Sunny Darwin, rainy Gloucester
My parents have no power or drinking water and my friends are stranded in their homes in Gloucester... meanwhile I bask in 32C heat in Darwin. It's summer in England - winter in Oz...
Hmm going home suddenly seems so tempting. Of course, I'm missing out on the journalistic fun of it all and the cameraderie and solidarity of the Blitz spirit the brits usually display.
Normally, the people of Gloucester would be punching each other outside Liquid, moaning about everything and pushing their babies to their mums house on the way to school...
Instead, they are cheering the arrival of the army, getting their local rag delivered by canoe (seriously) and not taking showers.
Some of the pictures of the floods are crazy but if you will build half a city the flood plain of the River Severn... and as my dad put into perspective - 200 people were killed in floods recently in China but people getting their Barretts platforms a little wet in Gloucester are going mad.
Here in Darwin life is all about making enough cash to avoid having to return to Gloucester until December. So I'm working a cafe job, a nightclub job and doing casual events waitressing seven days a week.
Hours off (those rare ones) involve resting, sleeping, the odd moment of sunbathing or drinking.
English Jen's birthday was celebrated by us dressing as pirates and hitting the 'city'. Darwin is a large country town with two decent clubs and isn't a dissimilar size to the 'city' of Gloucester...
And like my hometown, you don't want to swim in the water here. Crocs to worry about in one city and skin-scalding pollution in the other.
The centre consists of a couple of supermarkets, about two fashion shops, a few pharmacys and eateries and souvenir shops.
But it has a lovely laid-back atmosphere, nice architecture and friendly people. There are swimming pools everywhere due to the intense heat, a deckchair cinema, wonderful markets twice a week by the beach. Last week, we went to watch the sunset on Mindil beach and wandered the markets where you can buy every kind of food under the sun and all kinds of trinkets.
So I may not be a hotshot journo covering the water crisis in Gloucester, but at least I'm warm. And dry.
Hmm going home suddenly seems so tempting. Of course, I'm missing out on the journalistic fun of it all and the cameraderie and solidarity of the Blitz spirit the brits usually display.
Normally, the people of Gloucester would be punching each other outside Liquid, moaning about everything and pushing their babies to their mums house on the way to school...
Instead, they are cheering the arrival of the army, getting their local rag delivered by canoe (seriously) and not taking showers.
Some of the pictures of the floods are crazy but if you will build half a city the flood plain of the River Severn... and as my dad put into perspective - 200 people were killed in floods recently in China but people getting their Barretts platforms a little wet in Gloucester are going mad.
Here in Darwin life is all about making enough cash to avoid having to return to Gloucester until December. So I'm working a cafe job, a nightclub job and doing casual events waitressing seven days a week.
Hours off (those rare ones) involve resting, sleeping, the odd moment of sunbathing or drinking.
English Jen's birthday was celebrated by us dressing as pirates and hitting the 'city'. Darwin is a large country town with two decent clubs and isn't a dissimilar size to the 'city' of Gloucester...
And like my hometown, you don't want to swim in the water here. Crocs to worry about in one city and skin-scalding pollution in the other.
The centre consists of a couple of supermarkets, about two fashion shops, a few pharmacys and eateries and souvenir shops.
But it has a lovely laid-back atmosphere, nice architecture and friendly people. There are swimming pools everywhere due to the intense heat, a deckchair cinema, wonderful markets twice a week by the beach. Last week, we went to watch the sunset on Mindil beach and wandered the markets where you can buy every kind of food under the sun and all kinds of trinkets.
So I may not be a hotshot journo covering the water crisis in Gloucester, but at least I'm warm. And dry.
Labels: darwin, flood, Gloucester
posted by charlie at 6:34 pm
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