Tsumani Alert

Australia's east coast has been put on tsunami alert following a powerful undersea earthquake.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology says Tasmania, Victoria and NSW could be hit by waves on Wednesday evening following the quake off the southwest coast of New Zealand's South Island at 7.22pm (AEST). (NineMSN News Website - 15/07/2009)

I've just heard the news on TV and had a look on the above website. The earthquake measured 7.9 on the Richter scale, so it's a decent sized rattler. No evacuations have been ordered but small boats and pleasure craft have been warned to return to shelter and ocean going ships to remain in deep water.

There's no warning as far as Queensland, just for the coastal areas of the southern states and Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands. Just goes to show...when you're sitting at home playing computer games with the TV on in the background, you never know what you're going to hear.

I hope there are no fatalities and that people's homes don't sustain too much damage.

Bits and Bobs

I'm not going to apologise for not being around...I've done enough of that in the past and you know I'll be back anyway...right?

I went to my writers' group on Thursday night and the project this month was to take along an excerpt of something we're working on at the moment. So I ummed and aahed, and finally took along the first chapter of my work in progress. I felt sick to the stomach at the thought, because it was going to be critiqued by the others, some of whom are published authors. So I asked them to be gentle with me and handed a copy out to everyone, then went and bought a cup of green tea while they read it. To my gratification, they were laughing out loud...whew, what a relief! That's the reaction I was hoping for.

To cut to the chase, they found it entertaining and funny and I was told there was a good chance a publisher would probably pick it up. I've been on Cloud Nine ever since... I'm sorry I'm not going to say what it is about, I'm a bit superstitious in that respect, but if it gets published, I'll be crowing!

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I was talking to my eldest daughter yesterday and she had had some rather bad news so I jumped in the car and went to see her. Her father (my ex) has been diagnosed with a benign tumour on the cerebral cortex, the brain stem. It's growing and there's a danger of it cutting off passage of the spinal fluid and if that happens, the outcome is the worst you can think. He has to rest until he can have surgery. Apparently the operation itself is not too bad, with only a 2 -3% chance of a fatal outcome.

However, for all you Aussies who think our health system is in dire straits, listen to this. He has to wait two weeks just to have an MRI and three weeks after that for surgery. A total of five weeks and in the meantime, he could die. This is in New Zealand and when I heard that I was appalled. With the life threatening condition such as he has, it would be classified as category one here, and he would have had the operation quick smart. I do feel for he and his wife, they're going to be living on tenterhooks for the next little while.

They had also booked to visit Australia for a month in September and have had to cancel that, as the condition is too dangerous for John to fly. They had insured against untoward emergencies so they will get their money back. But what a dreadful thing to have happened. It makes you wonder what's next...because last year he was diagnosed with melanoma. Fortunately it was found and treated early, so there wasn't too much trauma there. But melanoma is such an insidious cancer, there's no telling if and when it will pop up next.

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I went to see my youngest daughter earlier this week as it was her birthday on Wednesday. She's left a very dissatisfying position and is now trying to set up a little business from home. She had almost finished the most beautiful quilt which she hoped to put up for sale. I don't know where she gets the patience...I wouldn't have it to do anything like that. She also has a blog and you can read it here.

That's it for now...no photos this weeks, so this post is looking a bit boring...sorry.

A couple of random photos

I thought you'd like to see these...

This is our back yard. My flat is attached to the main house, where Jane & Fred are, at the far end. See our lovely big tipuana tree. It's evergreen and when it's in flower, tiny yellow flowers that just smother the tree, is absolutely spectacular.

When I was at my brother's last weekend, we found this photo and I got him to email me a copy. It was taken a couple of years ago at Peter's (my brother) 60th. L to R: Peter, his eldest son, Campbell, me in front, behind me, our brother Colin, and next to him, Peter's youngest, Julian. I'm going to send Mum a copy as I know she doesn't have one and she would like it.

The sunrise the other morning. It was absolutely spectacular and looked as if the world was on fire. I enlarged this and it's blurred...it looks better this size...trust me.