Holidays

Yes, it’s that time of year again. It’s a strange feeling – because I only work 3 days a week, I feel like I’m on holidays every week. This time, I’m away from work until the end of the month.

And it’ll be a busy holiday, too. For Simon and I have decided to use up frequent flyers points and we are going to Terrigal in NSW.

Now, Terrigal is not a big place but it’s on the coast and it is home to a friend of mine. Whom I’m meeting for the first time! This friend has been editing my work for about 6 months, now (I’m giving Jeanne a rest – yep, she’ll laugh at that), and with this opportunity, I thought we’d go and see her.

Before we leave for home, we’re spending a couple of days in Sydney so that will be an experience.

One of the things we’re doing whilst in Terrigal is going to visit the burn scar – probably the Gosper Mountain fire. I’ve been asked by a few people at work if I can take photos of the regrowth in the area and I thought it would bring a sense of reality to those fire claim calls we’ve been getting at work.

I can’t imagine the heartache that these people must be going through and I do my utmost to get them that small amount of money as quickly as I can. And before anyone asks, no, we are not looking after the relief payments gathered by Ellen, P!nk and all of the other celebrities. We look after the govt payments.

The main reason I want to visit the site, though, is because of all the stories I read over Christmas and New Year. All those personal accounts from survivors and what, who and how they survived. I want to make that real for myself as a person. Because I think that’s the only way we can appreciate the depth of an experience like that and be able to help the people in that situation recover best.

That’s another reason why we’re staying at Terrigal – to put money back into one of the regions that so desperately need it after the fires – and then the floods, of course!

But we’re also going so that we can relax – away from work – and recharge our batteries for the next round of whatever comes our way.