Sweet relief

Australia has had quite an extraordinary few months in terms of weather. Our own storms and flooding before Christmas, the major flooding in south-east Queensland and now Cyclone Yasi. Knowing that Yasi was to be much worse than Cyclone Tracy, which devastated Darwin in 1974, we were very worried to hear that it was heading for far north Queensland and Cairns, where my Dad and brother Michael live. They had a scary night. At times it would go quiet and then it would sound like a train was coming. It is a great answer to prayer that the expected level of damage did not eventuate and people were kept safe. Dad's house was undamaged, though his garden is full of debris, including someone's old lino! I'm so glad they're OK and a little ashamed that it took a cyclone for me to ring my Dad for a chat....

I used to do Jossie's hair like this when she was Bethany's age. Bethany does like to be like her big sister.

Wagga City Council is currently working on new branding for the city. I have seen some of it and it looks great. The new Cultural Guide, to which my team contributes seven pages each quarter, is going to look fabulous. A couple of people from the media department asked me to be in a photo shoot for the new branding and we headed out to the new School of Dentistry at Charles Sturt University (CSU).

I have mentioned before how ugly the uni is, all 70s brown, brick boxes, so this new building is quite a departure!

This is where the students practice. They start with dummy heads and teeth before being let loose in real people's mouths. You might need to click on the photo to see the dummy heads.

It really is an impressive building. It almost made me want to become a dentist.... Not really.

It wouldn't be at all right to complain about the weather here in light of major troubles elsewhere, so consider this casual information rather than complaint. It is still very hot here.