For the Benefit of Mr Kite

Last night Brisbane got its third big storm in less than a week. Unlike the previous storms, Tomas and I were out an about when this one hit.

We were attempting to get to Spring Hill to collect our organic fruit and vegetable box last night. The traffic was bad thanks the storm the night before which had flooded the Inner City Bypass. We spent a good 20 minutes in traffic watching the storm decend upon Spring Hill. It started raining and then we heard the hail pinging on the car. Not long after the hail, the torrential downpour began. We couldn't see much past the bonnet. Unfortunately Spring Hill is hilly and we couldn't find anywhere on top of a hill to stop so we continued onto the fruit place (which coincidentially is on top of a hill). I stuck one leg with one thong attached to my foot out of the car (just dangling it, not touching the ground) and the water rushing down the drain ripped my thong from my foot never to be seen again.

I'd like to say that was the worst of our experience in the rain, but it got better. After sheltering in the house of the woman who coordinates the fruit boxes, Tomas decided he wanted to try and make it home. It was still pouring down and hailing but for some reason we thought it would be a good idea. Just as we drove off, the hail got bigger. Like the size of tennis balls. One of them hit our windscreen. Expletives were yelled but the windscreen showed no damage. When we'd made it back to the Valley we decided to ditch going home and try for Vanessa and Cameron's. We turned into Dogget St which was a giant puddle and decided to turn off when we noticed the cars in front of us parting the water. Unfortunately we didn't choose the best place to turn and when we turned into the side street, our car made a bow wave. I kid you not. We had water on the bonnet. Luckily we were going uphill and there was no more bow waves.

We tried to get to Ness and Cam's but there was too much water on the road, so we drove to the top of the hill at Teneriffe and parked. I was quite happy to stay in the car but Tomas wanted to get inside (in hindsight sitting in a car under a tree during a storm probably wasn't the best idea). So despite the horrendous rain, we got out of the car and ran to Ness and Cam's. We were soaking wet and I didn't have shoes but at least we were inside.

It turns out that the car has some hail damage but considering that and a lost thong was the worst that happened, we did okay.