Hi All
A big thanks to all the Green Apple Team for doing such a great job while we were away. Since Brian and I had only planned to be away for one week on the cruise (my present to him on his 69th birthday) the extended time away was a bonus for us and probably more work for the Team.
Cyclone Oma was the culprit! By the time we arrived in Cairns, we had reports of huge swells hitting the beaches close to Brisbane so we weren’t surprised when the captain announced that we would not be going to Port Douglas or Willis Island but would be floating around at sea until the Port of Brisbane opened. So we cruised around Saturday, Sunday, Monday and finally berthed late Tuesday, instead of early Sunday morning.
The Sea Princess was due out again on Sunday afternoon, bound for New Zealand and we knew that there were Green Apple members joining the boat in Brisbane on that Sunday. We know they wouldn’t have boarded till Wednesday early and we wonder what ports they will need to bypass to stay on schedule now. That’s the weather for you. An uncontrollable force. As long as you roll with the punches and don’t get your knickers in a knot with things you can’t control, you can enjoy just being on a ship.
Brian says, “anyone who wants to put on weight needs to just go on a cruise. The food on the Sea Princess was just to die for!!”
We were barely on the ship for an hour when we had a phone call from a neighbour on Lamb Island who said, “Victoria, do you have a broken window in your house”. When I said “not to my knowledge”, Janelle went to investigate further and phoned again to tell us that our glass doors and windows were all smashed up, that the house was trashed and vandalised, the fire extinguisher had been emptied over everything.
We were floating away down the Brisbane river helpless to do anything about what needs to follow in a situation like this. Anyone whom has experienced it knows that you have to involve police, your insurance, assessors, etc and when your house is on an island, it creates a significant barrier to easy access. Thank goodness Petrina was able to step in to the breach and handled things admirably. Also neighbours at Lamb helped facilitate things also so we were able to worry less than we would otherwise have done.
Great to be back! Cheers,
