Hazard Reduction

Finally got to do some firelighting!
After we'd finished at Springwood Foundation Day yesterday a gang of us went up to assist with the end of the hazard reduction (HR) at Faulconbridge. I was very pleased to be able to go because I'd had to say no to going the day before - book group were meeting at my place and we wouldn't be finished till late and I had to be at home didn't I?
When we first got to the control point I thought it was going to be another dud call and we'd get stood down without having done anything. We were told to wait 30 minutes while the Parks and Wildlife people put in aerial incendiaries. We then had to wait a further 60 minutes to see if we'd be needed.
Finally we got sent in to do some mopping up - just going in with hoses and putting out logs and things that might still be burning. However, our Deputy Captain, Bert, didn't think much of the job that had been done - still lots of unburnt scrub - so he set us to work with the drip torches and we made fire!! We only did an hour or so before we got sent home.
Today I went off to a normal First Sunday training session and found we were off to the HR again!
We got sent off down of a long road which ended at a house. We'd been told to ask if we could park the truck in their back yard, permission for which was duly granted. Dave drove onto the back garden, only to find it a bit soft so he turned the truck around. In doing so, however, he nearly got bogged and we've left several enormous, 50-60cm deep gouges in some poor family's back garden. Ooops!
Again we were tasked with taking a look at yesterday's work. Off down the hill we trooped, admiring the lovely track that one of our number, Josh, had helped cut last year. A fair way down we found some unburnt stuff and Josh and I got sent ALL the way back up the hill again to get the drip torches.
Down we went again and Steve soon had Josh and I at work, lighting up the bush. However, we'd been a bit slack when returning to the station last night and hadn't refilled the drip torches so it wasn't very long before we had to head ALL the way back up the hill to refuel.
And back down we went.
I had no idea what hard physical labour I'd signed up to. Steve seemed to make for the middle of each patch of scrub rather than go around it. We were bashing through some pretty dense scrub. It would catch on the drip torch, trip us up and poke us in the ears as we struggled through.
By the time we were heading ALL the way back up for the third time I was thoroughly exhausted and could barely move one foot ahead of the other. There was the opportunity of staying on for more in the afternoon but I'd had it by then and I'd been holding Steve and Josh back so I gracefully declined. As well as the tiredness I'd pulled a muscle in my calf early on in the day and I wasn't really fit for any more today.
We found several of the incendiaries while we were down there. Tiny little white balls, slightly smaller than a ping pong ball they get injected with fuel and dropped from a helicopter. I was surprised at how small they were. No wonder we hadn't seen them dropping yesterday afternoon.
I've taken a few pics with my phone over the couple of days I've been out but I haven't got the wherewithall to download them from the phone to the computer just yet but will post them under the RFS slideshow when I do.

Springwood Foundation Day

It was Foundation Day in Springwood on Saturday. The main street is blocked off and stalls go up on both sides of the street all the way down its length and there is a fun fair and a couple of stages with community groups giving performances - school choirs and bands, various dance troupes, etc. We Springwood Colquhouns were all involved one way or another.
It was a glorious day - it always seems to turn out nice for Foundation Day - I nearly wrote there were blue skies, but that's not entirely true, there'd been a hazard reduction (burn off) at Faulconbridge and Linden the day before so there was smoke coming from the west. In the east there were blue skies.
First out the door on Saturday morning were Heidi and the boys. We had to be at the fire station by 07:30. We were doing crowd control duty. It wasn't toooooo onerous. There was a fun run that came through mid morning and we had to run the tapes out and man the barricades for that but then we had several hours to kill, so we wandered around in little gangs getting cuppas, watching some of the dancers and singers and eating - Heidi with Marie and Bec, two of the VHRFS ladies, Rob with his mate Leigh (also VHRFS) and Jamie caught up with some of his school mates.
We were back on duty around 1pm for the big parade coming through. Keeping back the larger crowds then was not easy. I watched Marie as she marched up and down her patch telling people to get back and make way for the trucks - she'd get them moving back in front of her but they would surge back forward once she was past - it was like watching King Canute try to keep the tide from coming in!
Ian and Ishbel meanwhile were kitting themselves out in Scout gear. They were in the march and then helped out at the Scout BBQ for a while.

20th Wedding Anniversary

It's our 20th Wedding Anniversary today.

Ian asked me if I wanted an eternity ring the other day but I politely declined (for the time being) there's plenty more useful things we can be spending our money on. Perhaps for the 25th . . .

Just as I was getting my cup etc ready for morning tea today Margaret came down from the library with a huge box. For me. In it were 12 long stemmed red roses.

I keep having a go at Ian for not buying me flowers then when he does he gets a row for spending large sums of money on them. When will he learn the occasional $10 bunch will keep me happy? When I berated him again this morning he said it was a good job he'd told the lady he didn't want to spend much!

Tonight we all went out to dinner at an Indian restaurant in Glenbrook. It was very nice but our eyes were bigger than our stomachs and we have brought most of it home to reheat for tomorrow's dinner.

Sweet 16

It is the boys 16th birthday today. We got them RFS shirts upon request. Now they are 16 they can become full members of the Brigade. Our next meeting is on Tuesday so it'll probably be made official then.

On Friday we went out for a Chinese meal with Robbie's friends, Harley and Leigh. Karen and Ben also joined us.

Yesterday it was the usual mad running around doing chores and getting kids to sport. We've only got to run around with Rob (rugby union) and Ishbel (soccer) at the moment and that's tight enough - not sure when Jamie (Aussie rules) starts but it's going to be interesting!

Today Jamie and two of his mates, Nick and Scott, went to the Easter Show. Ian and Ishbel also went while Robbie did his homework (!! - his choice) and I did a long long walk and the windows.

The rest of the birthday photos can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11895723@N05/sets/72157604311901171/show/

Ian is going to be a Grampa

Here he is - overwhelmed but excited!

(Having the male equivalent of what's called a "Nana Nap" round here.

Heidi to the (Search and) Rescue!

I have a pager for the RFS which goes off every day between 4pm-5pm and gives the weather forecast for the following day. On Monday it had gone off as usual and, as usual, I pressed every button on the wee machine trying to read the message and shut it up. So when it went off again around 6pm, I just thought I hadn't done it properly earlier so was very surprised to see there was an incident message.

Not quite au fait with procedure, I rang my mate Steve and asked him what to do. Bec was getting her gear on and would pick me up in 3 minutes he said. Quick call to Ian who was at the Scout Hall with Ishbel to check it was OK and I was diving into my yellows.

Bec arrived as promised and fairly flew along the road to the station - I think we were airborne a few times!

One of the Deputy Captains, Craig, and his son, Nathan, were already there. All we knew at this stage was that the 'incident' was a search and rescue. We packed torches, water and a teddy (in RFS gear) in case it was a kiddy, got in the PC and headed off down Bee Farm Road.

There were two Police vehicles and crews from Faulconbridge, Warrimoo and 4 of us there. The person missing was a woman in her 40s who'd gone walking during the afternoon with two dogs. The Police had been able to make shouting contact with her and were trying to get to her.

We were sent off down a track - we used to walk Derek there often - but got called back again after a very short time. The woman had been located and a helicopter had been called in to see if it could winch her out.

Dan was there. I took a run and jump at him and, seeing the surprised looks on those about us, said 'it's my boyfriend". Dan put them straight pretty quick!

We then hung about waiting to be deployed for ages. Later 6 men, including Dan, from the Faulconbridge crew were sent off with a stretcher to find her. It was thought that the helicopter had been unable to do the winching thing, I think.

Shortly after that we were told that, if nothing else was heard, we'd be getting deployed in five minutes. I'd been there for some hours by now and had been guzzling water so I was pretty busting. Luckily Bec knew someone in a house nearby so we went off to ask if we could use their toilet.

Turns out I knew her too, from the Tanderra Parent Committee, Margie. Bec told her I needed the toilet and then all but elbowed me out of the way to get in first! Then she told Margie I had been wanting chocolate and took first choice when Margie raided the secret Easter stash!!

Sadly (for us), shortly after we got back to the assembly area we were stood down, the helicopter had been able to winch the woman up and was on the way to Nepean with her for her to have a check up.

I'm not sure how far Dan and the others had got, presumably not too far.

Lunatic Park?

It was my Union Picnic Day today and members were treated to a free day at Luna Park in the shadow of The Bridge on Sydney Harbour. It's an annual event and, since joining the Union 3 years ago, I have taken the kids in turn. Three years ago the day out was to Taronga Zoo and I went with Ishbel and my friend, Janet, and her daughter, Georgia. Last year was also Luna Park and I went with the boys, their friend, Harley, and my friend, Kim. So this year it was Ishbel's turn again, and Luna Park again but we went ourselves.
We were up and out and on the train by 8:05am and down to the City. Last year there was an enormous queue to get in but this morning we just walzed in without any delays and were one of the first so didn't have to queue too long for any of our first rides.
We started of on the ferris wheel then went for a dodgem car ride, into Coney Island and then on the carousel, back on the dodgems and back on the carousel before heading off. In Coney Island there were a whole lot of old fashioned things to do -funny walking thingys, etc. but it also had a couple of giant slides. Ishbel had us climb all the way to the top before she bailed out!
Ish now thinks she is ready for the road having had two goes on the dodgems. Look out Springwood!
When we finished up at Luna Park we headed across the harbour on a ferry to Circular Quay where we had lunch and a quick squizz at the Opera House. On the way back to the train, we came across a busker and sat and watched him for twenty minutes or so. Ishbel thoroughly enjoyed his antics.
A gelato on the way back to the train completed a very nice day.
See the pictures from our day here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11895723@N05/sets/72157604145437592/show/

Six Foot Track Marathon

This weekend I was one of a crew of 5 to go to man a staging post on the Six Foot Track Marathon http://www.flickr.com/photos/11895723@N05/sets/72157604088189645/show/.
Each year there is a foot race along the track - all 45kms of it. The Six Foot Track is an old stock route and goes from The Explorer's Marked Tree, near Katoomba to Jenolan Caves. It is run as a fund-raiser for the Rural Fire Brigade and the RFS man drinks stations along the route and provide support such as carrying out retired and injured runners.
We met up at the station at 6am and left shortly thereafter in the PC (4WD). Kim dozed on and off but I don't know how she did - it's not built for comfort. We headed west over the other side of the mountains then took a dirt track. A lot of bouncing around and pot holes later we found ourselves back on the bitumen, 40 minutes behind schedule and way off track. I was feeling decidedly queasy and was wondering whether to chuck out the window or reach for my helmet when we finally found our spot and parked ourselves at the top of a hill. We didn't have much time to set up our tables with sports drink and water and cut up some bananas and water melon before the first runners started coming round the corner.
Terry and I kept the cups of fluids filled while Kim and Graham counted off the runners - they don't want anyone getting left there. Most of them were very good natured and thanked us for being there. As they staggered up the hill many also asked how we were! We were fine, we weren't doing any running. There was one cranky so and so who when Terry said "Powerade on the first table, water on the second," snarled it was "High Five" not Powerade. We changed the chant to "sports drink" after that.
We wished we had some way of getting back at them. Kim thought we should radio ahead to the next station that they were terrorists and needed to be detained. Today I found out that it was the Bullaburra crew at the next station and they included my colleague, Rita. She was telling me today they were all dressed as Crime Scene Investigators so we could have had the cranky runners (or the yummy ones) detained for questioning and giving of DNA samples!!
Kim was rating the men and would give me a heads up on the pretty boys. Then David, our captain tried to help. "Is that it?" I said after he alerted me to some very disappointing talent. "Remind me not to go on the pull with you, David, you've got a rubbish taste in men!"
It was my first time and naively I put out a rubbish bag for people to put their rubbish in. I could tell the first few people wanted to be tidy but as the morning progressed the mounds of cups, banana peels and wrappers grew.
I had been needing a wee when we got there, but being late, as I said we had no time to lose in getting set up. Pouring water into little cups all morning was torture but finally the field thinned out and I had the opportunity to go to the loo - but where? As you can see from some of the shots above, we were on the top of a hill with no trees around. We were in a cow field with long grass so I didn't fancy tromping through the grass and disturbing snakes. I followed a track down the hill and found myself a nice little hollow to drop my strides in. Aaaaaaaah the relief. Then started back up the hill to the rest of the crew. And not a minute too soon. As I began my treck back, two PCs came past. 30 seconds earlier and they would have found me in my hollow, with my strides round my ankles. As Rita said, that would've been round all the brigades before I'd reached my crew!!! It's a risky life as a female firefighter!
The last runners are followed by sweepers who look for stragglers and run the Track with a broom! Once they came through we were able to clean up all those plastic cups and head home via the pie shop at Wentworth Falls.

So how do you end up liking Rachid Taha?

As we drove home this evening, Jamie asked me how you get out of touch with popular music.
I began by telling him that none of us ever think we will. I remember Fiona and I giggling in bed in Dulmen over a copy of Smash Hits over our parents lack of musical taste. Thought it would never happen to us, didn't we . . .
For me, the beginning of the end came in emigrating to Sydney. Here the commercial stations all seem to play nothing but the 70s, 80s and 90s music - music I'd heard before. I got fed up with it and started listening to ABC radio instead - talkback radio with only a smattering of music.
Yes, but how do you end up liking Rachid Taha was what he really wanted to know . . .

Here's a YouTube clip of Rachid Taha doing a cover of The Clash's Rock the Casbah: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOjTOn9lC9I

and here : Listen To Tekitoi you can sample some of his music.

And the answer is . . . I got to liking Rachid Taha via bellydance classes - we did a dance to the aforementioned Rock the Casbah.

New student at Faulconbridge Public School

After lazing about in bed until about 3pm, furiously finishing my book group book, yesterday, I got up and got around to doing what Ishbel has been requesting for a while - I made Angel a school uniform.

Not bad if I say so myself.