News & Updates from Vicki Avcin ~ AusCrafts · Page 8

Well after some very tough weeks my spirits were lifted yesterday with the arrival of my National Emergency Medal and clasp for the 2019/2020 Bushfire Season.

I wasnt able to be at the presentation a few weeks ago as I was in hospital after having been diagnosed with kidney cancer in my right kidney.

I was having a radical nephrectomy which is the removal of the kidney. This was 7 weeks ago and its been a rough couple of months since being diagnosed in February. Im on the mend now and look forward to getting back into doing more designing.

The medal has certain criteria that has to be met, service must be in the protection of lives and property; or in the service of interests, that are not their own; in direct response to the emergency (including support that enables or facilitates the emergency response).The geographical area in Australia where the declared emergency happened, are the Local Government Areas (LGA) listed.

Not all fires are included, only the larger extended fires are eligible and there is a qualifying period for each local government area with the minimum duration of service that a person is required to have completed the eligible emergency period for the area.

I am humbled but proud to receive the medal.

My daughter has taken up soccer as a sport now that they dropped the division she was playing in doing the ice hockey.

She did do soccer when she was at high school but hockey is her preference.

Last Wednesday night she told us she was playing a game against my local stomping ground and if we wanted to go see, it would be nice and close for us.

Her team the Wynnum Wolves was against Jimboomba so of course we went. It had drizzled rain all day and by night time it was quite a lot heavier.

As I am having quite a big surgery on Friday I didnt want to catch a cold or worse so rugging up, armed with umbrellas off we went.

The first half it was hard to pick her and her partner out as they both play, as the game was very much being played up the Jimboomba goal end.

Score at half time was 1-1 so whatever was said in the break really gave them what they needed.

Being that ends were swapped, it was still really hard to pick who was doing what as Wynnum kept the ball up the other end of the field too.

I could see that goals were being scored but wasnt till after the match that I found out that my daughter scored one goal, assisted in one goal and her partner kicked two goals all in the second half.

So Wynnum beat the locals 5-1.

The whole game the rain was beating down but when goals are being scored who cares. Winners are Grinners!

Recently the Pub Choir came to Brisbane for two nights. What is the Pub Choir? In 2017 Astrid Jorgensen formed the Pub Choir. It is an entirely improvised music session where a pub is filled to capacity and everyone sings.

Well whether you can sing or not come along because by the end of the night you will be singing.

What a night!! You turn up and they give you the song your singing that night, a couple of rehersals and learn what part you are signing and the magic happens.

Both nights here in Brisbane were sold out and 300 people came to the Tivoli hotel each night.

Astrid has taken her Pub Choir all over the world where there has been up to 3000 people in a stadium all singing the night away.

The two shows here were sold out, no surprise there. But what a night!! Cant wait for the May sessions!

On 20th February a tropical low was located out in the Coral Sea. Two days later it was upgraded to a tropical storm and around 4pm the Bureau of Meteorology upgraded it to a Category 1 cyclone and named TC Alfred.

This Tropical Cyclone (TC) kept moving to the east (away from Australia) and another two days later it was upgraded to Cat 2 before turning south and continued to intensify into a Cat 3.

As it continued on its southerly track again it upgraded to a Cat 4. It continued down the coast before turning west and on 7th March it made landfall on Moreton Island as a Cat 2.

It then sat off the coast of Bribie Island before moving onto the mainland and quickly down graded to a low.

This is the first cyclone to make landfall down in this area in the SE of Queensland in 50 years.

The coast line from the Sunshine Coast to the Gold Coast and down into Northern NSW was severely impacted with winds over 100kph and over 1000mm of rain recorded.

Where we are, somewhat inland a little we were fortunate to not cop the full brunt of the TC but we did get flooding and fortunately only branches down but we did lose power for several days and had no internet or phone service.

There is still large areas without power and phones. Having grown up in north Queensland were cyclones are a given every year, we were well prepared and although a low grade cyclone I know the damage and aftermath a cyclone can do.

I wonder if it will be another 50 years before we have a cyclone pass over the Brisbane area?

Your cat hide? Our old girl likes to keep us guessing as to her whereabouts around the house. Usually she sleeps on a foot stool in the lounge or on our bed.

But every now and then she likes to keep us guessing where she is and finds new places to hide every now and then.

We hunt all round the house and Im sure she lies there watching us thinking haha you cant see me.

So far she has hidden behind the desk under my computer (hidden by a waste basket), in behind a chair in our bedroom, in the corner of the room where our grand daughter has her desk and between that and the shoe cupboard, and the other day she tried blending in with grand daughters shoes.

We looked in that room a couple of times but she was curled up at the back of this space.

By the time I got the camera she had made her self visible. Dont know if hide and seek is her favourite game or ours trying to find her!!