Quiet week................

It's been quiet this week.

Ben had Thursday off due to another teacher's strike and with some of his school mates went to Penrith to see Iron Man - we figured that the teacher's strike wasn't his fault so they might as well take advantage of it. I am now having Thursdays off - but obviously the movies were more exciting than Mum being home! I caught up briefly with Heidi and Co in the afternoon for a cuppa.

Friday Ben was off sick - sore throat, complaining of aching chest and was running quite a high temperature - fortunately, Daniel was having that day off so he had someone home with him.

Daniel was suppose to be going to the "Easter Bunny" event for the RFS. It is a mystery course that different brigades undertake and they have different exercises to do. As there wasn't many from Faulco going, Daniel and Toby were going to be buddied up with Woodford but it turned out it was going to have to be an overnight thing so Daniel changed his mind. I guess that's why other brigade members didn't go either. It's called the "Easter Bunny" because it used to be held over Easter but now it's done at the end of May out of fire season.

Saturday there was no rugby due to other team forfeiting! Not that Ben would have been playing as he was still unwell. Apparently at least half of the other team play rep rugby for South West Sydney under 14s and had other commitments so Ben's team won by default - 28 - 0 (how do they work out a score if they never played??) !! Probably just as well as this appears to be one of the top teams and the only way to beat them would be for them not to turn up - very convenient!

Sunday I took the pups for a walk and we met a steam train along the way! I don' t think they (the pups) were too impressed - I thought it was quite cool though.

I only got the one photo, I have a new phone and couldn't reset quick enough to get another photo.

It came past quicker that I expected and was cheating - it has a diesel engine on the back pushing it along!

It goes from Central Station up to Katoomba and then back again later in the day. According to the web site it is due back again in July.

I can hear it now heading back down the mountains.

And that's it for this week!

Birthday Boys Weekend

Well another birthday has come and gone. Ben's birthday was Friday - he had the usual school to go to, it was also school photo day.

In the evening it was our Brigade's general meeting where Ben signed up as a new cadet in the Rural Fire Service - they can join officially at 12 yrs but our Brigade has a age ruling of 14yrs. He had to stand up in front of a room full of Brigade members and introduce himself and give a brief bio on himself. He did very well especially considering there were quite a few members there that night - we were passing our new Brigade constitution before the Annual General Meeting due next month, so attendance was higher than usual. Afterwards we took off for pizza (Ben's requested meal) and a DVD.

Saturday we had to travel to Baulkham Hills for Ben's rugby game - the team they played this week was Hills Black, they had played them before in a pre-season trial game and as per the trial game they were beaten again. Quite a rough team and some of their tactics quite questionable, they were also a much bigger team too - a lot of Ben's team (including Ben) tend to resemble stick insects rather than big rough rugby player! The final score was 39 - 14. Ben and another Ben on his team both got special mentions for their great defence so he came away with head held high! No injuries to report for this week either.

In the afternoon he had his mate Andrew over for a sleep over. He had also asked Sean and Bradley but both of them managed to get themselves grounded - must be a teenage thing! He seemed happy enough with just Andrew though, we had a barbeque tea, loaded up on DVD's and the pair of them were asleep before Dan came to bed - so much for them staying awake all night as planned.

Sunday morning they had arranged to go to the movies with Beth (Ben's girlfriend) and her friend. Beth's dad picked the boys up from here and took them to Penrith where they saw the Spiderwick Chronicles, then did a bit of shopping before Beth's dad dropped the boys off here again. Andrew and Ben then went off straight away with skateboards in hand and we never saw him again until about 5.30pm!

I think he enjoyed his weekend. He is already tucked up in bed exhausted. Poor Granny Di tried to have a conversation with him but could barely get a yes out of him - not sure if that comes from being tired or being 14yrs old!

That's all for now - love Karen

In the gallery...

Well, on Tuesday I took 14 of my paintings to the Bowerbird Gallery in Katoomba. We went up today to take a quick look at an international exhibition that opened this afternoon and the gallery owner has already put some of my paintings up on show!! It felt pretty weird to see them on a wall other than ours at home. I was also asked to do a short bio and send through some more photos of my paintings as well as a photo of me so that I can be added to the website. That is pretty cool because only a few of the artists on show in the gallery are featured on the website!!



Anyway, below is a photo of me in front of one of my paintings on show in the gallery....

My paintings...

Well there has been an intersting development. I spoke to the owner of one of the galleries in Katoomba last week and she asked if I could send through some photos of my work to her. I did so on Wednesday night. On Thursday morning I received an email and it turns out she likes my work and, I quote, "I have only just now logged in and they (the paintings) are super, I would like to see them now and I believe you would be added value to the gallery as your style of work is quite unique." I gave her a call on Thursday afternoon and she came to the house at about 5:30 that evening and liked what she saw.

So, on Tuesday I am taking as many paintings as possible to the gallery after work and she is going to put them up on display and for sale!!

Came as a big surprise to me, so fingers crossed all goes well.

I will let you know how it goes and will add some photos once the paintings are in the gallery....

Here is the link to the gallery if you are interested in taking a look: http://www.bowerbirdgallery.com.au/

Ok. Adios doritos.

Master Bubba (the peanut) Hale

Hi again,

We had our 18 week ultrasound today, no pictures available yet as they were having trouble with their printer but hopefully we can collect on Thursday.

So far all is well, Bubba appears happy and healthy and everything was where it should be.

We found out the sex - couldn't avoid it really - as it turns out Bubba is a bit of an exhibitionist (much like his father) and all was revealed to us quite clearly!!

So get knitting those BLUE booties!!!

Will update with picture soon - hopefully.

Ben's Parent/Teacher Night

I was just reading Heidi's blog about Robbie's parent/teacher night, it was also Ben's so Daniel and I trotted down with heavy feet dreading the outcome - or was it just that feeling of having to go to school? Ben was already there, he had gone up earlier to catch up with some friends - goodness knows why he was so keen to go back to school after being there all day but I have a feeling it was more about social contact with friends than school.

As it happens we have a "lovely boy" too (must be standard repertoire for Springwood High), he was a bit unsettled in the beginning but seems to be sorting himself out now. His science teacher and maths teacher spoke quite favourably about him and he has been doing surprising quite well in test etc - not that he had told us! Turns out he is in the top 10 in his class for maths - a big shock for us.

I think Ben was dreading his report from his English teacher as the first term report card was not very favourable but Mr Saltis (what a flake that guy is - reminded me of my chemistry teacher @ Tomlinscote) said that over the past few weeks Ben had made significant improvement and if he had to write that report now it would be totally different. Ben had actually come home from school that afternoon with a Bronze Award for showing significant improvement in English - that's his third Bronze Award now! When they reach 5 Bronze Awards I think they get some sort of formal acknowledgement from the school - I think.

Ben too has Ms Martin for history, she spoke very favourably about Ben and turns out she lives in our street! Not only that, I worked with her son Mark @ Penrith Imagining!! I ended up giving her a report on what a lovely boy Mark was to work with - quite funny!!

Ms Fodor, his technology teacher, guessed who I was before we even sat down! She said I couldn't be anyone else's mum bar Ben Sapwells - she thinks he looks just like me!

So we left with a huge sigh of relief - not what we expected at all. We made sure Ben knew we were happy with the outcome as I know he was dreading certain teachers reports.

Bens 3rd Rugby match...

Well the Blue Mountains Blue Tongues under 14's had their third match today. They did very well beating the opposition 40-29. They are now two wins from three games. Ben did his best and got in there quite hard early on, but seemed to slow down a lot towards the end and as it turns out he got a nasty knee to the ribs and is now feeling a bit bruised and battered and is nursing himself in bed with an ice pack. He got a couple of good runs in and went after as many tackles as he could.

One of the guys on his team is a great kicker and converted all but one of their tries!!! It looked like it was going to be a slaughter, but the opposition rallied in the second half and put up a spirited fight, but not enough in the end.

The team is very pumped now and they are riding high on their victory.(Until they come up against the giant Samoans again...)

Here are some photos of Ben and the team in action...

Heavy Hazardous Material Response Unit

Well, I just got back from the Woodford brigade (about ten minutes up the road) where one of the guys is also a member of the NSW Fire Brigades and he arranged to bring their new Heavy Hazardous Materials Response truck up for a viewing and training.

The guys approximate that the truck is worth close to a millions dollars, and having seen it, that is easy to believe. It has every bell and whistle you can imagine. It even has football stadium style lights that extend and can be moved to any number of settings all via remote control and when they are not in use, tuck in neatly behind the cab. It carries 38 cylinders for breathing apparatus, fridges, a microwave, computers, one of those whiteboards you can print out, its own weather station and more buttons and touch screens than you can point a stick at.

The photos below show some of the bells and whistles....

This is a photo showing the main work area. This contains half of the breathing apparatus cylinders, fridges, some pumps and water among other things.

This is a view into the truck from the back. All of the crates you see contain various equipment required for response such as boots.

These two photos are of a control panel just inside the door to the back of the truck. It gives a constant update on what is happening, including oil pressure, what doors are open and a general overview of what the truck is doing.


The tour wouldn't be complete without a view inside the cab. The screen at the top of the photo is a massive GPS unit and the buttons below control all of the lights and sirens. The truck is fully automatic with push button selections for drive and reverse and so on.

Well, that is about it on the big toy. Hope you enjoyed. I did!

Painting of Ben...

Hi all. A short (long) time ago Karen asked me to paint a picture of Ben. I selected a photo of him at the lake at Wentworth Falls feeding some ducks chips. For a long time the canvas has been green with a couple of charcoal outlines. Well now it is done and I have some photos of the progress as it came together.

This was the first step done well over 18 months ago. As I said, the first thing I did was paint a solid green background and put some basic charcoal lines in to mark where things were going to go.

The next thing was to start to add some more solid colours in blocks, especially the large shadow area from a tree and the water in the top right corner.

Next comes some more detailed colouring. The ducks and "Ben" start to take form. Still just solid colours and little detail but getting closer to the final product.

Finally the extra details are put in. Ben gets a face (not necessarily his), the ducks and the container in Ben's hand get chips, extra shadows are added, the grass gets texture and the water gets some silver highlights


This is my first attempt at doing a person. Not as good as I hoped, but practice makes perfect as they say.....

Village Fire Fighting Assessment

Well, I did it. I went to the Village Fire Fighting (VF) assessment today. I passed, but I am now quite tired. We were assessed on a response to a motor vehicle accident, a structural fire and ropes, ladders and fire extiguishers. It was quite a cold and rainy day, but that still didn't stop us working up a sweat in our gear!!! We had to do three runs of each excercise and, as the assessors said, if we didn't get it right within three runs we would fail. It was only a small group of us and most had put in a lot of practice, so there were no problems.

Well the next thing up is first aid in May and then I will look at when I can do Advanced Fire Fighting, which takes it all to the next level.

Talk again soon!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for all the fish.....

Hi all. Thanks for the comments. Quick update. Ben has been at his dad's for the week and he comes back tomorrow to have the second week of his holidays here. We went to the Katoomba Hospital last Sunday and booked in to have the baby. We also had an appointment with the obstetrician on Monday and he has given mum and baby a clean bill of health. (Phew!) Our next appointment is on the 15th of May, and the 18 week ultrasound is due in a couple of Weeks. Rest assured I Will post a pic.

I am off to my Village Fire Fighting assessment tomorrow. Village Fire Fighting involves anything from storm damage to vehicle fires and accidents to structural fires. Should be a good day. I was training with one of the other brigades last Saturday and I think we all feel well prepared.... I will post tomorrow to let you know how it went.

Bye for now.

Slide shows galore...and more to come.

Good evening. I have posted some slide shows for your perusal. More news and photos to come soon, so watch this space...

P.S: I lit the fire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS: I forgot to mention....I lit a lot of the fires you saw in the fire photos! Was it fun? What do you think? I think that anyone that knows me well will know the answer to that. That means you Dean, Chris, Mum and Shayne.....

Helloooooo? Is there anybody in there?

Well...it seems Karen, Ben and I are taking the plunge into the world of bloggland. This is just the beginning. Hold on tight. We will take you on and adventure involving fire (with flames), dogs, cats, fish, rugby, babies, paintings and whatever other weird and wonderful stuff pops into our heads or lives..... Let's kick things off with some photos. You will find below some interesting things, or at least interesting to us, so take a look and tell us what you think .....................

First the fire photos. The first photos are of the hazard reduction (a controlled burn done in cooler months to reduce high levels of bush fire fuel) that was conducted by the Fualconbridge Rural Fire Brigade (RFB). This was assisted by other RFBs including Valley Heights, Winmalee and the National parks and wildlife service. Some of the flames were well over 6 metres high!!!

The helicopter pictured drops incendiary devices in the areas that can not be reached on foot. They are like ping pong balls that, when activated, undergo a chemical reaction that causes them the burst into flame. They are simply dropped out of the helicopter and off they go!This is a photo taken at the Blue Mountains Championships of our Captain, Stewart, officially being handed the keys to our new category 1 (big) fire truck. Last fire photo, I bet you thought that would never end! This is a crew of us from Faulco RFB manning one of the checkpoints at the Six Foot Track Marathon. This is now one of the top ten marathons in Australia and attracts runners from far and wide.

Next, a couple of paintings I have done....

A photo of the boys, Bazal and Murphy the cats. Murphy is the white one. He is our wedding cat, we got him just after our wedding from the Katoomba RSPCA.

Next, a photo of the Mooflower in bloom. This thing is strange. It only flowers at night and is only supposed to flower once a year. Ours has flowered 5 times this year. The blooms have the most incredible scent.
If you look really, really closely you will be able to make out Ben in the centre of this photo. This was his first game of Rugby Union. They played against a team of large islanders that would make Mike Tyson look like a dwarf, so I can't blame him for staying way out there away from them all!!! In all fairness he was actually staying in his position on the wing...lucky for him.And lastly....this is our future bundle of joy at the 12 week ultrasound....No longer a jellybean, now a peanut. We had an appointment today with the doctor at Katoomba hospital and he is very happy with the way things are progressing. It is all very exciting for us.
Well....as Peter Cundall (Gardening Australia on ABC) says...that's your bloomin' lot. I will put some more stuff up as it happens and when it is not so close to my bedtime. Oh, and I am sure Karen will be putting in her bit, and Bippo (Ben for those of you that don't know).

Adios Doritos!