As if I don't have enough trouble . . .

when doors have just one instruction!

Gillian on fire!

My office companion, Gillian, tracked me down on Saturday afternoon after the Foundation Day parade. She was with Clare and Emily, her daughter and granddaughter. We were trying to encourage Emily to try on my firefighting helmet but she wouldn't have a bar of it - even when "Nanny" had a go.
Clare took a few photos and I asked her to forward them to me as Gillian "couldn't remember" my email address. Luckily, and to Gillian's disgust, I found a business card in my wallet and Clare was able to send the photos to me.

Gillian is grumping around the office about the pictures and how I bullied her into putting on my gear but I think you'll agree she looks like she's having fun!

What a week!

We started the week off with a trip to the GP (again) on Monday afternoon for a progress check for Ian. His wound was looking a bit green when the dressing was taken off so a swab was taken and Sue, our GP, arranged for us to come back on Wednesday for another check. Ian's wrist was still very, very sore so she also arranged for him to have an XRay. He was so long that I had to leave him there and come home to collect Rob who had a shift at McDonalds. Then back to the radiology place to collect Ian.

On Tuesday I was at work for the morning but had a long-standing appoointment of my own with Dr Taper who, as I posted before, doesn't want to see me again. Jamie has AFL training on Tuesday at Penrith. He gets a lift down with other parents and we take the boys home. Rather than go all the way back up the mountains from Penrith I decided to stay down. I thought I might have time to go to the pictures until it was time to pick him up but got sidetracked and missed the start of the movie so went to the training ground with a copy of Revolutionary Road, our next book group book. It was chucking down the rain so I rang to see if Jamie had been picked up - he told me he was waiting for Ian (who isn't supposed to be driving) to come and get him. He'd not thought to let me know I could come home!

On Wednesday things were looking better with Ian's wound and Sue took the stitches out but the XRay of his wrist showed there may be a little break and she wanted him to have a CT scan to make sure. We have Worker's Compensation here which not only covers you for accidents at the workplace, it also covers you for your journey to and from work so Ian's treatment can be charged to the WorkCover authority. They had to give authorisation for the CT scan, however. We just had to get the paper work in and Ian's work hadn't sent it to us. We spent the afternoon chasing it up. Two forms of 3 pages each. We didn't get a case number until Thursday but Sue doesn't work on Thrusdays so when we saw her on Friday she had to ring and ask for authorisation for the CT scan before we could book Ian in. It took them 30 or more minutes to ring back saying it could go ahead.

Thursday was a big day for Robbie who was the recipient of an award at school. They make a big deal at his school about these things and we'd been invited to a special assembly but hadn't thought any of us, including Rob would be there - he was supposed to be playing cricket for the school but it was rained off - so we didn't book seats. Thursday was my only full day at work last week so I didn't feel I could take more time off and Ian had been forbidden officially to drive.

On Friday, while we were outside the GPs taking a phone call we were accosted by a woman wanting to know how Ian was doing. "What business is it of hers?" I thought then she explained she, Alison, had been on scene when he had his accident and had called the ambulance. We asked her what had happened, Ian not having any memory of the impact. She said he'd swerved to avoid the car but it had hit the bike and Ian had gone sailing over her bonnet! It was nice to be able to thank her for getting Ian help (one of 5 or 6 calls to 000 the ambos told Ian) and she'd given a statement to the police too.

I parked Ian at the library for an hour or so until my lunch break. It gave him a chance to choose some books to get him through the next week. Sue has told him he won't be going back to work before Easter.

On Friday evening Ishbel had her little friend, Zanny, staying overnight. I didn't see anything of her really. I had book group to go to. I quickly cobbled together dinner before going out and was home near midnight then Robert and I were up early to go and help out at the Springwood Foundation Day. As we did last year, we helped out with crowd control during the Fun Run (didn't look like a lot of fun to me!) and the parade. I asked the Captain if I could be in the truck for the parade. He didn't look very happy to be asked but eventually said yes and I had a ball, waving to all my fans! We travelled with the flashing lights on and I got to press the siren button a couple of times . . . no one told me about the loud speaker system until it was all over though!

I met up with Karen after we took our truck back to the station and we had a wander up the street and back. It took us ages. First she bumped into someone she knew then me. There was a point there where we took over 10 paces without meeting someone and it was really wierd!!!!

In the evening we went to Nigel and Amanda's house for dinner. They moved house a bit before Christmas and they've been promising to have the gang round and have been copping a lot of ribbing because it took them sooooooo long to get round to inviting us. We were hoping to see their new grandson, Aiden, but he had gone to his other Granny's for her birthday.

It was up early again to go out to training (but not as early as it might have been had it not been the end of Daylight Savings). At the last training night the gang had gone out along a track and found a tree fallen. We're not allowed to use chainsaws in the dark so they decided to go and deal with the tree today. Off we set down the track but it's pretty wet out there after rain ALL week and the truck was in danger of being bogged. After getting most of the crew to get out and walk in to the tree, Bruce the truck driver, David and I, who was PC driver, ended up reversing all the way back along the track to the road and approached by the other side. We found another two trees down. Lots of chainsawing for David but a tad boring for the rest of us. Never mind, we had lots of fun running away from leeches and getting the vehicles muddy.

This afternoon Jamie went to his friend Nick's house. Graeme and Kim are in an historical re-enactment society and Graeme has been doing some battle training with Nick, Jamie and Scott. As I arrived to pick Jamie up a few hours later it was to find that he'd expressed an interest in learning more about ENGLISH 12th Century history, the Templar Knights, etc. Kim and I voiced our disgust long and loud!!!

Just waiting for Poirot to finish on TV so I can go to bed and we can start all over again!

Never Darken My Door Again

Today I saw Dr Taper, the Haematologist who treated my Hodgkin's Lymphoma, for a check up. He told me never to darken his door again.

This is a good thing.

It's 5 years since I was sick (well, almost 5 years since my diagnosis) and he thinks I'll do OK. He told me I would right at the beginning. He's a wonderful guy.

In a few months I'll see Dr JJ, the Radiation Oncologist, and hopefully he'll say the same.

Going to andy griffiths

30.3.09

TODAY I WENT TO SEE ANDY GRIFFITHS THE AUTHUR HE IS THE FUNNIEST AUTHUR

I HAVE EVERY MET. AND TODAY I GOT MY BOOK HE WROTE AUTOGRAPHED. OMG!!!!.

(OH MY GOD) ANDY GRIFFITHS IS MY FAVOURITE AUTHUR!!!!!!!

THE ILLISTRATOR IS TERRY DENTON

From Ishbel

On Friday, i received my first Award for this year. it says Ishbel Colquhoun for working co-operativly in science groups.

HMDS

Tiring weekend

We have three very tired firefighters in our house tonight. James, Robert and I did the second weekend of our Village Firefighter course. Friday night 7:30 to 10:30/11pm, Saturday 8:30am-5pm and today 7am-5:30pm or so.

Today we went down to a council depot at a place called Kemp's Creek where we did the 'hot fire' day. Instead of just pretending to fight fires, the RFS can use containers and an old car and have really fires to put out. It's exhausting work as we do the drills 2-3 times each, in and out the truck laying hoses, putting out fires and then packing it all up again. We need a lot of practice before we will be ready for assessment at the end of May.

It is a filthy environment at Kemp's Creek. I'm planning to wash our gear at least twice and then run the washing machine empty a couple of times before doing any other washing. There was oil and grease and kerosene and drip torch fuel and gravel and tar and, and, and . . .

Meanwhile Ishbel and Ian have had a quiet weekend just the two of them. Under Ian's guidance Ishbel has made the boys a chocolate cake for their birthday. We have to have it tonight because someone or two is out EVERY night next week until next Sunday!

Lipstick unstick

According to a news report, a certain private school in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs was recently faced with an unusual problem. A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints.

Every night the maintenance man would remove them and the next day the girls would put them back. Finally the Headmistress decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night (you can just imagine the yawns from the little princesses).

To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required. He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet bowl, and cleaned the mirror with it.

The silence was broken by a large number of gasps, a few girls vomited and apparently someone fainted . Since then there have been no lip prints on the mirror.

There are teachers . . . and then there are educators.

Medieval Help Desk

Here's a video that shows some of the work I have to do as Administrator for our Library Management System. As it has subtitles you don't necessarily need to have the sound on.