Sun 27 Dec 2.50am

There’s an alarm ringing somewhere and through the fog of partial sleep I can’t quite decide whether its outside or not; however it continues and gets louder so I decide it must be in the building, so I shake J awake and suggest it’s a fire alarm and we should evacuate the building. At this point the volume and tone intensifies confirming that this is to be taken seriously. As we hastily throw on clothes the alarm within the apartment starts to sound as well and we join the flow of people down the stairs to the street. At this point there is still the question – is it a false alarm, practical joke or serious. Everyone leaves the building in a calm but hurried manner congregating in the rain outside. Fortunately the access road to the neighbouring car park has a large canopy which we all take refuge under.

This is our first glimpse of our neighbours in the apartments; various states of dress and undress and an amusing array of nightwear are on display. Some people in their pj’s and no shoes, others fully clothed and one couple even have their cases with them.

The couple next to me have two small girls who are both bewildered by the rude awakening in the middle of the night and quickly snuggle up to dad to go back to sleep.

Two fire engines arrive at the front of the building so we wait to see what happens. After a time people get restless and start to wander around to the front of the building to see if they can find out what is going on. The mum comes back, one of the firemen has told her that a fire sensor went off on the 13th floor but as there is no sign of fire they now have to check all the rooms before anyone is allowed back in. As there are 13th floors with approx 60 rooms per floor we are in for a bit of a wait.

Most people are at the front of the building now but a man comes round the back with his young son and says the firemen have said we can return to the building. The mum and I are reluctant without the word of someone in authority to re-enter the building, possibly putting our loved ones and us at risk. Eventually we get the all clear, the firemen go back and we start back into the building. There is quite a crowd waiting for the lifts so we start back up the stairs, thankfully we are only on the sixth floor.. However, fire doors are only supposed to be opened from the inside to let you out of the building, so getting back in is a challenge, fortunately for us a very kind Australian lady opens the door for us.

There seems to be an air of excitement in the building and people take a long time to return to their apartments and settle back down. It is nearly 4am by the time we get back to sleep.
We never saw a member of staff or anyone in authority at the time of the alarm going off nor has there been any explanation as to what happened; so it could have been a false alarm, practical joke or genuine – we may never know.

Still, we came to Aus for new experiences and that is our first hotel evacuation. Not quite the experience we had been planning!

love & the cats pyjama hugs,

Janet & Jeff