Water Water Everywhere

 

Cyclone Maria the weekend of Fri 20 - Sat 21 February 2015

Hmmmmm Cylone Marcia just over a week ago and then this week a heat wave - so un - predictable. Cyclone Marcia left her mark through our storage unit at Caloundra. We had a phone call late on the Saturday night to say that our storage unit along with others had at least 200ml + of water running through it, we had to leave it until the weather improved to be able to get up to Sunshine Coast 45mins north of where we currently are at Kallangur to check it out,the weather was really bad strong winds and rain and flooding all over, the main highway was cut so we would not have been able to go up anyway. Sunday Brian rang the storage company and asked did they want us up today or leave it until Monday - advised come today Sunday please. Arrived storage unit opened roller door and found water had left the unit and left its mark. We had all large items on the floor of which could not be put up high - thankfully the majority of our gear was raised up on a couple of mezzanine's that Brian had built. We sorted through the gear sorting wet from dry - wet stuff went into the empty unit next door to ours that had been vacated earlier and the dry into another smaller unit just to keep it away from the other gear. We dried the floor with old towels and proceeded to sort through the wet boxes that had fallen apart, it was only some of my craft gear - papers and books, a couple of suitcases with linen and our winter clothes and many other bits that we could dry out came back with us in the car. The large wet items (which are watermarked,falling apart literally and now going mouldy from the humidity) are waiting on insurance to decide what to do with them - YES WE DO HAVE INSURANCE, the assessor came on Tuesday 24th February and took notes and photos of the items. So a bit of a buggar but hey many folk have no insurance or cann't get insurance as they were stored outside in containers and you cann't get contents insurance for storage in a container. And the latest is YES the insurance paid out in full for our damaged belongings and came and took them away.

The photo below shows where the water came to on the piece of wood and you can see the bottom of the lounge itself.

Below photo is one of the bedroom dressers, it fell apart as it was so wet.

Mouldy chair, the humidity was so high everything went mouldy real fast.

Wall unit/bookcase solid Rimu - you can see the mould growing up the side

Wet,damaged,smellly,mouldy goods waiting to be taken to the tip, nothing could go to re cycling in case someone purchased them and became ill from the mould, all electrical items the insurance would not even look at getting checked or repaired.

Thank you Yasmine and Rory

For my cute bookmark that you sent me, very appropriate with the caravan on and I love it xxxx

Still at Kallangur

WE LEAVE HERE ON -   APRIL 23rd

The house here is lovely and up for sale so we are having to deal with the odd open home, it's not really an issue for us as the open homes here are only held for 30mins, so we just go out and sit in the caravan and have a cuppa. A few photos of the inside.

 Below photo of house taken at dusk

The photo below is the bedroom we are sleeping in.

  Spare Room

Craft Room

Kitchen and Dining Room

Lounge

Office/Spare Room (was once the garage)

Many homeowners here turn their garages into spare room.

Lawns had to be done the other day Brian does the rear I do the front, the section is elevated and with a self propelling lawn mower she gets a bit of speed up. It was so bloody hot and humid, I have to wear my rain boots as the grass is Paspalym and it gives me the itches, drives me crazy.

Perhaps going to do it up!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The day Yasmine took us over to Akaroa this car with a caravan on the trailer went by on the express way, we never would know if it made destination in one piece????

Here at Kallangur

3rd February

Well the day had arrived for us to leave Caloundra for the best part of 2015, the night before we packed away all the outdoor gear rolled the awning up as rain was forecast, thank goodness we did as it teamed through the night. We woke to a fine however overcast day. Checkout time was 1000am however we heard on the radio that the south bound lanes on the Bruce HWay were blocked due to a truck rollover and there were huge delays. Brian went to the office and asked for a late checkout, by 1100 we decided to head off as we had to drop the aircon unit off at the storage shed and once there we could see the traffic was moving and did not seem to be too backed up. With the aircon stored we headed south via the Bruce HWay and it was after about 10mins we came upon the slow moving traffice it took us about 45mins to get passed the rollover truck and once past this point the traffic was moving again at normal speed allowing us to arrive at Kallangur at 1230, so we actually made pretty good time. Brian backed Poppy up the side entrance and she is parked under the carport which is great as we can clean her and restock her for our trip south at the beginning of May, for now both Poppy and the car are under cover which is great.

Photo below shows us almost packed ready to leave Caloundra

The photo below is off Goggle Earth and shows the house where we are staying the caravan is to the left of the photo behind the cream awning. A few photos of the outdoors of the property, out the back there is a full length covered area great for sitting out having a cuppa, beer or wine

Caloundra 2

The plonkers below drove the bloody jetski onto a sandbar - idiots the coastguard hates these things with a passion

Below photo - is the Coastguard on their way out for patrol on Australia Day

The cardboard model of the original Christchurch Cathedral I bought over a year ago when back and have just finished completing it - looked pretty good.

Caloundra Big 4

The day had arrived for us to leave Sunseeker Village and head down into the centre of Caloundra to the Big4 Waterfront Holiday Village. It is a nice park right on the Pumicestone Passage. We have a corner site in behind the office. We can the the water in between the two cabins opposite us. We are here until February 3rd when we head down to Kallangur and start our first house for 2015.We had a few days of showers which unfortunately made the humidity really uncomfortable - thank goodness for the aircon and the pool. We used to make a cuppa and go and sit over by the water near the Coastguards building and jetty there was always a nice breeze coming off the water.

And so I return

Well it was my turn to leave a week later on the 14th feeling not so good and upon returning have been pretty crook with Bronchitus something I have never had before and man it has made me feel pretty bloody lousy, on the mend now as I have drugs. We spent a week at Sunseeker Village our usual place to stay when we need a few nights somewhere. On the 18th we moved to the Big 4 Caloundra Waterfront Holiday Park where we currently are until Feb 3rd when we move to Kallangur and mind a friends house for 3mths while they head away in their caravan. Its a nice area one we have not frequented so will be good to have a look around. The rail line to Brisbane is 5mins away so a trip into Brisvegas by train is well on the cards. The summer has been a scorcher thank goodness we have the aircon in the van as it certainly helps to keep the inside more comfortable especially at night time making sleep more comfy. I had a lovely quiet birthday thank you Angela and Yasmine for my beautiful cards and gifts I never opened them until my birthday. Brian and I went out for tea at the local Bellvista Tavern for my birthday, 2 meals for $30 pretty good value. The Big 4 is right on the Pumiceston Passage and we have a great spot with daily views of the water, Pelicans and many boats. The van park emptied out on mass on January 26th Australia Day Public holiday as the rugrats return to school today January 27th, where we are in the park we are sitting on a patch of ground all on our own so peace reins. Tomorrow off to see the home owners for morning tea at Kallangur and collect the keys to the house, we will be taking the caravan with us as we can put it on site and give her a good clean and get ready for our trip south at the beginning of May when we head south for the winter at Tocumwal, actually really looking forward to it, yes it will be a shock to the system however we love that part of the country. Went and had a meal with our good friends Helen and David before we left Caloundra and this little Waterdragon came in for a feed.