If you're living in Australia there are only 3 people on your mind right now: Brant Webb, Todd Russell and Sophie Delezio.
Last Tuesday, on April 25th, there was some seismic activity that caused a rock collapse at a gold mine in Beaconsfield, Tasmania. There were 3 men who didn't make it back out of the mine, and nothing was known about any survivors until April 27th when they found the body of Larry Knight. Things weren't looking good, with so much time having passed and no sign of the other missing miners. Then on Sunday night - after 5 nights spent 1km underground - thermal imaging cameras picked up Brant Webb and Todd Russell very much alive. They're now about to spend their 11th night in their tiny little hollow underground, waiting for rescuers to be able to reach them. A pilot hole was formed from the outside to where the guys are situated so that they've been able to send in food, water, messages from home and of course iPods. What mining disaster would be complete without an iPod? A 1-metre diametre hole is being made through the rock by some huge boring drill, that is taking forever to reach them - much better than rushing right in and collapsing the place I say - and the whole country is waiting and crossing their fingers for Brant and Todd to finally come up to the surface. These guys are amazing - spending so many days trapped in a very small little area, where they can hardly move at all, and they spend all day cracking jokes. They've requested the Saturday paper so they can look for new jobs, they claim they're staying in a 2-star hotel (and they're the 2 stars), hell they even had Dave Grohl offer to meet up with them for some cold beers anywhere, anytime - just because he heard they requested some Foo Fighters for their iPods. I'm an atheist, so there's no one I can ask for help on this one, but I am so scared something will go wrong and they're not going to make it back. I think everyone feels as though they know Brant and Todd now - for another accident to happen would be devastating.
Speaking of another accident, we have Sophie Delezio. In 2003 Sophie's day care centre had a car crash right through it, before catching on fire and bringing her within an inch of her life. She was pinned under the car and ended up losing her feet, her ear and some fingers at the age of 2, and she has other disfigurements no child should have to live with. Tonight she was being pushed in a pram across a pedestrian crossing by her carer when she was hit by a car. She had a heart attack shortly after and was flown to hospital in critical condition - though now it seems her injuries aren't as bad as they first thought. Sophie's going to be on life support for at least the next few weeks, and I heard that she now has some bad facial injuries on a face which was surprisingly undamaged from the first accident. Which makes you just have to ask the question - why THIS little girl? Why on earth should 1 of these things happen to a child, let alone BOTH of them?
Sometimes you feel like not tuning in to the news.
I know it doesn't mean much, but Brant, Todd and Sophie - I'm thinking of you.
