 and am lucky enough to live in one of the most beautiful parts of Australia! Port Stephens. I live with my partner and 2 sons who are 11 & 2. (Yep it was a long time in between drinks). Currently I am a stay at home parent. I love to paint, crafts and cooking.

Adventure and exploring are the next things I live for after my family. I have spent the last few years suffering Post Natal Depression and anxiety attacks. Fave color is purple, and glitter makes everything better.... hehehe

So I will leave the boring intro at that for now, I'm sure you will find out more along the way. 

I guess I will be blogging a bit about my past and my current life. I will try to make it as interesting as possible. 

Life...

Life, really is a puzzle,

We spend our whole life actually trying to piece it all together.

We get pieces wrong, we get pieces right.

More pieces are added, while others are taken away.

Some pieces are boring, while others are filled with excitement. 

Pieces bring adventure and pieces bring darkness.

However we may never know what a piece may bring us at all.....

To much, to little.

To early or to late.

Lost and found.

It all resembles life. 

The thing is, we must make the most with what we have.