Fire watching

I responded to an incident call on Friday afternoon. It was just about 1pm when the pager went off saying there had been a smoke sighting and could crews gather awaiting further instructions. I'd meant to put my PPE in the back of the car that morning but had forgotten so I had to drive all the way home (and wouldn't the roads be just CLOGGED with slow drivers???), get my kit then drive back in to Springwood and to our shed. Luckily the others waited for me.

We then headed back out here to the Winmalee shed (I could have met the others there) and sat there until after 6 when we were tasked to go and relieve Karen's brigade who were watching the fire from Faulconbridge Point. And there we sat, taking regular weather readings until after midnight when we were relieved by a Valley Heights crew. We'd whiled the time away by having dinner - those tightwads at Winmalee didn't think to feed us - we got the generator started and made ourselves toasted sandwiches and cuppas.

Pete L, Tracey and I got ourselves comfy on the rocks and played I Spy (two goes each and we were out of ideas) and The Prime Ministers Cat.

Pete McD. had been banging on about setting up his hammock all afternoon. I thought he was joking until I saw this :
I'd put my name down for the 6am crew on Saturday so was up and out again before 5:45 having got home after 1:30am. Again we were tasked to sit watching from Faulconbridge Point and taking weather readings every hour. I was armed with a book this time which I got a little bit read of and Holly played Uno with Craig. We were relieved some time after midday by Karen's lot again and headed home.

Shortly after we were back on the bitumen again and just outside Robbie's school we came across a car accident. A young girl had gone head first into a power pole and there was a live wire on the ground. No one was hurt luckily. We put witches hats on the road to keep people away from the power line and did traffic duty while waiting for the NSW Fire Brigade and the Police to come.

It was a hot, exhausting day and although we had a street party on and I was supposed to be going out with the school Mums, I just went to bed and tried to sleep.

The boys went with Jamie's friend Scott to their first concert last night - Lamb of God at Luna Park. They had a great time they said. They went down on the train but Ian went down in the car to bring them back, I didn't think it would be wise for them to be travelling home by themselves late at night.

Ishbel was supposed to be going to Carols by Candlelight with her friend Zanny but they had a bit of a falling out and she ended up coming home. She and I watched an episode of The Goodies before we both went to bed.

Hot weekend

It was hotter than hades all weekend, a Total Fire Ban was declared and then yesterday we woke up to a freezing 16C! If we all get the 'flu I won't be at all surprised.

It was a peaceful weekend with the boys off at a Venturer thing called Waratah that they go to each year. Just popped over to Facebook to see what they got up to but I don't think they've written about it.

I saw Robbie for the first time in what seemed like ages this morning (Tuesday) because the boys left for Waratah before I came home from work on Friday afternoon, I was at the station on standby until after 6:30pm on Sunday, the day they came back - I think I may have seen Robbie fleetingly before he went off to bed after his heavy weekend - he told me they made a raft out of an old table - I was up early yesterday morning before Rob got up to attend a conference in the City, he was at work by the time I got home and by the time he got home after 11pm I was tucked up in bed, snoring! I had trouble recognising him when he popped his nose round the bathroom door!!!!

Ian drove up to the Waratah with the boys because they needed someone to pull a trailer. He was unsure whether he would drive home again afterwards, I didn't want him to because it would be very late. Anyhow, Ishbel and I were the only ones home and readied ourselves for a girls night in. We rang and invited Karen so she and Xavier (promoted to girl for the evening) came over for a few hours.

Xavier is walking really well, albeit with that holding his arms up and out, loose-kneed, orangutan looking way. He'd just been doing a step or two when we saw him not long ago. It was a bit disconcerting when he bolted off along the length of the kitchen!

On Saturday evening we had some of the RFS crowd round for a BBQ. We had to arrange ourselves round social butterflies Nigel and Amanda who we hadn't seen for many months. Nigel is now working in real estate, working Saturday and Sunday and unable to come to training. We hadn't got together with the others for a while either so it was nice to hang out again.

On Sunday I'd put myself down for Standby at the station. I went armed with a board game, Carcasonne, and a book. The first thing we did was get loaded up in the truck and drive into Springwood for coffees! Just as we got back in the truck we watched a man scrape the car in front of him as he reversed into a car parking space. He then started to drive forward again to leave. Quick as a flash Steve was out the truck and over the road to tell him that if he didn't report it, we would. He tried to deny touching the car. "There's six firefighters in that truck would testify otherwise," said Steve. How did he think he could get away with it?

Back at the shed, I swept out the tanker bay - a complete waste of time because the wind blew all the dust and leaves back in again and by the time we left, it looked as it did before I started! In between weather reports from Narrow Neck nr Katoomba and Glenbrook, we played games, Carcassonne as mentioned before and Scrabble on Pete's iphone. At one point, according to our calculations, the RFS FDI or Fire Danger Index hit the new rating "Catastrophic"! I bought a couple of boxes on Friday and wrote out a list for our Bushfire Relocation Kits.

About 2am on Monday morning the cool change came through (I know because I was awake) and by morning it was even quite chilly. I had to be at the train station to catch the 6:40am train to the City to attend the Public Libraries NSW Conference which is being held in the Masonic Lodge on Goulburn Street - we had the speeches in the hall complete with big thrones, etc. Most of the speeches were interesting but the last session was deadly and it was all I could do to stay awake.

We wake up to the 6am news each morning. In this morning's news was a story about a ram raid on a fashion shop in which Prada bags among other goodies were stolen. I wonder if our management team, Vicki, Patou and Leisa, were involved - they were staying down there for a couple of nights!!

Not our brigade but it'll give you a taste for the RFS

Good old South Katoomba - ? now renamed - some of them are even nice people!

Fingers crossed

Jamie and I have our names down for our brigade's HR tomorrow morning. Hoping the weather holds out for us - getting conditions right can be very tricky - it can't be too wet or too windy or too dry or too hot.

Another big weekend

I note the last two weekend reports start "I should have posted this earlier but . . . " Let's see if I can do something different this weekend.

Haven't seen much of the family this weekend. I've been on a Rural Fire Driver course (Friday night, Saturday 12:30pm-11pm and Sunday 8am-5pm). It's so you can drive safely under lights and sirens and also teaches recovery for if you get a vehicle bogged and need to rescue it. The course, unfortunately, is heavily weighted in favour of those who drive the trucks which is not me yet. I'm there doing the 'light' component but spent a fair bit of the time in the back of a truck watching the boys having a go. That said, when I did get to drive the PC I got one-on-one attention. Today when we were out doing 'stall recovery' - how to recover yourself if you stall on a hill - I got to drive a Cat 7, one of the smaller trucks. I was then allowed to drive it back to the road. Woot woot.

In a month we do the second part of the course and the assessment. It is an overnighter with us going out west to Rydal.

Ian, Jamie and Ishbel meanwhile were heading out early on Saturday morning for Cronulla, all the way across town and south to the seaside where Jamie was playing his AFL match. It was the first time Jamie's team has played in a few weeks and unfortunately they lost. It must be nearly finals time, his season seems to be taking a long time, Robbie's soccer finished weeks ago.

Robbie was called in to work on Saturday afternoon and was still there when I came home. He's had a few shifts since the holidays where they've called him in at the last minute. I think he likes the money he earns.

Ishbel, having done the trip to Cronulla, was rewarded with a sleepover at Zanny's. She didn't come home until 6pm tonight and Zanny and Jeanne stayed for dinner - an Indian banquet which Ian had prepared for us. Yum!

Ian is recovering fairly well from his surgery - just getting his pin out on Wed - he was pretty sore for a day or so but I think it's better now. He's off work until Thursday at least; he has a GP appointment on Tuesday and an appointment with the hand specialist physio on Wednesday - he's just a bit concerned about how much flexibility he's going to have in his wrist.

Another busy weekend

Usual morning of shopping, housework and AFL. Jamie's opposition forfeited the match this weekend but the team photos had been organised so he still had to go down to his home ground and he'd been warned that the Reserve grade might need players. Indeed he did end up playing with them (older people in their early 20s). Enjoyed the ramped up pace and even managed to score a goal. Chuffed at that. The Penrith team won - Jamie got the impression the Reserve grade hadn't won many games this year because they were stoked - it's what Jamie's team has come to expect.

Once they were back we took Jamie and Robbie's old beds round to a friends. She has recently separated from her partner and was moving into a new place with her children. Several hours and one false start later the beds (Ikea beds - to explain the several hours) were up and we gobbled up some pizza before home to bed.

Jamie and I were up early this morning and out to RFS training. I knew it would involve cutting trails for the upcoming hazard reductions (perhaps 15/16 August, Karen & Dan - although keep 15th free coz that's Ishbels birthday party day). Jamie only came because I said if he didn't make an appearance at the preparation he'd likely not be allowed on the HR.

In fact, we did not only do trail cutting - did a few training drills for the first hour and half or so, including marshalling vehicles. If I'd seen this video, I could have tried some of these moves!



Another big start to the week tomorrow - Josie is off to the vet to be de-sexed again. Here's hoping all gets properly done and we don't have to repeat a third time.

In the evening Ishbel and I are going with Janet to the Rock Eisteddfod. We've been for several years in a row now and always enjoy it.

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!)