Sunday, 2 April, 2017

We only have one more week here in Brisbane.  Dad's first week of the practical course went okay.  It started off well with the airplane being available for Monday and Tuesday, but then it wasn't available on Wednesday or Thursday.  Fortunately, it was available on Friday again.  Dad really enjoys this part of the course and his students are really liking being able to look at the airplane and talk about things they have discussed in the classroom.  Dad has also made up a number of troubleshooting activities for the guys to do and that's really helpful and useful to them as it's really applicable to their work.  

I continued on with the gym this week and by Tuesday, I had reached my second weight goal.  I decided to treat myself to a manicure, so off I went to the mall after my yoga class.  I went back to the same nail place I had been to before and had another lovely pampered session.  The photos don't really show the colour I chose - but, since the nail polish on my nails comes off after about three days, I chose a silver sparkle polish which doesn't show as much when it chips off.

My silver sparkly nail polish - how long before I start biting my fingernails, though :-0

Thursday was a very exciting day here in Brisbane - on Wednesday, Cyclone Debbie hit land way up north in Queensland and created a ton of devastation.  On Thursday, however, the effects of the cyclone were felt all the way down the coast of Queensland and into New South Wales.  The rain was so heavy all day and the wind was whipping around like crazy.  So much so, that the government closed a number of schools in Queensland as they were really concerned about flooding and suggested that businesses close at noon and allow their employees to get home safely.  I had been following the news all morning and was messaging with Dad to let him know what they were saying.  Shortly after 10:30am, Dad told me that he had sent the guys home and that he would be home in half an hour.  I was glad that he did that as we had no idea how bad things would get.  Fortunately for us, although it rained a ton that day, it never amounted to anything in Windsor (where the house is located). 

Today, Dad and I drove to a city called Ipswich (about 40 minutes from where we are staying) to visit with our friends, Trudy and Peter (I am annoyed with myself that I didn't get a photo of them while we were there - grrr). They used to live in Hervey Bay, but when Trudy retired from teaching at the university in HB, they decided to move close to one of their children (about ten minutes away) and closer to the Brisbane Temple.  They have a lovely home, although, as it turned out, their daughter has since moved away from there (lesson: don't move close to your children cuz they will move away :-)  Trudy made us a delicious lunch and we visited with them for about four hours.  It was really nice to catch up with them and to see how they have been making out since they left HB.