Too funny to wait 'til Friday

Great News!

Hot off the press! Our backpacker has just been found! Don't really know much more at this stage but I am really pleased!

Here's one news report. Narrow Neck is where we were on Friday!!!

BTW: This was the pic accompanying another online report - that's my reporter in his immaculate black wool coat!

Update - 1:20pm: The beady-eyed among you will notice that the picture in THIS STORY is almost identical to one of mine on Flickr!

Another update - 2:30pm: ABC report with video (I'm not in this one!)

Sick people

Image via Wikipedia

We were supposed to be going to Killarney Heights today to meet up with Genevieve, Jenny and Sue that I used to work with in the Dept. Medicine at Royal North Shore Hospital but Ishbel has succumbed to the lergy now. I was thinking I'd go anyway but Ishbel didn't want me to go. Robbie wasn't very happy - he told Ishbel to 'man up'.

She was spiking a temperature last night. I can never get her to take medicine; she must deep down somewhere remember that she spent her first 12 months on daily antibiotics which we used to have to force down her throat with the aid of a syringe. Such a contrast from the boys who would take anything and if one of them had medicine the other had to have a spoonful of yoghurt so he wouldn't feel left out.

In the end last night, worried her temp. was a bit high, I got 5mls down her by mixing it into a tub of yoghurt. Even then she carried on like a two bob watch. Only the threat of having to go to hospital and have a drip put in got her to co-operate, tearfully.

Anyway, she's feeling better today, still hacking with the cough but not febrile. We all stayed in bed until after 10 this morning - in our bed - me, Ian, Ishbel, Bella and Josie (who snores by the way!) Robbie got up and dressed, all set for our day out, but then went back to bed in disgust.

Jamie is out at Graeme and Kim's at the moment at their re-enactment group. He's pleased the day trip is off or he would have had to miss it.

The winter school holidays have started so the kids are off for the next two weeks. Luckily Ian is still off post op - he has a follow-up appointment with the surgeon on Thursday - and I will take the second week off so no need for Ishbel to go to Tanderra this holidays.

S&R News

Karen rang me this morning to tell me I was on the Channel 9 Today News - the front of me!

Click here to see the video and another here that shows better the kind of terrain we were looking in (I just happen to be in that one too - same shot as before).

There's a shot of firefighters walking towards the camera - I'm the third person in the line, wearing a red beanie.

Form an orderly queue and I'll get around to autographs after I've had my breakfast!

Karen had admonished me for smirking in the shot. Apart from needing to keep cheery while performing what is a fairly grim task, physically as well as emotionally, the cameraman had just popped up out of nowhere and it was a bit surreal.

We'd been bashing through pretty close bush as I said last night and then grouped up by the cliff. Seemingly out of nowhere came a reporter with his notebook in an immaculate long black wool coat and with a cameraman at his shoulder. He got the policeman, Matt, to do a few things then they went away. Next thing I know we're tramping through waist-chest high brush and there's suddenly the cameraman in front of us on the trail. I'd just shouted "have you got a teleporter on you?" when that shot was done.

S&R Day 2

Look what I nearly got a ride in today!

Again I was able to turn out for the search and rescue at Wentworth Falls/Katoomba. More hurry up and wait, more even than yesterday.

We came within a whisker of getting a helicopter ride. We were going to be deployed on the top of Mount Solitary and were all briefed on getting in and out of a helicopter either while it was hovering or via winch (!?). But then the mist rolled in and stayed and plans changed and only 4 with Remote Area Firefighting Team (RAFT) and winch training and the NPWS crew were able to go. The remaining RFS were split in to a couple of teams. One team was sent down the Golden Stairs and along the bottom of the cliff below Narrow Neck and my team were deployed to search Castle Head at the top. (Phew! - I think doing the Golden Stairs would be like climbing the Wallace Monument 2 or 3 times). My team included people from Faulco (Karen & Dan's brigade) some of whom I'd met before, two from Woodford and two from Glenbrook-Lapstone, including Steve who did the VF training with Jamie, Robbie and I.

As we did yesterday, we did line searches - spreading out from the track in a line. The terrain was less steep than yesterday but the bush was much more dense and more than once I was on my hands and knees burrowing through bushes and found myself stuck on top of a bush once or twice too! We bashed through the bush following a walking track off the main (dirt) road unable to see very far ahead. After about 30-45 mins of this we came to the cliff edge - and what a spectacular view! A bit of a walk further along and we were at Castle Head and the view was just stunning - it was all misty when we first got there but within 5 minutes or so the mist cleared and it was just glorious. It's a shame to be there under such circumstances, but I wouldn't have missed it for anything - this really is a blessed part of the world.


No sign of our boy again. At one point the team on Mount Solitary thought they might have found something - some scuff marks and some broken branches near the cliff edge. The police helicopter was deployed to have a look along the base of the cliff but they didn't see anything.

I was on the ABC news tonight. At one bit in the story on the search there is a policeman giving a briefing - there is the back of a blonde head - that's me!!! Tried to find it on the internet but all I found was some British news video. The media was everywhere today. We had a reporter and his cameraman appear at the cliff with us - then they kept popping up everywhere. We were hacking though the undergrowth and they sauntered along the track. It was a bit intrusive at times though and they just assume you don't mind having your picture taken.

TGIF - Worm story

For those of you who may have missed church last Sunday, here is a recap: four worms and a lesson to be learned!
A minister decided that a visual demonstration would add emphasis to his Sunday sermon. Four worms were placed into four separate jars.

The first worm was put into a container of alcohol.
The second worm was put into a container of cigarette smoke.

The third worm was put into a container of chocolate syrup.

The fourth worm was put into a container of good clean soil.

At the conclusion of the sermon, the Minister reported the following results:

• The first worm in alcohol-Dead
• The second worm in cigarette smoke-Dead
• Third worm in chocolate syrup-Dead
• Fourth worm in good clean soil-Alive.

So the Minister asked the congregation - What did you learn from this demonstration???

Maxine was sitting in the back, quickly raised her hand and said, 'As long as you drink, smoke and eat chocolate, you won't have worms!'

That pretty much ended the service --

RFS Search and Rescue mission

Today I played hookey from school to assist in an RFS search and rescue effort.

A young 19 year old Englishman left the Katoomba Youth Hostel last Friday morning saying he was going for a bushwalk. He hasn't been seen since. He has been out in the cold and rain for 6 nights now.

Answering a pager message last night, we gathered at our shed at 8 this morning and went up to the old Queen Victoria Hospital on Kings Tableland Road, Wentworth Falls for a briefing with other RFS brigades, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the State Emergency Service and the Police who were in charge of the operation. We stood around for ages waiting to be deployed - Karen must've sent me a Hurry Up and Wait on Facebook - then off we went down into the Kedumba Valley.

Once at the walking track we had to get ourselves in position to do a line search - we were separated into two groups and spread out in a line on each side of the walking track. It was slow progress at times, over rocky ground and bush bashing through some fairly thick brush. By lunchtime we were down at the bottom of the valley at the creek - it was very beautiful down there (see the Flickr slideshow):



Sadly, neither we nor the police dogs found the boy and so we had to climb back out for the night. Getting out was a bit arduous but we finally make it - after many "it's only five more minutes" - and crews being needed tomorrow, I've said I'll go again (if I can move tomorrow morning!)

I can't imagine how the boy's parents will be feeling. He's only a couple of years older than our two.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Brit Backpacker Missing In Australian Bush (news.sky.com)
• British backpacker missing in Australian wilderness (telegraph.co.uk)

Ian's birthday, 4th July.

It was Ian's birthday on Saturday. Unable to go to the big party they throw for him in the US, we had a lower key celebration here at home.

We had dinner here with Karen, Dan, Ben and Xavier, Sharon and Holly, our Polish neighbour Chris and later, after they'd been to see their daughter Georgia in a play, Steven and Janet dropped by.

We had a yummy slow cooked lamb dinner with roast veggies and a banoffee pie to follow. The banoffee pie was a bit runny but no one seemed to mind - well Karen didn't!!!

TGIF

I'm so glad to have found out about this.

The correct way to weigh yourself:

I can't believe I was doing it wrong all these years.

Ian's had his op

Have spent the past two days going down to the city as Ian was booked in for his operation yesterday.

Ishbel, Ian and I left the house just around nine yesterday morning. We arrived quite early for the operation as we'd not been sure how long it would take us to get to the hospital, St.Lukes, in the eastern suburbs (Pott's Point). We had a fair bit of hanging about but everyone was very pleasant. Dr Hargraves came out between operations to say hello and for a little chat - told us how the fires in Victoria were affecting his grapes - all that smoke gets into the fruit and you can't make wine from them - apparently!

Eventually Ian went off to theatre about 2:30pm and Ishbel and I wandered off to find a late lunch. We took a while to find somewhere and we did that only after we'd walked around for a while and then we found what she was looking for (chips) near to where we started! We did, however, also find the British Lolly Shop and shared an Irn Bru and McCowans Highland Toffee bar for dessert!! Finding a nice spot to eat our lunch wasn't easy either. As we walked past the entrance to a church, Ishbel noticed the front porch and steps of the church were chocabloc with people lying on mattresses - "who are those people?" - her first experience of homelessness. Not an easy one to explain.

We sat in the car for a while listening to a talking book then went back to the hospital. We could see Ian through the Recovery Room window. We were able to go up to his room to wait for him coming back up which he did about 1/2 an hour or so later. He had a block on his arm so he was in no pain at all but had a PCA (Patient Controlled Analgesia) machine so that he could dose himself if and when he did get sore.

It was when Ishbel and I headed home that the fun began. There are a lot of one way roads around that part of the city so getting home was not straight-forward. We ended up at one point with a choice of taking the bridge over to the northern suburbs and north coast, or the tunnel!! Neither thanks. Went through the city somewhere and ended up going the other way, headed for Bondi. Very wrong! Finally found a space I could stop and look at the map which was difficult because of the glare off the shiny paper. I'd nearly asked Catherine if I could borrow her Tom Tom - wishing dearly by now that I had. FINALLY got to Cleveland Street and on a route I recognised. Yay. It was just around 9pm when we got in at home.

And then we had to turn around and do it all again this morning! At least we didn't come home via Bondi because Ian was able to navigate. We did, though, only get to the hospital in one run because Ishbel had been paying attention yesterday and remembered which way to turn. Good girl.

Ian is back home with a big bandage round his wrist. He has to keep it on until about the 16th when he goes back to see Dr Hargraves and then he will probably get a plaster cast put on.

We'd left Robbie at home ill the past two days. This morning he fainted getting out of the shower. He managed to crawl back to bed and didn't tell me until about 1/2 an hour later. I couldn't make him a GP appointment - they are all booked out so I will have to ring at 8am tomorrow to see if we can get a cancellation. He seems a bit better this evening and is up watching TV just now.

Jamie came home from school this afternoon and went straight to bed, not feeling well.

And Ishbel has been complaining of a sore throat for the past couple of days.

I'm fine! Just might not be at work again tomorrow unless this lot get well.