A bit over a week ago I took a City Cat to meet Cameron for date night sushi and to view a laser light display over the city that was part of the Brisbane Festival. While there is nothing particularly unusual about date night, as I sat there taking in the sparkling city lights and marvelling how beautiful the river and the dusk skyline was, it dawned on me that I was admiring the same thing that had caused nearly a year of uncertainty; admiring the beauty of the river that 9 months ago flooded our newly renovated ‘shoebox’.
Cameron and I arrived back in Brisbane a month ago, to finally slip back into where January left us. We flew into the Sunshine State just in time for River Fire, the opening of the Brisbane festival and an event, as any Brisbanite will know, that is big enough to rival New Years Eve. A spectacular of fireworks celebrated along the river. For us this was a somewhat strange experience. As we sat, in the same spot we had a year earlier, it was hard to believe a whole year had passed. Who could have ever imagined a year ago, that our year was to have turned out the way it has. Ironically this time last year we were doing exactly the same thing we are now- dealing with plumbers and sparkys and cabinet makers, choosing paint colours and tile finishes – all the fun of renovating or as it is, re-renovating.
As the city cat arrived at South bank I looked back over the Brisbane with its towers of lights and steady peak hour hum. A feeling of insignificance swept over me. This city has thousands, millions of stories and ours is just one. Our year has taught us many things and while some of them may have been (and continue to be) a challenge, no lesson can be entirely negative. Though we may be small within it, this city has become a big part of us, not quite home yet, but getting there. It has an amazing spirit and the events of this year have only strengthened that. We have been shown kindness and support by so many in it, many of which were complete strangers. These people have shown us the power of others to lift you up and make any challenge a whole lot less scary! Most of all we have learned that stuff is just that, it can be replaced and rebuilt – it doesn’t define who we are or what we stand for. The floods will, one-day, be just another chapter of our story and an important part of bringing us closer together. If I had faced this year on my own I am not sure I would have ever got through it. Although there are times when it has pushed our relationship to the limits Cameron has again showed me how important love is in being able to go on and having that person by my side it feels like we can overcome anything!
Our apologies for the lack of blogging, getting back to Brisbane became our priority for a while there – it had already taken far longer than we could have dreamed! We appreciate those of you who have kept coming back and love your emails and questions – keep them coming. We promise to blog more regularly and next week Cam and I will post some pictures from the engagement party we had before we came back to Brisbane… be prepared for hundreds (yes hundreds) of cupcakes!
Love Love Love xxx
This pic was taken this time last year on a the most amazing mini-break to Tangalooma Resort to celebrate our 'shoebox' purchase and renovations!
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