Rain, Part Deux

   Friday, Feb 4th was an unforgettable day for the A-team. The girls woke up early and dressed in their school uniforms for the first day of school. You can see their personalities reflected in their choice of uniforms. Alanna chose the shorts and polo shirt. (Can I tell you how happy Andy is that their school colors are blue and gold? Sigh.) Aliya chose the prison convict gingham dress.

Ready for the first day of school

No hats, no play!

      Despite the light sprinking of rain, the A-team happily (if a bit nervously) walked to school. Because of the rain, we weren't sure if we should go right to the classrooms, so we checked with the office. We were told to go into the courtyard and stand behind the witches hats. ??? Andy figured out they meant safety cones, which makes sense when you think about the shape.

     6.5 hours later, I was waiting in the same courtyard. The day was a definite success for both girls. I so wish I had brought the camera. Aliya came down the steps holding hands with her "Australia best friend." Alanna came running towards me with a new friend in tow as well. After a quick conference with her dad, Annaliese came over for a playdate, and the three girls had a great time. Aliya was disappointed not to get a playdate, but she cheered up when we arranged for her new friend to come over on Monday.

   Annaliese's dad showed up around 5 to pick her up. He brought some Challah bread, which the girls tried and immediately proclaimed "the best bread ever." I looked it up online and saw that it's a traditional food on the Sabbath. Annaliese is Jewish, like most families in our neighborhood. I think I have a lot of learning to do. I had some good friends growing up who were Jewish, but I probably wouldn't have known they were Jewish if they hadn't told me. (I'm clueless that way. Though I vaguely recall joining the yearbook photo for a Jewish group, but I can't verify it since my yearbooks are all in a container awaiting shipment.)  
   Around 6, it began to rain, hard. The girls, not used to seeing much rain in SoCal, decided it would be fun to play in. After a minute or two they were completely soaked, so they headed up to the bath. A few minutes later, Andy yelled that the ceiling was leaking. Thinking that the bathtub had overflowed, I ran upstairs to check on it. Nope, that wasn't the problem. The problem was the heavy rains were overwhelming the roof drains. With no outlets, the rain came down through our recessed lights. The next hour or so was a flurry of activity, involving every single pot, pan, trashcan, and towel that we had in our meagre possession.

It's raining, it's pouring

    As if that weren't enough, the courtyard outside started flooding. Soon the level rose up to that of the doors, and water started seeping in. Andy went outside periodically to clear the drains of leaves and other debris, but it was simply too much rain. 

   Thankfully, nothing of ours was damaged. The floor is a bit warped, and I suspect the ceiling will need some drying out, but it could have been worse. In fact, our landlord, who lives behind us, did have it worse. After hearing some swearing coming from that direction, Andy went over to offer help. Turns out the houses behind us are lower than the street level, which was flooding massively. The driveways for those houses are cut out from the street, with no lip or inclined edge to stop water. So the water was pouring down their driveways, into their garages, and into their houses. Our landlord has carpet in his ground level, and it was completely soaked!

   The next day, we found out the storm was the tail end of Cyclone Yasi, which headed south after devastating Queensland. According to www.theage.com.au, Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs (where we are) were hardest hit. Some areas got 7 inches in a 24 hour period! After seeing photos of the flooding, I realized that once again we got lucky.