Project 365

Our street in Warren Street St Lucia in the Western Suburb of Brisbane is under water, we have been forced to evacuate to designated care centre..thank God we alive.
— Wama

My place is in the yellow zone so water will pass through a corner of my block but I am on the second floor so should be alright. and 1/4 of UQ either is or will be flooded soon. 
— Justin

I live in Indooroopilly, which is like a little hill next to St. Lucia, but I am just a bit surprised even Indooroopilly and some other suburbs on higher ground still get flooded. Like Toowoomba which is on top of the Toowoomba ranges (like on top of a mountain).
Went out for a walk last night, there are not many cars on the road, the news told us to stay at home and avoid unecessary travel.
And at the end of the day, went to woolies*, nearly all the bread and toilet paper were gone, apparently there won’t be any trucks resupplying them for a while… maybe I need to get some bread because most of my food is in the fridge, and if the power cuts off… oops…
I’ve seen some photos from St Lucia, like the whole Sir Fred Drive is under water… And the water is to rise further until it peaks on Thursday. So I am still waiting anxiously for the water to come. Oh, and the whole Brisbane is shut down till Friday.
— Justin

The floods in 1893 (bigger than 1974 flood) didn’t even reach this property apparently, so it should be okay unless it gets worse than them. We have packed stuff just in case. If something bad happens, we can run away anytime :) 
— Mayu

I’m at my parents’ house now in Kenmore, which is an unaffected suburb. I just have my fingers crossed for my apartment in Toowong which is not far from the Regatta hotel opposite the river! And my contents are uninsured 🙁
— Georgina

Alhamdulillah gw ga kena sih. Tapi daerah sekitar gw udah evakuasi. Insya allah ga papa lah ya..
— Kiki

Still waiting for updates from more friends…

The bottom line is: THE WORST IS YET TO HAPPEN! 🙁

(*) Note: "woolies" is short for Woolworths, a supermarket chain in Australia.

It’s been a devastated month for Queensland (actually, MONTHS!). I watched the videos in shock!!! The flood has hit Towoomba, a city very near to Brisbane! The water will reach Brisbane soon :(. I’ve been so worried about my friends over there. I have a good friend of mine whose family is in Rockhampton, one of the hardest hit area in Queensland. I’ve been trying to contact him with no success. I hope he and his family are okay.

I pray that all of my friends in Queensland are going to be alright. Hope the situation is getting better soon. Amin.

A card from a little girl 🙂 It instantly made my day!!!!

Love you too! 🙂

Nice orchestra concert! 🙂 Great to hear Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 5 and Strauss’ Blue Danube!

It seems that these bowling pins are the must-pictured-object in Eindhoven!

Dessy and I went to Amsterdam again today and started with a free tour. We only did the first half of the tour though. It was my  first time to be in the tour and I actually really liked it. I’ve been to the tour in Berlin so I knew what to expect. But I now understand how the prostitution business started and why a number of houses in Amsterdam are leaning forward! 🙂

After the tour, I met up with a CouchSurfer-turned-good-friend, Putri, her sister, and her boyfriend. It was a short meet up (as usual! :(). I tried to convince her again to join me for the Middle Eastern travel at the end of 2011 :P. She’s always interested but she’s not sure yet because of the timing. Anyway, I got to visit her house again and met with parents (finally!).

Afterwards, I met Abde, another CouchSurfer who lives in Paris. When I traveled to Paris alone for the first time, he was the one who was kind enough to show me around the city and help me with the super heavy luggage! He’s in Amsterdam to visit his family so we decided to meet up again. It was great!

We just realized that we never had a picture together!!! hahaha… So here we are…

I was invited for a dinner in Helmond with a couple of friends. It was lovely! We had a nice conversation over dinner. And the foods were just DELICIOUS! It was a full course Dutch dinner, consisting of 6 different courses. I LOVE THEM! 🙂

Jessie, if you read this… I wish you were here with us :'( MISS YOU! xoxo

Two months ago, I wrote about a close friend of mine who was going to get married next year and who "forced" me to be her maid of honor. I didn’t reveal who she was because it wasn’t official yet. But today, I got a message from her saying that she’s officially engaged!!! I was so delighted to hear it! It was a mix of joy and tears! I knew that she and her boyfriend were going to get engaged anyway. But you know, sometimes you just felt so moved that those tears couldn’t be stopped…

The euphoria of visiting Brisbane and seeing her one more time has got me again! Aaaah, I’m so excited! I’m kinda picturing of how the wedding is going to be like. I know that it’s going to be a small and simple one (I like it!!). But will there be any Japanese elements in it? Or perhaps a mixture of Japanese and Aussie culture? I’ve never been to any weddings where the bride and groom came from two very different countries. So I’m thrilled!

Taken from Brené Brown‘s website.

Compared to November snow, last night’s snow was the heaviest. See how my bike was almost completely covered by snow? Compared that to this photo of my bike, taken on November in the same place.