bloglovin email twitter instagram youtube
  • Home
  • Travel
  • Disney
  • About
  • Disclaimer
  • YouTube
Blog by Ali. Powered by Blogger.

Ali


Another year, another birthday. Let's answer some questions.


1. What is the date and time?
Thursday 21 February 2019, 11:43pm - yes my birthday is nearly over!

2. What is the weather like?
Lovely! Currently in Melbourne and it's a refreshing 17 degrees celsius outside.

3. What's the last movie you saw?
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - currently watching it so it counts.

4. What was the last song you listened to?
I Want To Break Free - Queen, thank the movie Bohemian Rhapsody for that.

5. What do you do for living?
I still work in Digital Marketing, websites, social media and stuff.

6. Do you want children?
Yes, still want children, still need a man.

7. What do you see yourself doing in the next year?
Working, travelling. Maybe finally meet the man of my dreams? Wishful thinking.

8. How do you feel at this moment?
Amazing, excited and tired. I just got back from seeing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Part One for a second time and it still blew my mind.

9. How often do you laugh?
Still everyday, normally at myself.

10. Do you have siblings? How many?
I need to get rid of this questions because it can never change.

I technically have 2 brothers and 2 sisters. I say technically because my oldest sister is my half sister and I don't see her much. My 2 brothers are only half brothers but I don't think of them like that, they are just my brothers who I see all the time and love dearly. And then there is my little sister, she is the only sibling where we have the same mum and dad.

11. When was the last time you cried?
I teared up during the play, it's Harry Potter I couldn't help it.

12. What do you do in your spare time?
Watch YouTube, read, sleep.

13. Picture yourself in 5 years from now.
Once again hopefully married, or close to being married...maybe.

14. What's the first thing you do in the morning?
Normally curse at my alarm for going off.

15. What are you thinking just before you go to bed?
What do I have to do tomorrow, and then I continue to make a list in my head and then I over think a million things and this is why I don't sleep properly.

16. How do you travel to work?
Car pool with my Dad. Save on petrol and parking.

17. Name the thing that annoys you the most.
Right now? People who always one up you or claim to know better, try and change your opinion - that annoys me.

18. Do you regret anything?
I try not too, but don't we all regret something?

19. What is your favourite meal?
Anything asian, particularly Chinese food.

20. What is your favourite movie?
Even though I love Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings and so many more films - I freaking love Twister!! I will never get sick of that film.

21. Do you drink alcohol?
Nope, tastes like crap.

22. What are you proud of?
Right now, nothing.

23. If there is one thing in your life you'd want to change right now, what is it?
My weight. I try and I try and I try (stole that from Queen), but I love yummy food too much and I'd rather starve than eat healthy all the time.

24. What are your thoughts about turning 27 today?
I'm old and alone. I seriously thought I would have achieved more by now.

25. Sum up your life in one sentence.
I still stick by Eat.Sleep.Travel.Repeat.

Travel is all I have to live for.

26. What's the best thing that could happen to you right now?

If I could drop a heap of weight that would be amazing.

27. What celebrity do you currently have a crush on? (I decided to make this year's extra question interesting)
Currently I'm a tad obsessed with Tom Holland. Even though he is younger than me, he is just so damn cute.

Love, Ali
11:09 PM No comments

I live in Townsville; North Queensland, Australia. You may or may not know but this regional town of roughly 180,000 people was hit with the worst flooding this city has ever seen. To put it in perspective, Townsville was hit with the same amount of rain that Melbourne receives in three years - in 10 days! 

I was extremely fortunate; where I live is on higher ground. And although the river I live close to did break its banks and make it's way onto our streets, it never went further than people's driveways. 

So let's start from the beginning. 

Townsville finally got rain on Australia Day, 26 January. I remember being at my friends house dancing in the street loving the rain - little did I know a week later I wish it would be over. Townsville has been in a drought for the past few years. Our dam, which is our main water supply, got down to 16% but with a nice decent rain last year in 2018 it got up to 90% and slowly was falling again.

So of course when it started raining Townsville rejoiced, finally our normal rain season was back and maybe this was a sign our water problems would be over for now. On Wednesday 30 January I got the message that the Townsville Local Disaster Management Group (TLDMG) had moved to Stand Up - this is serious business. By this time some suburbs had already experienced major flash flooding - people had shipping containers, cars and houses floating past them. We thought this would be the worst of it.

On the Thursday I got called in to work at the Disaster Centre, and from that point on I pretty much lived there for next 11 days. I worked with a small team, but majority of us worked 14 hour days to send critical information to the community.

It kept raining, and the dam kept filling. On the Friday I told a colleague I'll pick her up to take her to work at the Disaster Centre. I was slightly terrified when I left my house and couldn't even see a few metres in front of my car due to the severe amount of rain falling. I turned into my friends area and immediately wish I hadn't - water all over the road. Not a small amount either. I could feel my car wanting to resist, water was spraying up past my car and it was a really bad decision on my part. I remember stopping in the middle of her street, as it had the least amount of water being the highest point, and calling her to run into the street and get in my car. The water was deep, and I had to watch her step through the flooding outside her house which was insane. It's okay though, we both made it to work safely.

By Saturday the rain still hadn't stopped. The dam was still filling and by this point I think it was at 200% (don't quote me on that, I could be wrong, and can't be bothered to get technical right now) but pretty much the dam was well and truly over capacity. The dam gates were already open, they actually opened when the dam hit 100% on January 30. 

Sunday was the worst day. I remember sitting there working and watching the TLDMG as they finished a meeting. Everyone suddenly looked more serious, some looked scared. In the hours that followed we were told the dam just had 300mm rain fall over it, and the dam gates would have to be opened fully - this meant flooding a heap of suburbs. I remember waiting for the maps of the impacted suburbs to come out and I prayed I didn't see my street on the list, thankfully it wasn't. But I saw friends houses on it, people who were at the centre had their houses on the map and at about 6.30pm/7pm we were told to leave the centre now or you might be stuck here for night, possibly the whole next day. So I up and left. I worked from home and looked at social media in shock of what I was seeing. So many people didn't evacuate their houses and now needed saving - stranded with water levels rising. I didn't sleep much that night.

I made it back to the centre the following morning, at about 6.30am. Thankfully the flooding didn't impact the roads I needed to take. When I arrived it was crazy. People had slept there, beds were on the ground, some people still asleep under desks and it was still raining. I just went back to work, put my head down and helped where I could.

The week that followed was a blur, we were all on auto pilot, just getting done what needed to get done. I figured out on top of my normal work hours, which is 37 hours a week, I did an extra 66 hours in overtime in 10 days. No wonder why when I finally did get home and was given a day off I was so exhausted and just wanted to sleep, which I did sleep -  a lot.

The team I worked with were absolutely amazing. We all got to know each other on a whole new level. We cried together, laughed together and went to hell and back together. We also tried our damn hardest to keep the community informed and I think we did a pretty good job.

I'm devastated for the people who lost their house, their personal belongings and some their cars. I can't even comprehend what that would be like. Businesses are closed, some to never re-open. Schools were closed for the longest time, with one not opening until around May it received that much damage. 

It's so surreal because for me I've only seen photos and videos on tv or social media. I don't live in the affected areas and I haven't driven through them as they are swarmed with services helping to clean up. 

One thing that has been amazing to see is the community working together. I was still working at the Disaster Centre but on the Monday (or Tuesday) after the dam gates were fully opened there was a full boat operation in some of the suburbs. Anyone with a boat turned up to a make shift boat ramp, normally a main road but it was so under water it looked like an ocean, and people started rescuing others still in their homes, collecting people's belongings and saving pets. 

Once the clean up begun people just turned up in the suburbs ready to clean, strangers helping strangers. People walked around handing out bottles of water for free, restaurants were cooking up food and giving it to everyone working - it was such a nice thing to see everyone helping each other.

Now you might be wondering why I'm writing this all in this blog. Truth be told I want to remember what happened and there is no better place than here. Some people won't read all this but at least in years to come I can look back at what happened.

So I'm going to stop typing for now. Below I've found a bunch of videos and photos online (credit given below) of the rain event, so you can get an idea of what it was actually like.


Credit: Triple M YouTube

Credit: Josh Bavas

Credit: Glenn Minty Mintern

Credit: ABC News (Australia)

Credit: outdoorhobbits shared with #ABCmyphoto

Credit: stumblearound.photography Instagram


Credit: Guardian News

Credit: Michelle Haydon Facebook

Credit: Glenn Minty Mintern

Credit: Mike Harting

Credit: Callan Lund

Credit: Glenn Minty Mintern

Love, Ali
5:00 PM No comments
Newer Posts
Older Posts

Welcome


I'm Ali - twenty seven years young from Australia. This blog is a place where I want to share all my thoughts & the things I love with you!

Follow Me

Labels

Beauty Books Cruising Disney Fashion Fitness Food Haul Life Monthly Favourites Review Thoughts Travel Weightloss

recent posts

Blog Archive

  • ▼  2019 (10)
    • ►  August (1)
    • ►  April (1)
    • ►  March (3)
    • ▼  February (2)
      • An Interview With Myself: 27 Questions On My 27th ...
      • A Tough Few Weeks
    • ►  January (3)
  • ►  2018 (36)
    • ►  October (3)
    • ►  September (6)
    • ►  August (2)
    • ►  July (1)
    • ►  June (4)
    • ►  May (5)
    • ►  April (4)
    • ►  March (5)
    • ►  February (4)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2017 (21)
    • ►  November (1)
    • ►  October (2)
    • ►  July (2)
    • ►  June (2)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  April (3)
    • ►  March (2)
    • ►  February (4)
    • ►  January (3)
  • ►  2016 (3)
    • ►  December (3)
FOLLOW ME @mcali187

Created with by ThemeXpose