On Tuesday we took Josie to her first puppy preschool class. There were five other puppies there; a black spoodle called Monty, a Weimarana called Rudi, a lovely, tubby,
chocolate brown labrador called Ellie, a fluffy lapdog and a Mastiff x Ridgeback which I didn't catch the names of. We had missed week 1 but stayed back after the class for the teacher, Jenny, to quickly go through what they'd covered then. This week we were learning how to make the puppies sit, stay, drop and come - lots of bribery with liver treats and tips for keeping puppies busy during the day so they don't wreck the place when we aren't at home. She also had a solution for Bella's sock fetish - a lovely Tabasco sauce mixture on a sock we don't need should cure her we're told!
That morning Josie had been hungry and decided to help herself to her biscuits. She'd got in to the pantry and had her head through the hole in the lid before she was sprung!
The dogs have been enjoying Ishbel's new trampoline. The other day Josie was inside the netting chasing Bella who was running round the outside. It was hilarious. I tried to take some video but by the time I got the camera they'd stopped - twice.
Bad news on the laundry front. The man came on Wednesday afternoon to fix our machine but he was here less than ten minutes before he told me it needs a new motor which he would have to send away for. That would take a week to get in he said,
then they would look at giving me a new appointment to come and install it which could be a further week. Eeek! I think even the excellent Faulconblidge Chineese Laundly @ Maatun Place would baulk at that so I hit the Yellow Pages and found a company to hire a washing machine from. To my surprise and delight they were able to deliver a machine that afternoon so for $75 we are back in business again. Phew!
On Thursday Ishbel and I went down to Penrith to see Madagascar 2. It was forecast to be very hot and it was a way of staying cool in the shopping centre air conditioning. We took Jamie and his pal, Nick, down too but left them to their own devices and we didn't see Jamie again until late afternoon. Ishbel and I thoroughly enjoyed the film, very funny, but it finished just as a Total Fire Ban was proclaimed and we were put on Standby 3 which means the fire station needs to have a crew on site. The excellent Faulconblidge Chineese Laundly @ Maatun Place also has a fantastic occasional child care service and agreed to look after Ishbel for me while I offered myself to be on duty at the station. I just had enough time to drop Ishbel off with Auntie Karen and get down to the station before we were on air at 2pm.
It was all chiefs and one indian. I was there with 3 deputy captains and another, Stewart, who would be the tanker driver so it would be just me running around doing all the work. The first thing we did was go out in the truck to put the Total Fire Ban signs up on the village signs then to the supermarket to get something for dinner later. While there I thought Steve told me to hit him on the head if he swore so he was rather surprised when I donged him on the head with the traffic control light sabre thingy when we were on the way back to the station. What he'd actually meant was for me to hit him whenever he forgot I don't eat meat - he'd ordered ham and beef at the deli and I'd had to request chicken!! Shame it wasn't the swearing - the air was blue with f's and b's all afternoon.
Back at the station we did what the RFS does best - hurry up and wait. We could see some smoke to our north on the plains north of Penrith. There was a fire at Londonderry. Over the radio we heard crews up and down the mountain being deployed there but not us - Steve thinks that because we're next for an RRG they were holding us back, as well as needing crews in the mountains in case something started up here. Anyway as the temperature hit 40+C and we really worked up a sweat just rolling up a few hoses, we were kind of glad we weren't down there where it was really hot. More hanging about until we were stood down shortly after 7pm.
Friday was much cooler and by the time we had training on Friday night the Fire Danger Index (FDI) had gone from Thursday's Extreme to Low. As luck would have it the subject of Friday night's training session was Weather and Fire behaviour so we spent the evening learning how to assess the FDI. Hugh used as an example Tuesdays weather report from Port Lincoln in South Australia where there had been bush fires - they went from Low to Extreme
in under an hour and by 9:30am that day and at 4pm recorded an FDI of 147 - the Macarthur meters we use to assess the FDI only goes up to 100!
Today we had visitors. We had Jenny and Genevieve that I worked with in the Dept Medicine at Royal North Shore and their families up for lunch. We try and get together every so often but I don't think we managed at all last year so it was lovely to see them and their growing children. Genevieve's oldest two didn't come, Gen had forgotten to let the family know about the plan, but that was OK because Robbie had to go off to play cricket and Jamie hadn't come home yet. He went to Manly beach with his mates yesterday and stayed the night at Trey's house. Jenny's eldest, Molly, has turned in to a stunning young lady in the year-18 months since we saw her.
Well, that's about it. Ishbel is having a sleep over at Zanny's house tonight. Ian and I were going to go to the movies but we were kind of late with that idea and all that's on is
Quantum of Solace which doesn't interest me at all so Ian and Robbie have gone. Jamie has gone to bed and I'm left with rubbish on the tv. Should I go to bed and read, I'm reading
Memoirs of an Infantry Officer by Siegfried Sassoon which is great, or put
Love Actually on?
We had Josie at the vet last night for her 1 year old injections (Xavier had his?)
Poor Josie, she just can't take a trick at the moment. 
Rob and the dogs just hanging out together
Josie relaxing - maybe she fell asleep reading . . .
Josie had her first lesson at dog school last night so it was quite apt that this photo was on the FAIL blog yesterday. (Take note of the title of the book.) 
The dogs have been enjoying Ishbel's new trampoline. The other day Josie was inside the netting chasing Bella who was running round the outside. It was hilarious. I tried to take some video but by the time I got the camera they'd stopped - twice.
Josie is 10 weeks old (born 21st October) one of a litter of 19 (!! yes, 19, that is not a typo). The people were able to find homes for all but 5 puppies which ended up at the BMCC pound.
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