1 week in Brisbane

I am home. I'm moulded into a spot on the olive green velour couch (why do we still have this?) with the TV blaring in the background. A documentary on the Halloween movie franchise. It's interesting but I'm only half listening. Penny is curled up, seemingly into the smallest possible ball she could manage, her four little white socked paws poking out in a position that couldn't be comfortable.

Normally I would be extremely bored by this type of listlessness. However, after 10 months of travel - I'm loving my lazy days at home.

My beast of a car has been re-registered so I can transport myself from place to place, at the peril of the world environment. I had to get a Road Worthy certitificate and there was all sorts of drama on the phone with the RACQ lady insisting the road service mechanic wouldn't replace my battery because the car wasn't registered yet. But without a battery, I would be unable to move the car to get the certificate to re-register it so the mechanic would see me. It hurt my head. Fortunately the RACQ guy was not a jerk (like the call centre woman) and by the end of the day, my car was registered.


I have been helping as much as I can with the flood clean up. It is heartbreaking (and backbreaking) work. I learned how to break down walls with a hammer. At houses on one end of the street, life is normal, but down the other end lives are in dissaray, homes are uninhabitable and the residents are homeless. On Monday, I was working in the stairs of a house in Graceville, sweeping water from the Gurney upstairs down to the lower levels. IN the torrent, overlooked toys belonging to the little girl who lived were continually swept down the stairs. I salvaged as many as I could - 3 littlest pet shops (2 cats and a turtle) and a few DS cartriges. I had to let many go as they were covered in thick sludge, which had soaked into their once fluffy bodies. I would still be devastated if my littlest pet shop collection was lost, even today. THey are still very valuable to me at age 25.. so I can't imagine how that little girl would feel losing them.

We did a lot of sweeping and a lot of cleaning. We cleaned every item of cutlery and crockery - from knives to lunch boxes to a nice tea set. It's sad that the itmes that survive to fight annother day are take away containers and water bottles, ratehr than meaningful things like photos and soft toys.

Mum has helped me buy a month's membership and toowong fitness first. It's great to be back at the gym. Upon return, I hadn't exerciesed properly for 6 months- or done a class for 10. I also weighed 15kg heavier - tipping the scales at 90.1kg. I've been back at the gym for 5 days now- my first attack class back was a heartbreaking experience. I had gone from teaching the program to not being able to make it through a class. HOwever, my fitness is already quickly returning and I'm able to tough it out now. I have lost 4.1 kg - weighing in at 86kg. it's stil the heaviest i've ever been.. but I feel in 2 weeks time, I can be back below the 80kg mark and back into all my nice clothes.

I'm meeting Emily for lunch today at Grill'd.. it's danger time. But I think I've earned an awesome burger!