The twelth anniversary of my retirement

 It's taken seventeen months, but finally, our local area is starting to see the effects of the virus. We have to wear masks and use a checkin app showing we are vaccinated. Locally, there are 13 people in hospital with two unfortunate persons in ICU. Of course, there are now hundreds infected with Omicron. Until the border with New South Wales opened a few weeks ago, there had been no cases locally since we arrived. Marianne and I will get our booster shots in a week's time, halfway between my infusions. I need a haircut but will now wait for a few weeks. 

Speaking of infusions, the poor nurses are getting used to my cheeky ways and are now dropping the blunt needle onto the floor before stabbing me. My CK levels remain moderately high, but low enough that I can do most things. I think I have plateaued.

Marianne and I are now going to the pool on hot afternoons for a refreshing dip. I take the opportunity to do some aquatherapy exercises including 1000 jogging on the spot steps while I do breaststroke swimming movements with my arms. I continue walking on the beach and jetty.

We have really enjoyed the past year despite not being able to travel as much as we would like. We have made some friends in the local community and we have discovered a really good restaurant as well as a good coffee shop. The availability of fresh food here is amazing it's wonderful to be able to cook a bunch of new delicious recipes.

Who knows what will happen in the coming year, but we are hoping to drive to Adelaide via an inland route and return via the coast. If New Zealand opens up again, we might fly to Auckland and take trains and a ferry to Christchurch before flying home. Who knows.

So the big news has been the flooding in our area caused by the remnants of a cyclone that passed over us and then stalled, dumping huge amounts of rain. If you remember the blog about the bridge with a road and railway tracks, a nearby location nearby received 26 inches of rain in 12 hours. All that water had to go into the local Mary River and it flooded. The river rose 18 meters (over 50 feet) to just below the level of the deck of the bridge and is now falling.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology does a wonderful job of letting people know what is going on. There is data galore as well as webcams in locations prone to flooding.

Here is a photo from the bridge when we visited in November.

We received only an inch of rain where we live.

As you might imagine, a huge amount of debris has floated down the river and since we are only a few miles from the mouth of the river, debris has been washing up on our beach.

We wondered how and when it would eventually disappear.

However, in the afternoon two small council bulldozers appeared and cleaned up the beach and formed a large pile. 

Fortunately, the drivers had enough care for the environment to not climb up onto the rocky area near the Aquarium at the end of the beach.

However, this morning, there was even more debris than the day before. It's going to be a losing cause for a few days until the river level drops.

The bulldozers have just reappeared again.

A year ago, we received visits from some magpies. This year, we are graced by crows who enjoy singing to us. They make an aaark noise here. They sometimes land on our outdoor table while we are sitting there.