Test run for Friday Flashback

So this Friday the plan is for a few of us to post our preferred 1980s memory. Something from that decade that rings true to you .... and that might bring back some memories for the rest of us.

So the 'firsts' for me in the years 1980 - 89 include .....

moving out of home

starting college

falling in lust

having sex

falling in love

having lots more sex

Any of these might make it to my Friday post ... or not ... What about you ... do tell :)

I am testing Mr Linky widgy doovey thingo too. So maybe if two or three of you might link to this post now as a test run that would be cool. Otherwise I can always link back to myself ... now what's that called ....

I will post the real one for Friday on Thursday night so us 80s affinacados can link up. Cheers le

Tis the season ....

Well to me December first has always says 'it's Christmas time'.

So welcome to the Third on the Right Christmas season. A new header from the Arty One has got me into the spirit. Thanks matey. If you want your own - go see the girl.

The lads and I also put up the tree a few days ago. What a chaotic, joyful few hours that was. Yesterday, with nanna, the boys made gluten free Christmas cookies.

Mum and I have sussed Christmas day. Lunch at their place with the cousins and all. Pool in the back garden, who could ask for anything more.

First things first, first born's birthday party is this Wednesday. He is so exited. His actual birthday is the 20th. And then our wedding anniversary on December 22nd.

Tis the season .... hugs le

Where should women live .... VOTE now

I went looking for a free 'burning bra' image to illustrate this post. Well apparently the great burning bra thing never happened .... go here. Urban myth status ...

I did find one bra being burnt image, but it was on an ultra conservative Christain woman's blog. After reading some of the comments I could not bear to bring myself to ask for permission to reproduce it here. I wanted no association with her work.

So instead you have a picture of New Zealand, the place I nominate as the most likely to advance the cause of equal rights for women, give women a fair go and be generally respectful of the fairer sex.

Why New Zealand .... well in 1893 they did give women the vote. Australian women had to wait a bit longer. And too bad for our indigenous sister and brothers - they waited till 1964. In some parts of Canada unmarried women and widows were allowed to vote earlier than this, but married women had to wait until 1918 - go figure.

French women stood around a long time, waiting till 1944. Read more here.

During the time I lived in New Zealand I experienced a female Prime Minister, my provincial city had a female, minority ethnic group Mayor and I got my first break into senior public service. I was 32 years young. Another city had a female Mayor who was a previously a Mr.

So which country would you vote for .... which country leads by example ... I know Norway has done some interesting work with prescribing the number of seats that MUST be held by women on public company boards .... is this the way to go? Go here to read more and here too. Plus one more.

Leave a comment here sharing your experiences and vote in the poll - top right corner. I'd love to know what your life experience has lead you to believe - thanks le .

The end is nigh ....

November 30 and the month is done ..... no more self imposed 'post each day' schedule... ya double ya.

Do a little dance.

While I have enjoyed aspects of the post each day plan, I have also found it a tad too prescriptive for me.

Strange as I do have an average post rate over a month of more than one post per day ... but this is due to days when several posts are made - when I am driven to go on about a number of unrelated topics.

From a creative perspective I usually I have one 'dry week' out of four. A week where I'd rather read and comment than write myself. I have missed the luxury of this, and interaction with my fellow bloggers. Am thrilled I will now fall back into a modified posting schedule and contribute more around my fav blog places.

Congrats to the other bloggers who joined the 30 day odyssey ... a worthwhile endeavour and a nice bit of self disciple to boot.

Cheers and see you at your place soon - le xoxo

Chicks Check This Out

Calling my 'mothers raising boys' readership .... please go and read this.

Get a wee bit annoyed, do what you would already be doing to raise young boys into great men. I am think Fe and M in particular here - you already have amazing young boy children coming along into men of substance.

Never think for a minute that our fore-sisters of the bra burning 60s and 70s did their bit and we are now sorted and can sit back and drink our caps and chardie in relative bliss.

Bliss ain't here yet .... bring about a more blissful place for the women of the future by nurturing our boys into men worth having around.

My thanks, le.

Brisbane Fab Five - Gone International - Guest Post

Hello there ..... here we have a guest post - the second in the series from one of the fab five Brisbane girls, who has gone all "South American" on us. Lucky her ! Enjoy the virtual trip of a life time ...

The story so far! Since leaving BA I have traveled a couple of thousand km´s and made some fabulous friends.

I have been on a Tucan tour through Patagonia. Oh my goodness! Patagonia. What a place! It has the most amazing scenery, from the Andean snow capped mountains, to flat bleak wind swept plans, to grassy knowls chokkas full of sheep and goats. It reminded me a lot of the south island of New Zealand. Patagonia the new NZ????

I wish it was a cheap to travel here as it is NZ. Argentina, in particular this region, is bloody expensive. Even on a tour. For those who like to know where words come from: Pata means foot. Large foot land? and its has one of the lowest population densities in the world. hello?? Anyone there??

I joined the Tucan tour in a gorgeous Alpine town called El Calafate. I swear I was in in Wanaka. the lake, the snow cap mountains, the bars. It was a great little village and I didn't want to leave.

Two things peculiar to this town, was 1) the hundreds of dogs that roam around (all super friendly and looking for a pat...which I didn't do for fear some rabid infectious tick/flea jumping off its mangy coat and bury its self into my skin) and 2) the fact that plastic bags are not just disallowed from the town, but outlawed. You cant get them anywhere.

I found this out the hard way when I went a did a shop at the supermarcado and then had to carry the 15 items back in my pockets, underarms and hands. Outlawed!!!! I felt like flaunting the stash of plastic bags I had back in the hostel in the locals faces. Ooooooo look what I've got!!! That's right. PLASTIC!

From there we went and saw the Moreno Glacier. Its farking HUUUUUUGEEEEEEEE. 5km wide and 60 metres high, no matter where you look at it from, its impressive. And its the most active in the world. It creaks and cracks and groans like an old lady´s knees and then wham! A huge slice splits form the mother block and crashes into the lake below causing a huge wage to spread out beneath its weight. It was breathtaking!

There was 35 on the group from 13 different country's from 18 years to 78! Can you believe it. The 78 year old dude was a legend and he kept us young ones (that's right...I'm young compared to 78) on our toes. Everyone was super nice and friendly.

My roomy was an Irish girl who was tops and we got on immediately. There was only two odd bods and one was an Australian. He was 37 and had never left Sydney, let alone the country. No social skills at all. I kept asking if he wasn't from NZ... (sorry kiwi friends!). But the dynamics of the group rocked and I was never lonely and always had someone to play with.

So after the glacier we drove onto National Parque Torres Del Paine. The most beautiful national park. It was here that we did an 8 hour hike of pure hell to see the Torres Del Paine (Towers of Granite...should have translated to towers of pain... I will explain as we go...) It was the hardest thing I have EVER done. And I´ve dome some things... but this was the most physically and mentally challenging of my life.

We camped for four days and three nights in the national park and hiking and it topped only eight degrees over the four days. Anyway, the hike on the first day was 180 degrees up. Up hills, mountains, forests and then the last hour you had to scramble over massive boulders to get to the lookout to see the Towers.

It was freezing and blowing 200km when you got to the top. You had to hang on for dear life whilst taking photos. It was pretty amazing... and I didn't appreciate if for a few days as on the last hour of the four hour hike back down 180 degrees.. straight down... hello knees... well... it was there that I got food poisoning.

I had bought ham the night before to make a sandwich for the hike and it kinda froze in the fridge during the night but the had defrosted the next day by the time I got to the top...so I thought... can't be too bad can it....

So as I was making my way down, the bad thing happened. My stomach lurched. I gagged. And I raced off to the bushes and all hell broke loose. Literally.

I had to walk the final hour off a mountain with the squirts and nausea and vomiting. I was sweating and shivering and buckled over and just wishing for death. I was so crook that night I wanted to die. Fever, hallucinating, the whole package.

There was a doctor with the group so she game me pills and by the next afternoon I stopped exploding from my various orifices and started feeling better. Crikey it was rough. The next day I was in a coma in my tent and by the third day I felt brave enough to leave my porcelain friends and try another hike... a nice gentle one this time.

It was a beautiful walk, once you saw past the sleet and 100km winds. And I saw an avalanche on this hike. Just meandering along and all of a sudden there was this massive crack and we looked up to the mountain and then all this snow came spewing down making a very loud grumble. Its was so amazing. How lucky am I to see an avalanche... and not get squashed!

Mother nature is just amazing here. Nature is god here. She rules. Hands down.

After leaving the park we spent the next few days visiting various towns, all the while heading south. At Punto Arenas we stopped at a pelican colony. My first time seeing them in the wild. They are so bloody cute. Watched them for ages until my lips started turning blue.

After this we crossed from Chile back into Argentina through a town call San Sebastian. Depressing little dust swept place with a population of 10. The border crossings are in the weirdest places.

We crossed the Magellan straight and on the ferry there was at least 100 dolphins playing in the waves coming off the boat. They were very cheeky and darting this way and that. They were black and white like mini killer whales. It was very cool. Tried to take photos but mostly they came out grey blurs.

We stayed the night in a town called Rio Grande. Its foul and depressing and freezing. The only reason you would come here is to trout fish. Or die I reckon. No other.

Our final destination on this trip... and in the continent, is Ushuaia. The end of the world. The most southerly town in the world. Population approximately 60k and it started as a penal colony... which being Aussie I can totally relate too (this was the comment on the bus...yeah ha ha ha your all funny buggers, I am from a nation of thieves... will that old chestnut ever lose its shine????)

We went on cat and explored the Beagle Channel. It was very cool. Loads of birds and a light house and seals and it was very calm thank goodness. AND I saw my Russian icebreaker!!! The boat I am going on to visit Antarctica.

As I can't pronounce the boat's name, it has kind of morphed into being called the Pavlova. Much easier to pronounce and if you take out the vowels, can sound very Russian! I am starting to freak out a little about Antarctica trip..

Its just that...WHO THE FRICK GOES TO ANTARCTICA ON A RUSSIAN ICEBREAKER!!! Seriously. Have the Russians done anything well lately except for make vodka...are they known for their boatmanship???...oh dear. Deep breaths.

Our last day on the tour was a lovely hike through the Nationale Parque Terro Del Fuego National Park. It was brilliant sunny and calm day and a top of 22 degrees. Mad weather for being so far south. The park was gorgeous and we had a lovely day. Not a bad ham sandwich is sight!

Last night was our big final dinner with the group and we went to a Estacion (farm house) and had the most amazing BBQ. You have never seen so much meet in your whole life. There was enough for all of Argentina. And the BBQ was the size of a house. Man they do meat right here. We all gorged ourselves and rolled out of the place at midnight. The perfect end to a perfect trip.

So in summary:

The Good - the amazing breathtaking mind blowing beautiful scenery.

The Bad - the minus temperature, sleet, hail, 200 km winds, 4 hours of walking extreme up hill and 4 hours of walking extreme downhill.

The disgusting - vomiting and squirting at the same time behind bushes and in front of people and not caring and wanting to die. I am having the time of my life. Next stop... ANTARCTICA!

All my love and squishes X X X

Party Planning a la First Born

First Born turns the big six nothing in the week prior to Christmas. Hence we are having his wee school friends party - a first- next week. If we leave it till after the hols start then everyone will be scattered.

There is a prep year trend to invite the whole class. I think this is nuts .....

First Born is not good buddy 'friends' with 22 children. I am not having 22 rowdy five and six year olds over for the afternoon. I said six sounds good.

So with much ado he names three boys and three girls. Ain't that cute. I knew one of the chosen six will already be in the UK next week so I said he could invite three 'spares'.

To my pleasure and surprise he invited three of the bigger boys from the final primary years who have been mentors (buddies) to the prep year.

So we have nine, plus about four, four year old siblings associated with the pack of six. That is plenty.

First Born and I were sorting the tags for the pass the parcel game. You know, 'to the tallest boy', 'to the girl with the best smile', that kind of thing. He was suggesting the message and I was scribe.

So we come to his best friend. They have known each other since us mums befriended each other in the neighbourhood park about three years ago. Seems like three decades ago. This mum and I are close.

So FB suggests .... 'to the girl who's mum has piercings' as the tag for this friend.

Now that would be fine if her mum had ANY piercing ... that I knew of. This is a darling mum who does not EVEN colour her hair .... she has NO piercings, she is the least likely person in my whole social, nah extended social circle who would have a piercing ... not even her ears. Let alone show it to a five year old and not me !

I suggested maybe 'the mum with the longest hair' would work better. I am so looking forward to telling the said mum that FB thinks she has piercings .... she'll be mortified, but in a good way.

Then we move onto another friend. On this note he wants to write ... 'to the girl with the most annoying little brother'.

Oh dear. I have seen this toddler in action on many an occasion - he seems towards the sedate end of toddlerhood ..... not what you would call 'annoying'. And in this case I don't know then well enough for it to know if it would be seen as funny or not so funny ...

I find it hard to believe six years of motherhood have happened. Some days it seems like 60 years, other times 60 days. I find it hard to believe the first year of school is over .... time is flying by me at an alarming rate .... Here's to happy days First Born.

Love you le mum

Fond ...

So Darling Boy and I are out in the car today.

"Turn the radio up, I like the radio" says DB

Sure, I turn the radio up.

DB feels the need to explain further ....

"I'm very fond of music, it reminds me of dancing".

Well I can't argue with that ! le xoxo

How Annoyed ....

Sometimes MIC annoys me at a deep, cellular level. Sometimes I can taste my annoyance with him. Sometimes the moment makes me bristle with such negativity, I feel rather toxic - a bit like the plague has momentarily settled on me.

These 'flashes of anger' I have towards him are like the the thingo that records earthquakes or tsunamis .... Calm, calm calm, then BAM SPIKE, maybe three or so after shocks, then calm.

I believe 90% of the time the BAM is a result of the friction of the gen x - baby boomer relationship. The other 9% are just the usual men - women thang, that knows no generational boundaries. The last 1% are low blood sugar levels - me, not MIC.

Needless to say today he has annoyed me. It is a definite generational thing, a control issue, a your way is wrong, my way is right issue. Think he would have learnt by now .... Suppose can''t knock a man for trying .... but I will, as it does become trying, he tries to hard.


Inevitably MIC goes on about something I did/ did not do / should have done / or not done, one phrase or sentence too long. Then I give 'the look' and respond in a less than lady like fashion. Usually resulting in me defining where he should put his opinion. He looks wounded for sixty seconds and then resumes life as we know it.

In contrast my first husband, a gen Xer, hardly annoyed me to any great degree throughout our ten year relationship.

He saved it all up for the 'big bang'. The big bang revolved around him having .... ( I usually use the f word here - but am moderating myself ...), shall we say itimate relations with other men in public places - mostly public conveniences - how inconvenient - this resulting in exposing himself (oh ha ha - very funny - not) and me, by default, to the wonders of HIV testing. End result, my physical health intact, I divorced him. He would have liked me to stay so he could have his cake and eat it too .... pllleeasseze - be real, how devaluing would that be.

So if all's fair in love and war, I am soley and wholly committed to my cellular spikes of annoyance with MIC. I'll take one or two of those every other month, over a ten yearly 'big bang' anyday.


Love you babe le xoxoxo

Posting at the Peas - Recommended Reading

Two, short but sweet posts at the peas for you to flick by and see - hugs le

MIC + Penelope + too many too numerous to name individually = Smiley Le

Well I am a happy chickadee .... This post, - timesharing children - drew comments from all my favourite contributors. A great one liner from CGDK just made me laugh, honest comments from all made me smile and learn more about myself and know the crew who contribute.

Then Penelope T came over and left her two cents worth - she wrote the original post on what young woman can do now to be happy older women - I think there is more mileage on this topic yet and I hope to come back to it.

Penelope's blog will always be special to me, as it was the cyber space where I first connected with the darling JenX67 .... one of my most significant and long standing, mutual appreciation blogging relationships.

And the icing on the comment cake .... MIC left a comment - yes my MIC - man in charge. My life partner (well foreseeable life anyways - hee hee), my husband, father to our boys, all round good guy with additional quirky bits and occasional unexplainable bits thrown in.

First comment ever to be left in writing, by his own fair hand. Well strike me down and paint me pink.

A funny thing has happened since the advent of Lucy the Laptop.... I have redirected by blog comment notifications to a new email, bypassing our 'family' email address, the one checked my MIC.

Orginally, back in the dawn of le blog, MIC never read my posts - I think my posts and the blogworld as a whole was relegated, in his mind at this time, to the 'time wasting' category.

Then MIC started to read the comments left by an expanding readership, and it seemed this stimualted his interest in something that resided with him - namely me. I think mostly it was the comments from BJ that got him on board ...

I was thrilled you all motivated him to start reading ... for a time I sensored my writing, leaving out the worst of our domestic bliss, but in time - like 48 hours - I reintroduced MIC related posts and no harm was done.

So over recent weeks with comment notifcations no longer coming to his attention I could tell MIC had stopped reading. There were no passing jibes in the kitchen, no aditional feedback from him. I was a little bit saddened in the first instance, but took it in my stride.

So today to find him back in the fro does make me smile .....and with comment and all. Yippee yi ya ! le xoxo

Wordless Wednesday ...

I have to say the NaBloMo (or whatever) etc etc etc is wearing me out a bit - the post everyday in November thingo - so I am taking a leaf from the tree of Lilly and invoking a wordless - well almost - post.

I call this a spider lilly, and it lives at the bottom of our drive. It flowers only once a year and then is just green and long leafed for the remainder.

It was here when we bought the house eight years ago and MIC has been going to move it for eight years ....

Anyways I love it - cheers le

Tee for Tuesday - Bloginista Baby

Well I am back to my usual schedule ... so presenting a tee that has been discounted for your buying pleasure ....

Are you a bloginista baby at heart ....

So for the young or young at heart, something for summer or something to layer in winter ..

Go here to find this in my wee shop - cheers le

Posting at the Peas - Falcon Ware

No, not for the car ...... I googled Falcon Ware and the first six were about the china, then the rest went onto Falcon Ware for your Ford Falcon ..... dearie me .... le xoxox

Time Share Children ... anyone, anyone ....

So we have had one of THOSE nights. Not the whole thing, thus far. Just the dinner and going to bed component.

It was such a lovely night I decided we'd dine on the deck. Well after MIC and I had finished we abandoned the idea and moved back in.

Forty minutes later I gave up. First born had completed, but Darling Boy was going nowhere good.

Then bed time ..... ah the less said the better.

Blah. I lost the plot, made all kinds of outrageous threats and generally scared the boys into fits of laughter (not the desired effect) with emotional crazy mothering.

And all this when I was already going to post about the concept of timesharing children.

During the early career days I spent five years working at a resort, an island resort that had a timeshare component.

Pre children I had thought that timesharing a dog would be cool. I didn't, I went 24 x 7 with two dogs ... seems I got confused.

Timesharing holiday accommodation is not without it's trials and tribulations. Firstly 50 weeks have to be sold to different people, two weeks are saved for maintenance.

Then you have to hit them all up for levies and fees and more, and get the money out of them annually. When they thought it was a 'pay once' kind a deal.

Then you have to have some kind of elaborate system, where by those who paid more for the 'good weeks' can book the 'good weeks' and those who went cheap get stuck in the cyclonic / rainy/ freezing,no swimming unless you are from Tassie weeks. This causes tension, as of course the weeks right next to the 'good weeks' become highly sought after.

Then I suppose one of the bigger challenges .... keeping standards to a level which keeps everyone happy and is within budget.

Once someone becomes an 'owner' seems they have rather grandiose ideas of how the room should be presented, how thick the towels should be, the brand of crockery, the number of outdoor chairs, the colour of the pool water and the height of the palms.

So if we translate this to kids .... firstly one needs to find some willing timeshare partners, preferably not 'ex's with the associated emotional baggage. Then you need to agree to what are the 'good weeks' and what are the bad. I think this might be tough, given the unpredictable nature of children.

Ah, what about the fees and levies, and maintenance money .... hmmm.

Then the standards ... state schools work for me, but you, my fellow owner might be an old boy from XYZ posh school on the hill. I don't hit as a standard response, nor smoke, nor drink in front of the lads very often, plus we have a no refined sugar policy going on ... so what happens when my fellow owner is a pipe smoking, red wine swilling, chocolate clinker eating biker ....or worse, a reformed non red wine drinking, new non smoking, carrot eating greenie .... or both are owners, with us chucked into the mix.

Maybe it is not a great concept ....

Penelope Trunk recently wrote a post on what women can do while they are young to be happy later on .... it is worth a look just to disagree.

There were three points for consideration ...

One about kids, one about career and one about divorce and plastic surgery.

I think it was point one in particular, and to a lesser degree point three that caused the resulting 88 comments to be left. Here is point one ...

Don't have kids. Daniel Gilbert (who has a son) has great research to show that kids do not make people happier. Kids give great joy but also wreak great havoc. People used to think there is something wrong with women who don't want kids. But really, there is something wrong with people who tell you that their kids make them happier: they are lying. Of course, it might not be intentional. And anyway, we lie to ourselves about a lot of things that we can't change. But stop thinking that everyone should have children. Maybe not

My response to this is that we should not delegate responsibility for our own happiness to our children. Happiness is one of the things we need to address for ones self. I had children with the notion that is was one of life's great experiences. The whole lucky dip mix of the gene pool thing I find fascinating and the idea that I have a 'life project' in the boys is, 99% of the time something that brings me great joy and wonder.

So I suppose no time share options here, I am a 24 x 7 girl after all. Unless it is one of you dear blogging girls ... maybe we could sort something out ... hugs le

ps felt art by Darling Boy - the Adam and Eve type imaging I thought worked for this post.

pss MIC has just observed that I like to be in charge - another flaw in my timeshare concept ...

And the Winners are ...

So this is the fun part for me :) I had the best night reading all the comments left - 149 in total.



Thanks ever so much to all who participated .... I would love to be able to give something to everyone, but there can only be six winners ....


And here they are, as chosen by the random integer generator. I have to admit the generator chose one number twice - I thought that a bit unsporting. So I got MIC to choose one number to make the sixth one.


First cab off the rank - the AlmaB print - Castles in the Sky - has a new home with Columbia Lilly. This talented, arty blogger lives in Seattle and shares lots of wonderful creations with us via her blog.



Next comes the darling xmasy fabric basket from Katy. This one goes to Leonie, a Melbourne mother of three wee ones under five - boys I think - to which my response is 'holy cow'.



By the way Katy has some amazing new pendants using Japanese papers now featured on her blog.

And now to Nadine and her super fun and funky scrabble pendants. And the winner is Louisa. Mum to one super cutie pie babe and the life force behind where the blog are you. Lou writes about life and motherhood uncensored.

So Trish is the winner of our next prize - the amazing work of Carleen at Revised Images. An Aussie mum , I think she might really find a use for this prize ...

Now the divine knitted bracelet from the super clever hands of Katy .... it goes home to Dee, who blogs about Aussie Life in a very authentic way. While we are on Katy, her lovely birdie decals will be going to nest at CGDK place.

And finally, last but not least , the tee from me goes to Mistress Meeyee. Rachel is a mum all the way from Clarksdale, Mississippi (I had to look at that three times to get the ss's and i' and p's right - and I'm still not sure about that second set of ss ..... ).

So to claim your prize email me here by December 1 and I will reply with details.

Thanks again for being part of raising the awareness of some great Aussie creative bods. Remember them for xmas shopping. Also over at the Peas I will be blogging soon about why I choose these particular girls.

My best to all le

What happened in the Eighties ...

Ok ... so inspired by EasternMax and her trip down the 1980s music memory lane, some groovy eighties stuff from Kate and a general love of the decade, I am thinking we should have a 'Flashback Friday' featuring anything you want from 1980 - 89.

So on Friday December 5, if you are keen, you could post at your place anything you like from the eighties ...

A family snap like this, a bit of music, a memory, an image .... anything that says 'the eighties' to you. Smells, food, travel ... anything can fit the bill. A few words or a few thousand words - the choice is yours.

So if you wannna play along leave a comment here so we get an idea of numbers. I will go seek out a Mr Linky thingo and install it prior to Friday week so we can all hook up as painlessly as possible. We all then pop around, have a good, low cost laugh and leave a few comments.

And this snap ... well of course it is my wee family - technically 1979, but to me vintage 80s.

We had just moved from Brisbane to Sydney and we living in the far south at Bangor (Menai then). Look at my dad and one bro in safari suits. My other wee bro in corduroy matching jacket and trousers. Then my wee, tiny blister in her 'made by mum' lite denim overalls - from memory that was mum recycling one of the boy's dance costumes.

Look the boys both have desert boots on. And then there is me - look at that fringe - bangs for the US I think. From memory I think I have a dog poo brown suede skirt on.

But the award for 80s chic has to go to my darling mum. So do you think the afro is her ? I recall she went with her best girlfriend, down for a visit from Brisbane, and they both got 'curled over'. She looks so pleased with the end result :)

Anyways that is a glimpse into my eighties memory zone. On Friday 5th December I promise to share something else. Hope you will share too. A bit of pre xmas fun :) cheers le

Hurry last day .... Closing down sale ...

Nah just kidding ... but it is the last day for you to leave a comment and be part of the Great Aussie Give Away.

So go here and show the creative girls some bloggy love - thanks ever so much - le

Posting at the Cows - A teeny, weeny loss !!

Lot's of loss at the Cows - hee haw !! le

And then it came down

So it rained, rained and rained some more. The rain came down, the wind whipped up - up to 180km an hour and the roof came off - along with the walls and some of the floors.

This couple at The Gap - the suburb I grew up in from birth to 13 years - seemed to have lost most things, but remain blessed to still have each other.

These images are sourced from here and there is a series of them, touring what is left of their 'home'.

I seemingly missed the severity of this storm for a day or two. Until Dee from My Aussie Antics emailed me to see if I was ok. The Gap and Ferny Grove were worst hit. We are about three suburbs away. We had rain and wind but no damage.

Over 5000 houses in those two suburbs ended up looking like this, or worse. Loss of properly was huge, loss of life directly from the event was one - one young adult who was taking photos and ended up swept down the drain. Well, at least that is what I heard.

My fake aunty and uncle at The Gap, lost their garage and granny flat and one car. Could have been worse. Their rainforest garden is now a rainforest waste land.

Another mum friend was flooded out on the eve of her son's graduation. Lost her car.

So Thursday night we had another storm cell. Rain, wind and hail this time. An inland town was devastated and a seaside suburb of Brisbane was hit. It's all so random.

And what is happening with the tonnes and tonnes of greenwaste .... well Council is chipping it for parks and gardens.

So batten down the hatches there is another big, bad buggar of storm due tonight.

Good luck to all in South East Queensland and stay safe ! le xox