We arrived at the train station 25 minutes early. The last few times that I've caught the train, it has arrived at my station up to ten minutes early .. especially when it's the diesel engine. Unfortunately, this was not the case today!
We checked the 1800 information number, to discover that because there had been earth tremors off Fraser Island at approximately 4.30am today, the trains were running late by at least 45 minutes and it was expected delays could reach two hours.
*sigh*
You can imagine how difficult that was for a 4 year old, confined to one small square area of a waiting room! Forty five minutes passed and we continued to wait. Ninety minutes passed and we continued to wait.
We played I spy. We played tag. We played hide n seek (very difficult with nowhere to hide!). We played dinosaurs. We played 'what animal is this?'. We played rhyming words. We snacked. We coloured in and made Christmas cards.
.. and still we waited.
Just short of two hours late, we finally heard the train whistle. Chicklet was right on the verge of losing control, so it was a relief to finally have something positive happen and to know that the journey home was about to begin.
Because of the earth tremors and the risk to track damage, the passengers would be transferred to buses at Gympie. As luck would have it, Vegan Chickie was given the wrong bus number twice!! They almost ended up on a nonstop bus to Roma Street Station! THAT would have been a disaster for sure!
I'm expecting a text very shortly to advise me that they are home safe n sound.
Christmas was great!
Chicklet burst into my bedroom at 7.30am yelling "Happy Christmas!!"
We all had to sit down in the lounge room, while Chicklet selected gifts from under the tree, showing them to Vegan Chickie to find out whose name was on the tag. She handed everybody their gifts before sitting down to open her own.
She didn't seem terribly impressed with her gifts at first, but soon was keen to set up a craft area on the dining table, so that we could spend almost the entire day being creative and artistic and crafty.
After ham and eggs for breakfast, we got cracking on the craft.
She made Christmas decorations to hang on SEB's bird cage ...
She decorated Ruby (middle psychotic dog) ...
Christmas lunch was a noisy affair, with twelve bonbons between four of us ...
Prawns, sand crab, Moreton Bay bugs, turkey and ham along with pasta salad and other salad items, mango, sun dried tomato, roasted capsicum and more. 'Christmas food' as requested by Chicklet. Chocolates shaped like christmas trees, elves, santa etc.
... and very imaginative and creative with her crocodile pretending to be santa ...
I was heavily involved in this particular activity, while Vegan Chickie napped, and I have to say that it was one of the more exhausting activities of the day! I haven't done any running for a good many years ... which is why she caught me and drenched me many times over!!
A bit more craft after the water fight. Extra decorations for the tree ...
... a quick snack for dinner and an early night .. for ALL of us .. which is why there was no blog post last night. Exhaustion overtook the desire to blog :)
The best way to spend Boxing Day is with alcohol, seafood and junk food while plonked on the couch watching the Boxing Day Test.
I know that there are many families down south who have lost all of their possessions in the fires on the coast near the Great Ocean Road, Wye River and Separation Creek and my heart goes out to them all. What a dreadful end to 2015 and a horrible, struggling way to start 2016.
I hope they appreciate that their safety and their lives are more important than the possessions that they lost. I also hope that they recover from the emotional trauma that the power of mother nature has burdened them with. I know from experience, that helpless feeling of losing all power and control.
Life will never be the same for them, but I hope that out of tragedy, something new and positive develops in their lives. Friendships and bonds will form between strangers, with this shared experience, and life will go on. For some, it will be more difficult than for others.
Good luck to you all and out of this disaster, may 2016 bring fresh new beginnings and happiness to you.
Nite all.
PS Vegan Chickie and Chicklet have arrived home safe n sound!
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