Sunday. a.j.

this morning i had the absolute pleasure of meeting (for the very first time) my teeny tiny new nephew Aiden Jay. of course, the first time i held him he screamed and cried because he had never seen me before, but sure enough as soon as i started making faces at him and poking out my tongue he smiled and even laughed at me while i held him. there he was, chatting away about god knows what.. he didn't make any sense, but nevertheless it was adorable. such a shame he lives all the way down in Canberra with my sister. i will definately have to visit more often. there's a picture. i just want to squish his little face aahhh so cute!

also, like my guitar? it was a gift from a few friends a while back, and i am slowly getting the hang of it. at the moment i'm attempting to play Sara Bereilles's "Winter Song".

bye for now
xR

Thursday. floods

so yes, i live in Queensland "the sunshine state" ...
luckily enough myself and my family have avoided the terrible "2011 floods" which have devastated around 75% of our state (which now resides underwater; entire homes and businesses alike). it's just sad, really. for the last four or five days, we have been glued to our TV screen about 12 hours every day with continuous flood coverage on three channels. that's a lot of news. i have to say that between the three channels, national nine news has probably had the best coverage; starting for the most part at 5am each morning. it's quite surreal sitting here in our dry home, watching families only suburbs away who have lost everything. their possessions. their homes. their family.
we try and be hopeful, but this is made difficult by the concerning number of people still missing, which has been fluctuating between 50 and 70 all week.
although the news is grim each time it starts, it always ends on a somewhat positive note. i enjoy this. the news anchors remind us that, in the end, we are australian. and being australian, especially in queensland, means sticking together until the end. working together. mateship. we're strong, and we are resilliant.

our prayers and thoughts are with you, queensland.

xR