Worlds Apart

As I watch the floods devastate Queensland, I can’t help but feel personally affected yet a world away from it all. Sometimes it feels like I am watching a movie that I have become totally absorbed in. Many of my friends and family have been affected; some are watching the rising waters right now, playing the waiting game to see what will happen to them.


(Photo: Main street of Toowoomba, Queensland)

Looking out the window from my lounge room, the sky is clear blue, the sun is bright in the morning sky. I rarely see clouds in the sky and can count the number of times it has rained since I have been here, on one hand. When it does rain, it lasts for maybe 2 minutes at the most and is more a shower then anything else. Did I mention this is the rainy season at the moment?

Because of the lack of rain, the response by the locals when there is precipitation is quite, well, dramatic and comical.

Firstly, the roads become even more of a death trap. The drivers speed up and become erratic – that is, they increase their already ridiculous speeds and become even more erratic in their driving. I hate it if I know that MP might be on the roads when there is a brief shower. I don’t know what it is about rain that makes people feel the need to drive like a crazy person – and I don’t just mean here in Oman…

The comical part of the reaction is that of a local who is outside (which is usually only when they are moving from their car to the shopping centre). When it rains, there is a mad shuffle (Omani people rarely run) to whatever shelter they can find and remain there until well after it has stopped. Oh, did I mention they all jump on their mobile phones and rapidly discuss this rare phenomenon that has rudely interrupted their day!

I love playing up to it by standing in it, hoping for a drop of rain to land on me, with a ridiculous grin on my face. Hey, what can I say, I’m a Queenslander who loves a bit of rain! The looks of condescension that I receive only add to my enjoyment of the moment.

Maybe I am being too hard on the locals; this is a desert country after all!



(Photo: A view from the car of the drive to Muscat)

I just watched an update on CNN about Brisbane. An expected peak at 4am tomorrow (Thursday) morning, local time.


(Photo: Aerial view of Surat, QLD - taken from my Dad's plane as he does mercy flights around the area)

The amount of water is hard to comprehend from my lounge room with a blue sky view…


(Photo: The view from my lounge room)

Stay safe everyone.