Last night on the way home I was listening to the news on the radio and they were reporting on the storms that hit Sydney on Friday afternoon. “One apartment block at Hillsdale had to be evacuated after it was struck by lightning.” “Hey”, I thought “That’s the place I’ve just been fixing.” and the following morning there were pictures on the TV news.
The place we were working on was a typical 1970s three storey block of flats with a central staircase half way down the building. The lightning had struck the roof directly above the stairwell. It blow a massive hole in the roof, scorched a hole through the ceiling and blew (as in blew off the wall) every light fitting and light switch in the stairwell. The whole stairwell was awash with broken glass and sundry bits of light fitting.
Luckily we had access through the manhole into the ceiling space and started gathering the intact roof tiles to put them back on the roof. There was also a flimsy piece of black plastic flapping on the breeze which had been the attempt by the fire brigade to fix the hole. In the meantime a cherry picker had arrived to take two of us onto the roof from the outside and clean up the debris scattered about the roof.
By working simultaneously inside and outside the roof we were able to quickly replace the intact tiles and ‘move’ the multiple small holes into one big hole for tarping. I had worked on a very similar type job at Randwick during the June 2007 storms so we used the same techniques. However the damage in that case was from a tree falling on the roof and nowhere near as impressive as the damage done by the lightning. We finished the job at 11pm after about four hours and went home for a well earned rest.
Today our SES unit had a training day with the Police rescue Squad and the Surf Lifesaving Association rescue helicopter.
We were training on the sandstone cliffs just near the helicopter base at La Perouse, just inside the Botany Bay National Park. When the Police arrived, they discovered that their key to the gate didn’t work and so they employed the ‘universal key” (bolt cutters) to cut the padlock and gain access. The cops had a realistically weighted (70kg) dummy which we placed at the bottom of a cliff and then set up a Larkin frame at the top of the cliff to set up a hauling line. We lowered a person to the bottom of the cliff followed by a Stokes litter (stretcher). We then put the body in the Stokes and hauled it back up the cliff.
Later in the day we took the body in the stretcher out to the rock platforms and the helicopter came and winched it up to the cliff top.
All in all, lots of fun and getting to play with some new equipment. The SES and Rescue Squad are now familiar with how the other works and they are confident that we will be able to help each other out if the need arises.
Today I visited a great art exhibition called “Under the Sun” at the Mount Tomah Botanical Gardens. The art was by Joseph Saad and Scott Cardamatis and was made primarily by sticking seed pods to a piece of wood. As simple as this seems, the results are stunning. Check out the photos I took of the exhibition and see even more at www.ausecoart.com.au.
The exhibition continues until Sunday 21 February.
Gyprocks walls, check.
Tile walls, check,
Install cupboards, mirror, lights, basin and shelf, check.
Fill space under bath. Dum de dum dum
There are times when you wonder why you work for the public service and then there are times when you say “Yes, this is what it is all about, this is democracy in action.”
Such a time happened the other day when this email arrived on my desk. It had gone from the Premier to the Water Minister marked to be given “All necessary attention” which is code for “Ignore it”. It travelled from the Minister’s office to the Commissioner of Water and finally (as it is vaguely linked to recycling) to my desk.
It was marked to me as “For Information Only” which means read and file in bin.
Have a read and see what you think. (Click on the thumbnail for the readable version)
I have no idea where he got the idea that the government was going to tax the water in his water tank.
It has been a long time coming but we finally have both a flushing toilet and a shower (with hot water) in the shed at Lowther. No more having to empty and maintain the chemical toilet and no more boiling water in the kettle to have a bird bath.
The bathroom is still not lined, so it still has that shed feel to it, but it won’t be long until it is lined.
Well, Movember is almost finished for another year and to date I have raised $635 for the mens health charities Beyond Blue and The Australian Prostate Foundation.
Thanks to all those who donated, it is very much appreicated.
For those who haven’t, you can still donate at http://au.movember.com/mospace/138571/
The first I’ve seen anyway…….
I had an SES callout last night to secure a 3m satellite dish that had fallen on the roof of a shed. The supporting pole come up through the roof of the shed and had rusted through right at roof level. We could only walk on half o the roof of the shed, as the other half was rotten with white ants. The dish was too heavy to move, (over 100kg) but the owner said that it had moved in the wind since falling down 2 days ago. We pushed the dish lining out of the frame to decrease the wind resistance and then tied it down using the newly exposed frame. It was just one of three satellite dishes in the back yard and we ended up using one of the others as the anchor point for the rope holding down the dead dish.
My friends will definitely be seeing less of me now than they did 11 weeks ago. I started on a fitness regime and in that time I have lost 10.1kg.
My waist has dropped from 99cm to 87cm (2 pant sizes) and my body fat has dropped from 34.1% to 25.7%
I’m feeling fitter stronger and don’t look quite so ‘prosperous’ anymore.
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