GUMBOOTS galore but we need more for, Queensland, Australia, floods

Ok, so now I am the gumboot queen! May it be inscribed on my tombstone and proud of it... anyway, that is what someone called me down the line from Queensland when she spoke to me from the devastated area of Grantham, and even amidst all the mire and horror that she had witnessed, we both started laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. That's what I enjoy about aid work, and what I suppose I miss now that I usually live a 'civilian' life, instead of one that sees me dropping into war & disaster zones in strange and faraway countries; the black humour that cuts through the bullshit and is the safety outlet for some of the tension and the grief that shadows any aftermath of epic proportions, it's just as vital and as normal as the tears and the depression that will surely arrive too.

Strange that the wee hours of the morning often afford the best time for me to type out a situation report for Operation Angel. Or maybe it's just the the fact that I am sitting here finally able to stop answering phone calls and simply take stock, and far too exhausted to crawl into bed and actually sleep.

Some success at last with taming the unruly logistical beast that is humanitarian aid distribution. In total, we have 1800 new gumboots - (rainboots in USA & Wellingtons in UK)10 pallets poised and ready to ship out to Queensland. (1600 hundred airfreighted from New Zealand and a gift from the wonderful people at The Warehouse stores and airlifted by Toll Global & Qantas and 200 pairs from Bata) WE NEED MORE - CORPORATE DONATIONS IN THAT AREA. It's such a relief that a huge trucking company, TOll/Ipec Transport have offered to do any of our long-haul cartage for free. Bless them, because with such a vast continent, having a dependable and amiable partnership with a transport company is vital when shifting such huge quantities of urgently needed supplies.

Taking a deep breath and looking back at the past twenty four hours is quite a mental rollercoaster - dozens of phone calls, lobbying, negotiating, emailing and interview after interview, meeting after meeting. My poor 9 & 7 year old children, who are on summer school vacation, have been very patient with the slapped together meals and the multi-tasking mother. At least I managed to get a load of washing on and so an underpants crisis has been averted for the kids.

I had been finding it difficult to obtain extact delivery locales for our stock, but thank goodness for a good friend in the military who reminded me that to get any coherent answer from the relief operations in Queensland, I was going to have to remember to speak fluent 'army'. The upshot now is that Operation Angel will be despatching our first gumboot shipment of 10 pallets directly to Lockyer Valley and the central distribution point in Laidley. We've also got three pallets of feminine hygiene products from hip brands Moxie & de Jour who have supplied us with a mountain of stock. Water, water everywhere and not a dry pad anywhere! From experience, I know that tampons and sanitary napkins are always the forgotten essential item in these disaster situations but not on Operation Angel's list. When I phoned to let a contact at one of the councils in the bush know that we were sending them up to her area in the flood zone, she burst into tears telling me that the 'girls' up north were desperate for these items and having huge problems in the evacuation centres locating same.

Right from the beginning I have felt like a dog with a bone, unable to let go of the gut instinct that gumboots and other items for niche scenarios would be needed. Robyn Good, my great buddy and now Operation Angel co-ordinator, has been indefatigable in her search for more items from my list. Sarah Allen has kept the social media networks buzzing with our official updates and brilliant harnessing of our contacts.

Received a call late this evening from a commander with Emergency Management Queensland, confirming that we now have co-operative and cohesive communications with the shires and good delivery points for our trucks. I was pretty horrified when he went all official on me and said that he had also been tasked by his director to pass on his personal thanks and that of EMQ for Operation Angel's foresight to go about obtaining all the gumboots and other items well before anyone else had even considered the safety and health implications of contaminants and the soggy aftermath following the floods. Very grateful for the thanks, but also embarrassed because it felt overly profuse in contrast to what Queenslanders have survived and continue to battle.

So, now, for those of you interested in what else we are collecting or what we have to ship here's a little list and it goes like this:

* 40 Potable water storage tanks - 1 cubic metre in size - love a nice clean tank and could do with more
* gumboots, new and now pre-loved - more, more, more please (kids & adults must be taped together in pairs)
* 1000 new hairbrushes - Rapunzel let down your hair - well she would if it wasn't so knotted
* Metal tools - metal rakes, shovels & crowbars - feel free to raid that garden shed
* 3 pallet loads of tampons & pads - nuff said
* Industrial rubber gloves (black or red) - throw that gauntlet to us
* Work gloves - what can I say, I like gloves
* New underwear - URGENTLY NEEDED - don't get your knickers in a knot,head on down to Target or Kmart, use that Christmas gift card you got from Auntie Mary and pick up a 5 pack for us
* Air Freshener (no candles) - keep that post flood stench at bay, lavender or rose is what I say
* Insect repellent - roll ons - do away with the Great Aussie salute and keep Dengue Fever at bay
* Waders - calling all fishermen - give them to us, we honestly believe you about the one that got away
* Work boots - preloved or new - taped together in pairs they're no good for walking, but boy do they do a mean job up the floods
* Mosquito nets - foiled again the Dengue Fever mozzie will screech as it tries unsuccessfully to feast on a sleeping child. WE need these desperately and have so far only been offered a wholesale price - if we can't procure more (free) I am really afraid of an epidemic of epic proportions.

Time to sleep now. You can see an interview I did tonight with Jonathan Mann on CNN Internationl on the i-desk programme, airing at 10am eastern time & 1pm in the USA and across the world.

http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2011/01/15/intv.aid.for.australia.cnn.html

Sleep well and dream of gumboots - I will.
Please follow us on Facebook: Operation Angel
Forgot, drop off point for items listed above is: 10am to 4pm Operation Angel Warehouse, Unit 3/ 126 Fairbanks Road, South Clayton Victoria. If you are a corporate donor with substantial stock, we can arrange pick up by truck. Email us on: operationangelaustralia@gmail.com
Twitter: @Operation_Angel

QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA FLOODS

NEWS RELEASE – OPERATION ANGEL FLOOD RELIEF – 12th January, 2011

In response to the devastation of the floods in Queensland, Operation Angel has been reactivated for the first time since the Victorian Bushfires.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/66157/nz-mp-seeking-gumboots-for-queensland

http://progress-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/hawthorn-angels-spring-into-action-with-clothing-donations/
http://www.entoure.com.au/operation-angel/
http://marinago.blogspot.com/2009/02/operation-angel.html

“If these waves of water inundated my friends, my family, I would hope that strangers would think outside the square and their own backyards to pitch in, just as we are doing with Operation Angel – geography and distance means nothing to Australians, we are all neighbours not hampered by miles. Local companies, and now those in New Zealand, are getting behind our efforts and pulling together”, says Operation Angel’s director, Jacqueline Pascarl.

• Operation Angel will concentrate on providing material assistance to the Toowoomba area & surrounds.
• Operation Angel has a very senior former Australian Defence Force officer as co-ordinator & distribution chief in Toowoomba. Ironically, he & his wife relocated to the area only four weeks ago, but are returning locals.
• Gatton is now on the list for OA’s activities and on the advice or our Queensland co-ordinator – contact will be made with local authorities to facilitate distribution once the rescue phase has been completed.

• Operation Angel will use our co-ordinator's property, 18kms south of Toowoomba as a distribution centre – we are also working on alternative distribution point in Gatton, East of Toowoomba which has been hit very hard by water.
• Operation Angel’s Queensland base is located in Wyreema, it is positioned atop a hill with good road access (once water has receded), all weather driveway, with watertight warehouse with roller door access
• Operation Angel has secured warehousing in Melbourne at Showtech, 15 Capital Court, Braeside Victoria 3195, via Operation Angel’s co-ordinator, Robyn Good.
• Operation Angel will be taking delivery of commercial quantities of 1,600 gumboots from New Zealand company THE WAREHOUSE via New Zealand MP, Clare Curran from Dunedin in the South Island, who is a personal friend. Ms Curran is also now in dialogue with Air New Zealand to cover airfreight to Australia, although we may need to turn to another airline for assistance as part of our back up. These gumboots will be essential to the survivors of the Queensland floods during the days ahead and the massive clean up, the boots will offer some protection against contaminants and raw sewage as well as debris and snakes.

In approaching you, I ask you to remember that in all the muck and devastation that has hit our fellow Aussies up north, leaving them with only the clothes they stand in, and that the following items have been identified in consultation with Australian Defence Force personnel on the ground in Queensland.

Operation Angel is NOT looking for personal donations or money from individuals, but rather commercial donations of practical items as well as services.

1. personal insect repellent will afford them both protection and some small comfort as Queenslanders & their children begin the hard slog ahead during the clean up, it will make the horrendous time they are facing just a little more bearable.
2. Mosquito nets for sleeping
3. Mosquito coils
4. Underwear
5. Hygiene/toiletry kits
6. Trucking services
7. Children’s & Adult gumboots (Wellington boots in the UK and rainboots in USA)
8. New towels

Unfortunately, some very large companies in Australia have asked Operation Angel for payment for goods or rejected our requests – we hope that by sending out this news, other corporations will come forward with offers of practical assistance in the crucial days ahead.

Jacqueline Pascarl, Director of Operation Angel
+61 (0) 3 9580 4176

SWEDISH DOMINATION - THE OTHER SUPER POWER

IKEA dearest, excitement as your latest tome plopped into my letterbox with the all the promise of how shiny, organised and streamlined my life would be if I married my dollars to your flat-pack.
Ah dearest one, I enter your hallowed halls with expectations and delight, with wonderment in your innovations and pleasure in your primary colours.
Seven hours later, I emerged with the truth from the 'Seventh Circle of Hell' you call a store, the veil of infatuation torn from my eyes; having been funnelled like a drugged lemming through your maze-like halls amidst aisles of numbered items and towers of indecipherably coded boxes.
I had entered your portals with so much trust and hope, with a hankering for a small hook that could change my life for the better once installed in my entry foyer, but cunning torturer that you are, you brainwashed me into believing that if I filled my conveniently provided plastic shopping bag - the size of a small elephant - with paper napkins, two cushions, some plastic cups and a fluoro item (its origins of which, and purpose I am yet to determine), you would release me from your clutches and allow me to return to the bosom of my family - battle scarred and lighter of wallet - but free.
But it was all only a cruel promise – first you had one remaining ignominy for me to endure – the Checkout Counters of Hades. Other bleary eyed devotees queued like branded sheep, some pushing trolleys, others leading drooling male spouses by the hand – parched, natural light deprived, and utterly disoriented as to geographical direction, oh, but it was the tiny children I pitied the most – exhausted and fractious, I watched as harried mothers dug in the bottoms of handbags searching for a lint covered ancient mint to assuage the infants screams of pain – their begging for home and un-recycled air the most poignant of your victims. We shuffled towards the magic machines that would agree to take our money, we prayed for the holy zappers to accept the barcode release numbers for each and every item that we proffered on the counter of Swedish domination and design excellence, and we held our collective breath awaiting the denuding of our bank accounts and credit cards like impatient inmates of a gulag tantalised with freedom.
And as we stumbled towards our vehicles with our totems of modernity safely stowed in our newly purchased, but utterly un-recyclable plastic enviro bags, our eyes glimpsed your newest acolytes as they entered your siren portals, light of step and full of hope for the better life you promise and the thrill of globalisation. How we pity them. “Schmucks” we observe under our breath, “never again”, we mutter as we climb into our cars to claim the sanctuary of home. At least not until we need the next cunning storage solution proffered in your 2011 catalogue.

THE PLOT IS LOST

The camel is broken, I’ve lost the plot and, quite frankly, it’s been absolutely liberating. Cue sharp intake of breath…. I went to my children’s school this morning clad only in my purple dressing gown, accessorised with sunglasses, polka dot gumboots, and carrying my undergarments in my pocket. Granted, I didn’t alight from the car, so for all those peering through the windows of my highly utilitarian people mover, I could have been wearing a very fluffy hoody, but it was the stand I was taking for all us working, stay at home, full time carers, students, mothers, nurses of elderly parents and juggling women that mattered most to me. I ‘took one’ for my diverse sisterhood, and it’s the best thing I’ve done for myself for quite a while.

I became the antithesis of everything a nice eastern suburbs matron usually strives to portray to the neighbours. Of course, the children were aghast, but they were also mildly thrilled by my rebellious and obviously quite insane attire. For the kids benefit, I threw in a few cackles on the drive to school as we wove through Hawthorn’s peak hour traffic. (As I was car-pooling, I must remember to ring my 9 year old daughter’s friend’s parents and explain.) But you know, today, something simply had to give. I had a choice, either hurl myself into the usual school-run hysteria of screeching exhortations at the children and issuing thundering threats, whilst attempting to cram my harassed, sleep deprived person into clothes, makeup, and style my hair as I simultaneously answered a work related phone call on my mobile (who the hell rings a woman with children at 7.57am?), received a text from a media outlet requesting an interview, injected a blood thinner into my stomach and dealt with my dementia stricken mother in law on the landline, as I filled lunchboxes and medicated the dog for epilepsy. Or, I could decide that by capitulating to the sadistic gods of time and removing one element from my daily schedule, I could gain 6 minutes and the key to a laughing gaggle of kids, instead of a chastened bunch of under 10’s strapped into a speeding vehicle as they listened to an overstressed, hyperventilating, cursing female attempting to be too perfect.

That’s the thing isn’t it, as we try to be everything to everybody, and meet all the commitments of our daily lives, we somehow lose our grip on the importance of being more than a schedule follower and timetable adherer. And in that push to be perfect, it’s so easy to lose the joy of the ridiculous and the simple pleasure of acknowledging we are not superhuman; because we can fail and fall and pick ourselves up and start all over again with a laugh. Never see many truly joyous, guffawing superheros out there do you?

So as a woman caring for ailing in laws, four kids, a husband, epileptic dog, health issues, work deadlines, an 80% renovated house, three books I still haven’t finished reading and various regions of the body that need to be either knitted or clipped prior to summer, I declare 31st September, National Dressing Gown Day. Are you game to join me? If so, I’ll see you for a coffee at 9.30am Adelaide time at Georges in Camberwell. Bayside venue to be announced. Gumboots optional, lipstick not required.

LAZY DAYS. Working to live, or living to work?

Do we live to work, of work to live? For me, it is often a very blurred line.

If I am not writing, I feel as if I am barely living; conversely, if I am writing, I'm aware that there is a whole lot of living going on around me that my children are experiencing and I am merely working.

This weekend was a 'bank holiday' in Australia, celebrating the Queen of England's birthday (don't even get me started on being a colonial outpost), so therefore, a long weekend of the best kind. Crisp blue sky-ed mornings with a distinct icy chill in the air viewed through double glazing and the warmth of central heating toasting our toes.

We've lazed as a family, watching a Harry Potter marathon on the screen in the evenings, I've baked pies and walked and gardened a little in the winter's sun, and when the rest of the family was engaged elsewhere, I've snuck off to pen a couple of draft chapters and been barely missed.

Best of all, I've pushed any pressure aside and simply refused to schedule, plan or organise anything. Bliss! For one who considers my Outlook Express and Iphone synching de rigeur, just going with the flow is truly living amidst my family, not timetabling them in alongside all the other of life's priorities.

So for those of you who have even the vaguest of interest in what I write, perhaps try this method sometime.

Put the phone on answer, look around the room at those you love, pat the dog for an hour, call your other kids who are far away, give yourself a manicure, look up at the sky for as long as you like, forget about the diets and the must do's and simply breathe in the moment.

As person wiser than me once said: "Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away".

To me, it goes a little further, if we don't allow ourselves unscheduled moments, then how can we ever understand our own unspoken needs and those of whom we love?

PRETTY RUSTY BUT OILING UP

New vistas beckon yet again. I'm tightening up a new string to my bow and striking out as a literary agent. I already have a client, Chris Allen! (Have a look at his blog) Lord knows I am grateful for his faith in me, and it was his suggestion afterall.

So here we come... Lysander & Verity Media - hold onto your hats, we might, just might, stir up a tiny puff of wind.

It all seems terribly grown up if you ask me, but there you go, I might even celebrate turning 40 this year - who knows?

Writing for me is like breathing, and reading is as necessary as water - so, in those extra hours I have managed to achieve by going metric (more on this concept later), I have decided to see where this additional avenue takes me.

I'm rusty, having not blogged for weeks and weeks, but my other, more tangible life has been full of, well life, and family and work on the new book, and new board postitions and just learning to be slower than my usual frenetic speed. (Although, even I acknowledge the last oxymoron.)

So take this small eptistle as a warm up, a smlog. I'm applying copious amounts of oil to my blogging cortex and I predict I will be around more often.

A rebuttal

Dear Squizy, as you left no return address, I find it very difficult to reply directly to you. I have no problem with food allergies being taken seriously nor for parents to ensure that their own little ones are cared for appropriately. what I do have a problem with is that you feel it is ok for you to demonise me for stating a situation at primary schools which is ludicrous. Yes, I mentioned nuts because the children I was referring to are allergic to peanuts, NOT almonds, therefore an ignorant reaction on the part of the teachers is the issue.

Furthermore, most of the piece in the Punch was referring to an individual parent's right to feed their own child any food which they deem appropriate as long as those foods are not on the 'banned' list at school - be they deemed healthy or not.

What I do get from reading between your lines, is that you are not getting a great or forthcoming response from your own child's school. Could I therefore recommend you retain a solicitor and put your concerns in a letter to both the Principal and also the School Council or Governing body. This may be the only way for the issue to be taken seriously at the school your child attends. But don't confuse my satirical synopsis and observations as a solid 'news' article meant to be taken as scientific fact. So no loaded gun analogies thank you - I am anti-weapons of all kinds having triaged gunshot wounds in war zones - a abdominal hole in a child's body caused by discharged weapon at close range is not a great illustrative metaphor to use.
PS: Congratulations on your mathematical ability!