Christmas Wishes & New Year Plans

We have been a wee bit self-indulgent, neglecting any house-type decisions, and instead spending time with family and friends over the Christmas period. Which is what we believe Christmas is really all about (although with Viktoria's family involved, even a game of "Snakes & Ladders" has the potential to become a blood sport).
But we have still made time to go for walks in the bush surrounding our current home in Queensland. Even setting off before 6am, the air is already dense and humid. The heady scent of humus greets you as you crunch along foot worn paths. Leaves hang heavy on eucalyptus trees, their bark splitting and peeling to reveal fresh skin, a startling shade of burnt umber.
At one of the last stands of Bunya pines, the cicadas' song is so loud you need to block your ears. Their call waxes and wanes, until you come to the still-running creek which bubbles through bold slabs of grey granite on its way to the valley below.
The sky is that crazy shade of blue so unique to the subtropics.
You're already peeling off a T-shirt, dripping in perspiration, before you make it to the front door.
We will miss the Queensland bush - its colours, its smells, its sounds. But we won't miss the Queensland heat.
Following a couple of days R&R, in the New Year, Viktoria is going to make a concerted effort to get the whole "get the block cleared, get some access to the build site" organised.
Until then, we hope that you, your families and friends, had a safe and happy Christmas and that the New Year brings promise.
V&A

A Lesson in Bushfire Safety

The Universe has a perversely ironic sense of humour.

Just as we are working through the details of what vegetation to clear on site under the new national bushfire legislation, our home State of Queensland is facing mass outbreaks of bush fires across its length & breadth.

We had gone to work as usual on Tuesday. Following back-to-back meetings until about 2pm, Viktoria finally caught up on her emails & text messages - one of which ominously read:

"Residents should be aware that a potentially very serious bushfire situation is developing directly to our west. A significant area of private land is currently burning. It is unlikely that an opportunity to safely back burn into this country will eventuate between now and tomorrow when severe fire weather will come into play (40°C, gusty SW winds and 12% humidity). There is a high likelihood that a broad fire front will develop under NW winds tonight and then be pushed in the direction of the village..."

The next message was that the rural fire service was door knocking in the area telling people to leave. Emails were still downloading as Viktoria phoned the Android & he made the quick trip across town to pick her up & rush home. All we could think of during the 45 min journey from work back home getting the cats to safety. Not the house, not the furniture, not any stuff. Just making sure that the fur-kids were safe.

The smell of burning eucalyptus filled the air as we passed a steady stream of locals leaving the mountain.  Clearly we were heading in the wrong direction.

By the time we had packed the cars, most of the village had left, with just fire trucks and firemen milling around. Viktoria took the 3 cats in her car... the Android took 3 synthesizers (a Moog Voyager, a custom build Vostok, and something else with lots of knobs). Viktoria made it half way down the mountain before Captain Greatpants threw up – of course one of them would have to get motion sickness.

The Android's mother kindly let us descend on her with 3 cats in tow.  We let the cats out in the room we were sleeping in (after setting up food, water & a kitty litter tray for them). Mistress Surly immediately squooooozed herself underneath the ensemble bed where she stayed until the following morning. (The Android had to lift the bed so that she could be prised out.) Princess Daintyfeet commandeered the space underneath the dressing table. Captain Greatpants, needing to replace the meal he had lost, had something to eat.

The Android made a mad dash to a takeaway so we could at least provide dinner in lieu of board. During which time Captain Greatpants decided he wanted to check out the house. To his credit, the mad little guy was awesome. He rubbed on everything (including the Android's mother) and spent a long time trying to shoot a possum outside with his laser-vision, but was otherwise content just to sit at our feet while we were in the lounge room.
Viktoria didn’t really sleep (strange house, noisy suburbia, strange bed) which was made worse when at about 2am Princess Daintyfeet decided she wanted to look around – which meant she started doing laps of our bed ‘talking’ rather loudly. Not wanting to wake the rest of the house, Viktoria thought she would let Princess Daintyfeet out of the room and walk around the house with her... Captain Greatpants decided to be tour guide and kept herding her to the most interesting parts of the house (for a cat); mostly behind or underneath furniture. They were both rather dusty. Despite efforts to bring her back into the bedroom, Princess Daintyfeet wasn’t having any of that. By this stage, the Android had stirred, so we ended up shutting all the doors in the house except ours and leaving the fuzzy ninjas to roam. Which meant that Viktoria stayed awake listening & hoping that they didn’t decide to try climbing cabinets or breaking anything. We shouldn’t have worried – our cats are actually fairly well-behaved (most of the time) & know to stay off things like tables & cabinets.

That morning we couldn’t check the Internet for any fire updates, because the Android's mum doesn’t have the Internet. And Viktoria's mobile phone rapidly ran out of charge.  The official channels were actually pretty rubbish at providing updates on what was happening – much better and more accurate information came from the mountain chat room (the modern equivalent of the 'Bush Telegraph'), or just from phoning people.

So we decided to take the beasties back home & see how we go. There is still a severe fire warning, but the local firies managed to build containment lines last night & the winds haven’t been too bad.
Princess Daintyfeet seems to have largely just had a big adventure, while Mistress Surly is still preparing herself to forgive us. Oh, and Captain Greatpants threw up again on the way home. Cats-1 / Humans-0.
But we are all safe, if a little smoky, and it was a good opportunity to see if our bushfire emergency plan worked, or needed work.
Now, exactly which trees did we want to keep in Tassie???
V&A