h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Spoke too soon.

Must've been the 'lingering eyes'...

Hope everything's okay on your end

As annoying as it is, life just has a habit of changing on me. Time for another update, I guess.

Lost my job at the pet store - nothing I wasn't expecting, they'd cut my hours down to just seven a week and left me hanging for two months before finally firing me. I'll end up getting more on the dole (unemployment) but if I'd quit I wouldn't get anything. Gotta love how the world works.

Anyway, I got a new job pretty much straight away - pet-sitting - which should make me more money for far far less work. And in the meantime, I've applied to study education next year, so this time in 18 months I'll be teaching high school brats history.

Who knows where I'll be in a few years, but I'm sure I'll have net access. If only we were online at the same time.

Glad to hear you got a new job And really about the new study. Here's hoping it'll all turn out shiny!

As to being online at the same time - that's the globe's fault...

Take care, sweetie!

Happy Ney Year to you, too!

Hi sweetie - hope you and yours are okay. The news here is that Brisbane is being evacuated because of floods...

Don't know if you can even get online; hope to hear from you soon. Take care.

Hey Otus

Don't worry about me, it's scary all right, but I should be fine. I live in a pretty high area of Brisbane, so the water coming down off the dam and through Toowoomba isn't going to get to my place. I am in a fairly flat area between two creeks, so I am a bit worried about them backing up, but most of the worry is for other people. People are panicking, the shops are literally being picked bare, like in a movie. I'm not even trying to get food, I should be able to make do with what I've got (plenty of pepsi max, wine, and chocolate).

I don't know how much you know, so I'll give you the highlights.

It's been raining constantly for months, the place is completely waterlogged. Every time it rains there's a mini flood because there is no place for the water to go. There was a flash flood in a town 100km away called Toowoomba. The water was apparently 8 metres high, it literally carried houses away, not to mention cars etc. The water has been heading through the valley, through small towns, towards Brisbane. We knew it was coming but we didn't know how bad it was going to get. In the same direction but slightly to the north is Wivenhoe dam, which is nearly completely full, and they've had to release thousands of megalitres into the Brisbane River. It still hasn't stopped raining, we're getting 100mL an hour in some places. To top it all off, the Brisbane river is nearly at high tide, and there'll be a king tide tomorrow to Friday.

So add all that water together, and Brisbane is going to be under at least 4 metres of water (that's 4 metres in the actual streets). Any place that's near the river is being evacuated, and some places that are near other rivers are already flooded. The water has already breached the river bank in a few areas, but the real drama is going to start tomorrow and go to the weekend. In a few days I wouldn't be surprised if the entire city is under two stories worth of water.

I'm expecting to lose power at some stage, but I'll keep you updated when I can.

Hi Kyra

Glad to hear you're okay, relatively high-up, and that you apparently still have power. (I see eyes... )

I had a decent general idea of what was happening, I think - though not in such detail, thanks for that. The news here showed some videos of Toowoomba - poor folks...

Nothing to do but to wait and sit it out, I suppose - and then you'll have a great story to bore your grandchildren with in, oh, about 50 years?

Be careful, will you? Hope the rain and floods will be over soon.

PS - oh, and maybe post something in the cast thread? I told them about Brisbane before I heard from you; I'm sure they'd like to hear from you how things are.

Hi, yep, still got power. Just got home from stocking up on supplies, and I went into the city to check on a client's house, and I nearly got cut off, had to take a few detours, I kept going down streets to find them underwater. It was genuinely scary, I was relieved to finally get to higher ground.

The worst thing is the waiting, I don't know about anyone else, but I feel like we're waiting for something big and sudden to happen, when really it's slow and insiduous. We won't see the worst for another day or two, then it'll be months of cleaning up.

I'll have to bore other people's grandchildren, I'm not having kids

Don't worry about me, I'll be fine

As long as there'll be grandchildren around to bore...

Images on TV here are quite impressive - but of course they only show the bad bits - still dry neighbourhoods would be boring...

Glad you got out of that situation okay, with some supplies to boot...

I'm sure you'll be fine - but I'll still say 'take care!'

You never know, 2012 is coming up

The images are impressive, I know. I could post dozens, but you've probably seen the best, and the journal entry is more about why I'm so proud to be an Australian and a Queenslander, and that's usually little things like reporters comforting the people they're interviewing, a kid saying she either has to laugh or cry, everyone commenting on the availability of beer, things that wouldn't be advertised across the world. Australians have reacted to this situation so well, better than I've ever seen anywhere in the world.

Anyway, hoping off my patriotic high horse now

*hopping*, jeez. And I call myself edumacated

Hey, you've been through quite an ordeal, I'm sure...

Bit of an update, lifewise ...

A few months ago when I got this petsitting gig I went to a presentation on owning a franchise, even though there was no way I could afford it. Turns out I made a bit of an impression, because they offered me a deal, if I was interested, I could pay off the licence fee (40 odd grand) over five years, as long as I could buy the trailer myself. That's an extra 10 grand, and seeing as I've been living on about a hundred bucks a week, I figured no way, jose. But I found an equipment hiring place that is willing to pay for the trailer and the equipment I'll need, if I can raise about a grand for the deposit, which I've been saving for.

It's been a long, drawn out process, but I finally got pre-approval today, and should get proper approval tomorrow. They'll hopefully start building the trailer in a few weeks, and if all goes well, I'll be in business by March or April. With all the repayments, insurance, taxes etc I probably won't be able to afford to eat anything other than two minute noodles for a while, but in five or ten years I'm hoping to be relatively successful.

The business is basically mobile hydrobathing and grooming, with petsitting mainly over the holidays. Once I get past all the debts I should make a pretty decent living. I've tried to not get too excited, cause it could all fall through at any time, or fail completely, and I'm aware of what I'm like, and what my father was like when it came to pie in the sky, get rich quick schemes. I don't want to be like that, jumping on every opportunity like it's going to make me an instant millionaire, but I've been thinking hard about this for months, and I really think it could work.

Anyway, now that it's almost certain, I wanted to let you know.

Oooh, that's wonderful news - hope it all goes as planned, or better!

Just make sure you locate it on higher ground, right?

(Bit short in reply because it's late, erm, early over here... )

Thanks I won't know for sure if it's going to work for another six months or so, but what are a few more ulcers?

it's your stomach, so I wouldn't know...

I'm starting my training tomorrow, but I won't get any money for at least a month or two, meanwhile I'm having to pay deposits, so I haven't even paid my rent, and I need to put petrol in my car so I can actually do the training. I'm looking forward to having money again.