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!!

Looking back on another week

From the middle of the week this time.

Last Wednesday was Joanne's funeral. It was held at the crematorium at Leura. There's a lovely little chapel building at the edge of a hill looking over bushland. It's quite beautiful. Ian and I went up with Robbie and Ishbel. Joanne's eldest sister, Margaret, gave a lovely speech followed by Joanne's friend from college, Linda. It was very hot in the chapel and a few people had to leave to get some air and three people passed out - including our own Ishbel. She was complaining of feeling a bit sick, I was trying to find a seat and then her eyes just rolled back in her head and she just flopped. A short rest on the lawn at the front of the chapel with all the other floppers and a glass of water and she was right again. After all the ceremonial stuff was finished we let go 47 purple balloons. The reception/wake was held at the golf club in Springwood.

On Friday the washing machine was finally fixed with a new pump being installed. However, after putting on the first load I found water all over the floor in the laundry - the man hadn't connected things up properly. Luckily Ian had been paying close attention to what he'd done otherwise and was able to correct the problem.

On Saturday Ishbel and I went down to Bowral with Cathy for the afternoon. Her boys had left their Nintendo DSs at friends during the holidays and we were meeting Chris to get them. After meeting Chris over lunch we pootled about the bookshops and antique shops then finished with 3 enormous ice creams before heading home.

Meanwhile Robbie and Ian went cricketing leaving Jamie to hold the fort at home. Robbie's team lost - the umpire came from the opposing team and the decisions were not without controversy apparently.

Robbie has signed up for both soccer and rugby this winter. I'm not at all sure how we're going to manage to get him to games and Jamie to his AFL games. Jamie doesn't start his comp until April but we have the draw already. He has games ALL over Sydney. Some with early starts. I've said to Ian they should just stay overnight near the venue for those ones.

Ian went for a long bike ride to Oberon on Sunday morning. On the first Sunday of the month he usually does that with a crowd of fellas while I go to RFS training leaving Ishbel at Ruby's house. We'd not got into our stride after the holidays though and hadn't arranged for Ishbel to go to Ruby's. It wasn't until mid-morning that Carolyn rang wondering where Ishbel was! Ruby came round to play in the afternoon and we'll get back into it next month.

The boys have started back at Venturers tonight. Tomorrow Robbie starts work at McDonalds in Blaxland. He's to be there at 4:30pm for orientation. Jamie starts his AFL training at 6pm and at 7:30 I plan to take Josie to dog school. Phew!

Oh and the forecast is for hot, hot, hot weather this weekend. Yeuch.

We're back online at home.
It's Ian's birthday on Friday but he'll be spending a very quiet evening with just him and Ishbel at home. The boys are away overnight at a Scout all night movie event and I am out and about with the RFS doing the Navshield competition.