In connection with Madelyne’s school, we are hosting an exchange student from the Tokyo area for the next two weeks.  Her name is Kaho (formally, Hirano Kaho) and she’ll be attending school at Stella Maris with several other exchange students that arrived at the same time.  Looks like we’ll be playing tour guide this weekend since she doesn’t really have a lot of time to spend in Australia.  She’s already seen the standard sights like the Opera House and Bridge; now where to take her next?  Well, as you can see below we started with frozen yogurt on the Manly Corso.  Maybe I’ll try to make some sushi this weekend….

She speaks some English, but it’s a little challenging at times to communicate.  Thankfully there are translator programs on our mobile phones (Google has a great one) that help us exchange questions or comments between each other.  It will be a challenging 2 weeks, but she seems very sweet and our pets are enamored with her!  The dog won’t leave her alone!

Next year, it’ll be Madelyne’s turn to travel to Japan to do this same thing in that country!

Yep, once again as winter time approaches for us down under, Sydney comes alive at night for a brief period.  Beautiful lighted sculptures, and wonderful patterns of light are projected on buildings in parts of the business district downtown.  I have posted a few here from last night, but my video will require a tripod so perhaps I’ll get more done later.  It’s certainly a great way to deal with the early darkness down here!

A few minutes before 5:00 PM on a Sunday.  Finishing up a peaceful ride along Manly Beach and around town. Our place is just to the right in this picture.  Although we had super sunrises when we lived along the beach, every now and then we get pretty nice sunsets in the current location!

If you read the comments to Warren’s amazing post of the Sydney Storm of the Decade also known as Stormageddon, you will know there is concern for our safety in these times of emergencies. In response to this, I would like to share the amazing work of the Australian government in such situations.

Unlike the United States, Australia has a system for dangerous weather and other emergencies. Every state has a State Emergency Service (SES) made up mainly of volunteers numbering in the ten thousands. When there is an emergency, ONE of the many services offered by the local SES is emergency alerts. The SES issues warnings to landline and mobile telephones linked to the addresses (properties and houses) within a geographical area affected by an emergency. Warnings are also sent to mobile telephones based on the last known location of the handset at the time of an emergency. All three of our mobile phones received the following text:

Tuesday 8:38pm: SES FLOOD EVACUATION WARNING. Residents adjacent to Manly Lagoon. Evacuation may be possible. Prepare now. Listen to the radio. www.ses.nsw.gov.au Tel 132500

The SES then went door to door of every home in the evacuation area and spoke to the occupants. We were one of those homes. The SES recorded our current details, they wanted an address and phone number of where we would go if the evacuation became mandatory (also leaving current information on the closest evacuation centre) and asked for our permission to give out details should someone call them looking for us…i.e. like YOU, Papa! (New South Wales State Emergency Service may be reached from outside the country at +61 2 6261 3305)

When the evacuation alert was lifted, all three of our phones received the following text:

NSW SES All clear for residents adjacent to Manly Lagoon. No further flood threat. www.ses.nsw.gov.au Tel 132500

So as you can see, Australia has an amazing emergency system in place. Granted if the emergency were a tsunami, the previous process would probably happen simultaneously and with more SES personnel going door to door. Mads is never far from her mobile therefore she would receive the immediate text of an impending tsunami. If she were at school, the school is equipped to handle any and all emergencies and has processes and procedures in place for such emergencies. In my case (and if Mads were with me) I would follow the directions given by the SES in the emergency text. Less than one block from our home is a hill with an elevation level of 40+ metres. I’m not saying that elevation solves the problem but it is a place to start. Warren will receive the same text plus he would probably be the safest as he works on high floors in the CBD’s tallest buildings. As far as getting home, the Sydney Harbour is not the ONLY way to get to the Northern Beaches. There are ways to go inland to the west, then go north and come back east to the Northern Beaches.

It is all doable and in the end, it WILL all work out.

9:30pm,   Here in the Sydney area, we’ve been battered by torrential rain and wind that is described as “winds as powerful as a Category 2 cyclone” for two days now.  I stayed home today because it was just about impossible to get anywhere due to the weather.  The water in the lagoon has come even with the sea wall, and if it goes any higher it’ll be spilling across the lawn, heading for the house.  I estimate there’s another foot of height it’d have to rise before it threatened to come into the back porch.   But the authorities are concerned about what might happen in the next 90 minutes or so.  High tide is at 10:30 pm tonight, so the lagoon off our back yard won’t be able to drain into the ocean.  Manly Dam is completely full.  So if it rains hard like it is supposed to, State Emergency Services (SES) expects to call for people to evacuate!  Two policemen have already come to our door to get our personal details as part of a door-to-door advisory to all residents living next to the lagoon.  Wow, a bit of drama for us this week!  Susan and I pickled up things off the back porch floor, just in case something caused a bit of water to surge into the porch.  It’s another 4″ step up from the porch into the house, and an additional 4″ to the living room.  So I’m not expecting water to get so high it invades our living space.  We’ll know how bad it’ll be in about an hour or so from now.  Meanwhile, look at what we’ve seen so far today!

April 21, 2015:

The deadly storm lashing much of coastal NSW is set to hit peak ferocity in the next few hours with flood warnings in place for Newcastle and Sydney.  The storm will peak at about midnight, after which the weather will begin to calm down.

Newcastle residents are on flood watch after a warning issued by the State Emergency Service (SES), while there is also an overflow threat at Manly Dam on Sydney’s northern beaches after more than a day of heavy rain.

Hundreds of homes in the city’s north could be at risk if the dam overflows during high tide at 10.27pm and emergency services have spent much of the night door-knocking homes that are considered a flood threat.

The SES has advised nearby residents to life furniture and any valuables off the ground and be prepared for possible flood damage. Residents are also urged not to try and ford flood waters either in vehicles or by foot.

 April 21, 2015: Three people have died as a massive storm moves across NSW, wreaking havoc.

Traffic on Sydney’s roads has been slowed to a crawl by the storm. (9NEWS)

Authorities have issued warnings for the following areas on the northern beaches: Riverview Pde, Palm Ave, Lakeside Circuit and some parts of Pittwater Rd at North Manly, Aitken Ave at Queenscliff [THIS IS WHERE THE SMITH FAMILY IS LIVING RIGHT NOW!], Campbell Pde at Manly Vale, and Eurobin Ave, Iluka Ave, Bonner Ave, Cameron Ave, Golf Pde and parts of Pittwater Rd.

The storm has also hindered Sydney commuters desperately trying to get home, with closed and flooded roads slowing cars to a crawl throughout the city.  Delays of up to half an hour are in play in the CBD, while more than 100 traffic lights are out across Sydney.

The floods have already claimed three lives, while a 62-year-old woman has just been pulled from floodwaters at Beresfield near Newcastle.

A man and his dog with a beached boat in Terrigal. (Tom Caska)

 April 21, 2015: Residents in Merewether Heights have caught the moment a massive gum tree was brought down in high winds.

 

A brick wall was blown over onto some empty cars in Sydney. (9NEWS)

Downed trees in Castle Hill. (Jerome Wicks)

Flash flooding at Parramatta. (9NEWS)

Passengers are advised to avoid travel as there is no forecast for when services will resume, a spokesman from the Transport Management Centre said.

People have been urged to stay off the road unless absolutely necessary in all affected areas, with flash floods and high winds making travel particularly dangerous.

“Due to forecast heavy rain, residents in Newcastle and surrounding urban areas may experience flash flooding and a rapid rise and high flow velocities in local watercourses.

A tree has been uprooted on Laman Street at Cooks Hill.

Dramatic footage has also been captured of the moment a massive gum tree was brought down by high winds in Merewether Heights.

The video shows people screaming warnings as the huge tree slowly topples down.

A tree is down at Avalon.

Authorities have also warned the 200,000 homes and businesses without power might not be reconnected to the grid until tomorrow.

About 100,000 of those blackouts are in the Newcastle and Hunter regions, with a further 70,000 in the Central Coast and 30,000 in Sydney.

A car has been crushed by a falling tree at Redfern. (Supplied: Hayden Cook)

 NSW Premier Mike Baird earlier urged bosses to let employees leave work early, to allow them to get home while it is still daylight during a “once in a decade” weather event.

Mr Baird is asking people to be patient as emergency crews deal with life-threatening situations during the storms that are battering the state. Three people have been confirmed dead in Dungog, north-west of Newcastle.

“The weather is forecast to worsen tonight so the SES is encouraging people to head home early while it’s still daylight. Stay safe everyone,” Mr Baird tweeted.

Birthday #15!  Well documented over on FaceBook, but also deserves to be noted here in our Aussie blog.  A great time for 7 teenage girls; wife and I retreated to our bedroom with the dog to avoid the chaos!  Difficult to believe my little girl has grown up so fast!  Or did time speed up for me?  Today is birthday gift night:  Le Miserables in Sydney, about a block from where I have worked for over 2 years now for my client.  It’ll feel a bit like going to work, but a whole lot more fun, I predict!

Alex, Joumana, Izzy, Gemma, Maya, Amy, and Madelyne get things started with the birthday sleepover event!

From 6 March 2015.  As the ferry approaches Circular Quay to take me home on a Friday afternoon, I snapped this one.  But the area is fenced off so I had to put my phone on top of the fence and there was no way to get closer to exclude that darn white pole.  Still, it captures the mood of this fall afternoon in Sydney.

Click on the photo to enlarge….

29-Mar-2015:  I did it again!  Decided at the last minute to again ride this charity ride for 56 Kms. Now, last year I rode my alloy cross-trail cycle and took 3 hrs, 23 minutes. Last Sunday I used my carbon road bike but only improved the time by 23 minutes.  I was surprised I didn’t demolish my previous time by much more. Maybe not quite as fit?  Well after all it’s a charity ride, not a race!  After taking the next day off, it was back on the road for me this morning!  This autumn weather in late March is wonderful to cycle in!

On 22-March, this bird of paradise was front and center as we looked out from the back porch!  Who woulda thought we’d live in a place where these greet you in the morning? 

Ready to board a flight from Knoxville to Dallas.  Getting out of town early and leaving the hard work of clearing out the storage locker to her parents, followed by a U-Haul truck pack and long drive to Fort Worth.  The ramp personnel had difficulty with the tug and push bar, creating delays and a bit of anxiety for this passenger!  But otherwise all went smoothly.