Righting the truck

Just a few pics of the truck being righted.

You can see a slide show of all pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11895723@N05/sets/72157603379154328/show/

Overturned truck on Victoria Pass 2

Back down at the overturned truck we were put to work moving the gear out of the truck into another truck which was not even half the size of the overturned one. Much 'you've gotta be kidding" and expletives when we saw what we had to try to do. We got a line going, ferrying stuff from one truck to the other. Most of the stuff being moved was not in good condition, even before it went head over heels, it looked like it was more ready for the tip than relocating in a new house. I suspect the poor owner of the stuff would not have insurance to cover the damage.

Luckily it was Saturday and the traffic wasn't as heavy as it would be tomorrow when people who've been away for the weekend returning to Sydney. We were able to keep a two way flow going, only stopping the traffic entirely for 20 mins or so while the truck was righted and attached to the back of the tow truck.

Overturned truck on Victoria Pass

So Steve and I jumped in the truck and headed up to the overturned truck on Victoria Pass and found ourselves helping out.

The truck was full of stuff from a family moving house. The driver had borrowed the truck from a brother-in-law and the breaks had failed going down the very steep hill. He was very lucky that no one was seriously hurt (his young son and another adult were also in the truck when the accident happened), that he didn't encounter any other vehicles coming up the other way because he ended up on the wrong side of the road, and that he didn't go careering over the guard rail and into the 90 metre drop.

But before we dealt with the truck there was another vehicle in distress on the pass. A ute had broken down - this one had a Santa's sleigh on the back and was towing a horse box. In the horse box were 3 live reindeer!! We hooked them up and towed them up to the top of the pass to the nearest petrol station.

Rob's Bushfire Assessment Day

Robbie had his BF assessment today. His mate, Nick, was also being assessed and Nick's dad, Graham and I went as a helpers/assessors. We had a busy day in wet, dreich Katoomba. Following completing the multiple choice questions, the teams had to deal with a small fire scenario, a property protection scenario and a large fire scenario.
Graham and I had a bit of trouble keeping a fire going in some drums - even the liberal use of the drip torches couldn't keep the straw burning well in the rain. The first team we dealt with got a reasonable blaze to tackle but subsequent fires were rather laughable.

Rob's team was held up for a little while after one of the team complained of chest pains. The ambulance was called but it seems he was having a severe anxiety attack and the ambos went off to attend a motor vehicle accident (MVA).

During lunch a couple of teams were quickly put together to attend the MVA also - a truck had overturned going down Victoria Pass. Graham raced off to help while we finished off the assessment with the boys.

We couldn't go home without Graham so had a bit of hanging about to do. The assessment day was held at Firecom at Katoomba. I've been there several times as Council use the building for training but hadn't been in the communications room. One of our brigade, Helen, was working there so she gave me a quick overview of what they do.


After hanging about for some time, Steve decided he and I would go up to the MVA and have a look. We had to leave Robbie and Nick because they are not yet certified to attend incidents and they are still too young to do so even if they were.

Wet weekend

I had an email last week from Margaret, a friend I made while at the Stirling Royal Infirmary. She wrote saying "You will all be enjoying your summer weather now. I will be thinking of you all ,while i look out of our conservatory windows at grey skies and pouring rain."
How ironic to be writing back "it sounds like the views from our windows are the same as yours".
It's been raining for most of the past week which hopefully is getting into the water catchment areas and filling up the dams. A huge percentage of NSW is drought declared but I haven't heard much about the farmers out west getting rain. The last time they got rain out west they all rushed to put crops in the ground thinking the drought had broken but the rain didn't last and the crops died. Our local baker has a sign saying the price of flour has gone up 45% because of the drought.
As I write though, there is a gentle drizzle, it is cold and we are all wearing jumpers. The newly washed dog has just been for a walk with Ian and stinks of eau de wet chien.
The other night there was another thunderstorm with one huge, loud clap of thunder that rumbled and shook the house. It went on so long we began to wonder whether it hadn't been a bomb.
Our boys are out in all this weather on a Scout camp. It's a water-based camp this time and they are having to build a raft and sleep on it all night. We aren't sure they have taken much in the way of wet weather gear and almost expect them to ring to be rescued.
Clive has just rung to say the Bush Fire Brigade Christmas picnic has been cancelled.
We are going up to Katoomba for dinner this evening for to celebrate Stephen's birthday. The restaurant is called Swiss Cottage (http://www.swisscottage.com.au/). There are escargots on the menu - think we can get Ishbel to eat any? We had a French French teacher at school (Mrs Macnamara of course) who brought escargots in once. Even under threat of getting an order mark I couldn’t bring myself to eat them.
It’s voting day today and as voting is compulsory in Australia we have had to trot along to our local polling place and make our mark.

Joey visit to the zoo

on sunday i went to the zoo and i got to feed and pat a possum i made a frog pond and a lizard lounge and i also caught a tadpole.

Picture: Ishbel and Joanna Kibble

Long Service Award

Yesterday Blue Mountains City Council had a Long Service Award ceremony. There hasn't been one for several years so mine for 10 years was a bit overdue (I started as a casual early 2006).
We were given to understand that attendance was compulsory so a gaggle of us library types organised to meet for lunch in Katoomba beforehand.
After a disappointing lunch (Mountain Memories will be remembered for its rubbish and expensive Caesar salads) we made our way to the Civic Centre for the presentations.
Felicity (Bella's old 'grandma", I'll post a picture when I can) and I were among 6 or so library staff who had 10 years under their belts, one had 15 years and two had 20 years.
Our names were called, 10 year people going first. Of course, Colquhoun was mispronounced 'Calhoun'. I told the guy the right pronounciation and he announced me . . . as Heidi Calhoun - eeek. Shake hands with the General Manager and Councillor Hamilton, get framed certificate and cross stage for hand shake from Dave, or division manager (who likes my hair by the way!). Sit through everyone else getting their certificates. Those with 15 years + of service also got a money voucher.
One of the men from the Springwood Office, Phil, was there getting his 35 year award. His manager had dug back in his personnel file and gave a speech about his time in council. Another man was getting a 40 year award!
I first met Phil when I was working down in Springwood during my chemo treatment. I thought his name was Dave and said "Good morning, Dave" every day. He never said a word about it. It was only just before Christmas last year that I found out his name is Phil and had to apologise. Now I call him anything but Phil - Oscar, Gordon, Basil - yesterday it was Humphrey - and he calls me Betty, Edith, Alice . . .
As the ceremony finished and we were getting up to leave, we were told there was a late entrant. One of my colleagues, Sue, had arrived late and now it was her turn to go up on the stage all by herself. Redface! She'll never arrive late for anything ever again.
As we were tucking in to an afternoon tea, the heavens opened. A great torrent of rain hurled itself down accompanied by thunder, lightning and marble-sized hail. The lights went out and soon the roof was leaking and we had to stand under the awning outside while the half-dome light shades filled with water.
Debbie, the branch librarian at Katoomba, raced off to fetch a broom - the veranda under the awning slopes towards the library door and it floods the library in heavy rain. When I was acting branch librarian there a few years ago we had to shut for several days after the whole foyer ended up under water.
Sadly the GM had left so he didn't see the extent of the problem but one of the senior managers was helping Debbie sweep the water away from the door so perhaps someone will listen when problems are reported in future.
The storm only lasted 20 minutes or so, but left Katoomba and a fair way down the hill to Bullaburra without power (15, 000 homes Ian said was reported on ABC radio).
At home the storm was threatening so we got ourselves prepared by looking out the candles and camping lamp. There was some lightning but we didn't get the heavy rain, hail stones or wind that the upper mountains did.
The boys went out to Venturers last night, driven there by Fiona Kibble who told us that a flash of sheet lightning hit the road in front of the car, blinding her for a good 30 seconds.

This whirlwind week

We've hardly seen each other this week, Ian and I, with one of those lots-of-meetings-and-stuff weeks.
Monday: Me, James and Robert in, Ian and Ishbel out at Joeys.
Ishbel had stopped going to Joeys but went a couple of weeks ago when the Melbourne Cup was on and they were making racing silks (out of crepe paper) and doing horsey races round the hut. There is an activity on today (more about that to follow) and I told her that, if she wanted to do the thing today, she'd have to keep going, not just cherry pick the more interesting days. After this there will be Christmas parties, etc. to keep going for.
Tuesday: Ian and the kids in, me at a Tanderra (Ishbel's after school care centre) meeting.
Wednesday: Me and Ishbel in, Robert and James at Venturers, Ian ferrying boys back and forth. This week the Venturers went to Glenbrook pool for fun and games there.
Thursday: Ian and the kids in, me at Joanne's. It was Joanne's first day of chemotherapy and she wanted someone to "babysit' her because she didn't know how she was going to be feeling. She had a long day as she also had a port inserted - a little device that goes under the skin with a tube fed into a vein - the next time she goes the chemo line is clipped into the port. Her chemo is fed in over 2 days so it means her arm isn't strapped up with a drip in it and she can be a lot more mobile. Unfortunately there was a bit of trouble getting the port in and she was feeling pretty bruised and sore.
Friday: Ian, James and Ishbel in, Robbie at work and me out at Bushfire Brigade training. this time we did Pre-incident planning in the shed then went out doing some Local area familiarisation (very important that we know trails, waterholes, hazards, etc in our area) which involved some bush bashing and the removal of a tree from the track by pulling it out of the ground - we aren't allowed to use chain saws after the sun goes down.
Saturday: Ian and Ishbel in, Robbie at Lee's, Jamie to Kirsty's birthday party and me working at the Timelines Local History conference. Ishbel had her friend, Zanny over to play. Robbie is away overnight. Jamie was back shortly after 9pm having enjoyed his pool party. The conference went smoothly although there weren't enough attendees for the library to even break even so it's doubtful that it will continue in coming years. My colleagues Jenny, Gillian and I were there to register delegates and sort out the catering while our supervisor Robyn and John the local studies librarian ran the conference. Most of our day was fairly boring, waiting for the next meal break. Unlike last year when we spent lots of time preparing morning and afternoon tea, this year the catering was all done for us (the Leisure Centres have a catering service called Aquafresh which is very good). I came home with a big plate of sandwiches, a cheese platter and lots of cake thinking the boys would soon polish it off, forgetting they were both out. desperate calls to Karen and Dan, Sharon and Janet and Steven to come and help us finish them proved useless. Luckily Zanny's dad agreed to take sandwiches for the cricket team today but an awful lot of food went into the bin.
Sunday: Everyone out. I'm off to Katoomba for book group in half an hour or so. We've been reading Alice in Wonderland this month. I've enjoyed it. I started to read it to Ishbel when we lost Harry Potter but gave up when Harry turned up again so I'll try again later. Robbie is still at Lee's. He'll be back later then out again, I see he has to work again this evening. Ian, Jamie and Ishbel have gone with the Scouts (Joeys, Cubs and Scouts) down to Sydney to the zoo. Jamie wasn't keen and went off kicking and screaming and grumbling but I wasn't going to have him doing nothing all day, especially with everyone else being out. I know going to the zoo is quick and easy for you Edinburgh types but it's a big deal trip for us. Ishbel was excited and keen to see her favourite - the Tasmanian Devil.

Ishbel's award

Ishbel got a Core Values award this Friday in assembly. She crosses her fingers and hopes for one every Friday and has had a few. She's been aiming to get at least one of each of the Core Values this year and has finally done it.

Her school, Faulconbridge Public School (http://www.faulconbri-p.schools.nsw.edu.au/) has four Core Values:

1. Positive Relationships - valuing all members of the school community as individuals


2. Healthy Environments - maintaining a clean and safe school


3. Learning - providing effective learning paths for all


4. Personal Growth - sharing and developing ideas, skills and opinions.

As you see, this one is for Learning.

Renovations hit the first hurdle

Got a phone call from Rod the house designer guy - what we'd been talking about last Friday will be way over our budget. He said he'd come over sometime and discuss options but we're feeling a bit down at the moment.