I just came back from Tyrone’s 2nd birthday party. It was a Wiggles theme and lots of people had skivvies on. About an hour after it started, Hamish and Andy and a film crew from Rove turned up to say hello as part of their weekend party marathon. This was the 14th party they had been to so far and they though they were on target to get to 30 before the night was out. What a time NOT to have a camera.

The wind yesterday was nowhere near as strong as today. Still it was enough to bring down some guttering and facia on a block of flats in Kingsford. The block was three storeys tall, but the material was stretching from the roof to the windows of the flats on the first floor. We were able to climb onto the roof of the laundry and secure the guttering to prevent it falling further. A quick job, but the call came just as I was going to bed. Ain’t it always the way.

Now that half of the children have left the nest, the house is starting to look a bit empty. There are rooms that don’t even get visited every day, so it seems about time to find a smaller place to live. Having only recently completed the renovations, the plan was not to move for about two years. However, the other day we were driving home and saw that a nearby apartment complex that has been under construction for the last six months, was open for inspection. We just went in to have a quick look and walked out having bought one.

It is only two bedrooms, but it is brand new and has plenty of space. The complex has a park in the middle and the apartment backs onto the park with a gate straight into the back courtyard.

Check out the preliminary pictures. (This is the display version, ours is actually not finished yet).

I received word the other day that a high school teacher in western Sydney is using “The Tale of Billy Carpenter and Smith’s Elastic Brace” in his Year 7 English class for poetry appreciation. The class are generally not good readers and the fact that an MP3 of the poem is available on the web site makes it easy for them to read along. How do this educational pioneer find out about my work, you ask? Well, they are an ex-flatmate.

Last night I had the honour of attending a gala dinner at the Sydney Hilton to receive a Bronze Award for the Sydney Water Annual Report in the Australasian Reporting Award. I work as one of the three people on the editorial team that puts the report together.

It is the second award since I have been working on the report, the first being for the 2005 report. (We didn’t enter in 2006). Now it is time to start working on the 2008 report. Head down bum up from now till it is finished.

The other day Rod Moon showed me a CD that had been released last year. It is called “The Lawson Project” and is a spoken word CD of Henry Lawson’s short stories. It comes with a bonus CD containing “Seventeen Classic Bush Poems” including two written by me. They are read by Dobe Newton and are the same two he released on a CD for the ABC a few years ago.

I was surprised to see the CD as I didn’t even know it was being released. I haven’t seen any royalties, but I won’t be holding my breath.

The bushwalking season in the Snowy Mountains ended this weekend (at least I am declaring it over anyway). Graham and I were intending to do the Roiund Mountain - Mount Jagungal loop with a side trip to Grey Mare Hut. The side trip was quite ambitious considering it would have meant walking about 25 km on the first day.

We made it to Derschkos Hut and then the weather began to close in. We stayed the night as the wind increased and the temperature dropped. The weather was too bad for camping and so we decided to return to the car. It was a four hour walk and so we only had until lunch time for the weather to clear, in order that we could make it back to the car before dark. The weather didn’t clear, and the snow began to fall.

We spent a second night in Derschkos Hut and managed to read every bit of paper in the place. The wind died down overnight, and the temperature dropped to -8C, but without the wind, it wasn’t that bad. The next morning the wind had gone, it was still -2C and very overcast.

We set out for the car, making a quick detour to Round Mountain Hut for lunch. The temperature stayed below zero for most of the walk, which was good, since the snow remained powdery and dry. The sun came out for a few minutes just before we got back to the car, but didn’t stay long. We drove home and it took a good 30km before all of the snow has blown off the roof.

A fun time was had by all.

Here are some more pics.

A training exercise to test the skills of the State Emergency Service was almost called off mid stream when a massive storm hit the area.

A stormwater drain being used for pumping and sandbagging practice, rose over a metre in less than ten minutes during the deluge. Tarping practice, which was being done on a large metal frame in the path of the storm was also suspended. The Westpac Surf Life Saving helicopter, which was helping out in the exercise, was also grounded during the storm, with the crew taking shelter in a mobile command van at Cooper Park.

The storm soon passed and the exercise resumed.

Check out the highlights below or on YouTube.

After much umming and ahhing, our property at Kanimbla is on the market. Although it is a wonderful block of land, the added burden of paying of the land whilst it is producing no income, has made us rethink our priorities. It is currently sitting on a number of “For Sale By Owner” web sites, so if you or someone you know is looking for an idyllic setting, have a look.

These are not two things that you would normally associate with each other, however they came together last weekend. As part of a Team Leader course, we had an exercise where we had to make a truck from Lego that would carry a piece of cement for 5 metres, and convince the judges to purchase our truck using a 2 minute commercial. We decide to go high tech and make a real commercial, and of course the most successful commercials are those with a song. Since it was about the SES, what better tune to use than SOS by ABBA.

The result is now on You-Tube.

If you are wondering about the start, the orange Rhino was our team mascot. His name was Neil.