There was an additional activity to the usual Christmas Day routine in our family: we spent an hour or so driving around looking at the river.

As a result of the constant rain of the last few days (weeks) the Wilson’s River at Lismore has reached minor flood level. With more rain over the next few days, it could reach moderate flood level. Worst case scenario, of course, is a major flood which isn’t entirely out of the question. It’s been raining for a while, the ground is sodden, and there’s a general agreement amongst friends and family here a flood isn’t out of the question, given the similarity between current and previous weather patterns. “It’s just like 74” is the refrain of older relatives, a reference to the biggest recorded flood (actually we had two a few weeks apart) in 1974. At the moment, though, the best way to describe the situation is “the river’s up a bit”.

After waking, opening presents, making a few phone calls and text messages, and having Chistmas Lunch, we headed up to the cemetery, as is usual practice on Christmas Day to visit mum and dad. Most years the cemetery is pretty busy after lunch, this year, with sodden ground, there were only a few visitors in the post-lunch period.

There was more activity around the river and the levee bank, as curiosity got the better of a fair number of people around the town. If you’re a local living away and you’re wondering what’s going on: they’ve closed off the Rowing Club Carpark, there’s water in The Duck Pond, and the river is just below Simes’ Bridge at the moment. Nothing to worry about right now.

Of slightly more concern were the cracks in the levee bank which my niece showed me, and which were apparently fairly heavily discussed in the paper recently.

After our big drive, we came home, a few retired to the couch for a mid-afternoon nap, while my nephew, Sam and I continued to play Wii. He’s better than me at ten-pin-bowling, though I’m getting better. Still, it didn’t stop him saying, with a combined look of frustration and bewilderment “Jim, are you sure you’ve played Wii before?”. Oh the shame of it all :)