Category Archives: Scott at Work

April 12 of 12 ….

April 12, 2011 Scott Leave a comment

Today was my first day back at work after 2 weeks in the US. There were a couple of jobs that needed to be done on the way in.

One task was to order a new cover for the roof top tent as the old one had seen better days. In fact it seemed to have disappeared while I was overseas.

The day was no where as exciting as what the last two weeks had been, so a lot of the day was spent catching up (or attempting to) on what has been going on while I was away.

I did get to attend a couple of meetings that required some walking through the city.

Left work early as we were having the extended family over to celebrate Bradley’s 16th Birthday. Where have those years gone. To me he is still 14 as I have missed the last 2 due to being in the US each time.

After the usual presents, food and cake, the day drew to a close ……

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Firefighting, Scott at Work, USA 2011

32 Hours to Reno ….

March 26, 2011 Scott

The day started early at 6:30 am with some last minute packing. A see you later to Jenny and Bradley (Rachael was on a Scout Camp) then drive into Adelaide Fire Station to drop off the company car. Hopefully it gets repaired while I am away.

Taxi to the airport. Checked in and they charged me for 3kg overweight baggage (26kg + 11 kg). In for an early morning coffee at Hudsons and met up with someone from work whose daughter was on my plane to Sydney and the US as well as someone from Rally.

Even though we loaded on time, it was 1/2 an hour before we took off. This was a sign of things to come. All went well for the transfer from the Domestic terminal to the International terminal in Sydney (even saw my baggage going in the right direction). Again we loaded on time but it was 3/4 of an hour taking off late this time.

The flight across the Pacific was not too bad but any turbulance was felt hard in Premium Economy as it is in the upper tail. Only managed about 3 hours of broken sleep in the 13 hour flight.

We arrived on time in Los Angeles. Into the Immigration Hall and it was packed with 4 planes that had landed at the same time. It took 1 1/2 hours to clear Immigration, Customs and re-check my baggage for the Reno flight. I am told that it was a quick trip through.

It was now 11:30 am and my next flight was 18:30 so what to do for 7 hours??

I had a couple of IT things to sort out with reactivating my US phone and data card. A quick walk to Radio Shack in Westchester to achieve this. On the way I came across Ladder 11 and Engine 211 of Los Angeles Fire Department at the In-N-Out Burger for their lunch.

Stopped off at Starbucks for a caffiene fix and some free Wifi to check emails. Still had hours to use up so decided to do some geocaches through Westchester and Inglewood. It took 4 hours and I walked 17 kms to find 7 geocaches.

Walked past Randys Donuts, the I-405 and Manchester Square.

Got back to LAX around 16:30 with some blisters and some new muscles. A bit of line up at the Security and I didnt even get back scattered.

And to get the trifecta, another delayed flight. At this stage, I was getting very weary and was struggling to stay awake. The flight to Reno finally got off the ground at 19:15 (3/4 of an hour late).

There was a spectactular sunset above the clouds and after a bumpy finish, arrived at Reno around 21:00. Shuttle bus to the Grand Sierra Resort, checked in and up to the room.

Now the quandry – unpack or go to bed. After 32 hours from Adelaide to Reno – it is good night ………

$LA\'s Finest @ In and Out Burger$

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12 of 12, Geocaching, Scott at Work, Work Life

January 2011 – 12 of 12

January 13, 2011 Scott Leave a comment

What was going to be a normal day at work after having a couple of weeks off on vacation on the West Coast, it certainly didn’t finish off that way.

First thing this morning started with a pager test as it is the first day of my 7 days on call as Safety Officer for the Metropolitan Fire Service. A quick check of the lights and siren on the Camry then through the car wash to rinse off a couple of weeks of grime from sitting in the driveway.

There were a couple of packages at the Post Office to pick up. They came from the US. One was a box of travel bugs from Reno and the other was an Every Trail T-shirt. I got the T-shirt for tagging photos on the Every Trail website a few weeks ago.

Getting into work and it was a little hard as the builders next door had blocked our back driveway to put the sign up on the new Police HQ building.

I was asked to trial a few speed apps for the iPhone but there doesn’t seem to be any decent ones around.

Spent the day doing the paperwork it takes to run a Fire Service, before heading home for the day.

Wednesday night is “Night Owls” Lawn Bowls at the Blackwood Bowling Club. I was heading up to the Club when I got my first callout for the night – to a Shop Fire at Gawler (58 kms away). I was turned back quickly and went back to the Bowling Club.

I was about to take my first bowl when the pager went again – this time for a Hospital Fire at Victor Harbor (88 kms away).

I thought I would have got turned back on this call but I was requested to attend the scene and report back to the On-Call Commander and the Deputy Chief.

After attending the fire at Victor, I managed a few geocache finds on the way home.

Again, another very different 12 of 12.

$TB\'s from Reno$

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12 of 12, Family Life, Scott at Work, Scouts, Work Life

November 12 of 12 …

November 12, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

Another month down and another 12 of 12. This month a bit of work and a bit of play.

I woke up this morning at the State Training Centre at Brukunga as I was taking part in the first Senior Officer Bushfire / Emergency Management Forum. This involved the Chiefs, Deputy Chiefs and Assistant Chiefs of the Emergency Services (MFS / CFS / SES) and the Police Commissioner and Assistant Commissioners of SAPOL. The high level forum discussed the Victorian Royal Commission for the 2009 Bushfires and came up with some resolution on how South Australia will tackle bushfires in the fire season to come.

The forum concluded at lunchtime and it was time to head back down to work for a few more hours before heading out with the family and 500 other scouts to the Distinctive Home Dome to watch the Adelaide 36er’s take on the NZ Breakers in basketball. The Scouts had a promotion on tonight including a half time show with abseiling, tent pitching and sand buggies. The tickets for the game were free as part of the promotion.

The game was an exciting one with the 36er’s being down by points early in the game before levelling in the 3rd quarter but ending up losing by 3 points. Not bad considering the NZ Breakers are leading the NBL competition at the moment.

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Firefighting, Geocaching, Scott at Work

A week in Port Lincoln …

November 4, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

One of our Regional Fire Stations is in Port Lincoln which has just been replaced with a new station. The new station is an impressive show-piece for the Metropolitan Fire Service and forms part of the Emergency Services Precinct where the Country Fire Service and State Emergency Service have also had new stations built.

I had the opportunity to spend a few days in Port Lincoln. The trip was to exercise the Regional Staff at the new station and integrate operations with the CFS for an notional wildfire occuring in our area then a second wildfire starting in our area then escaping into CFS area.

The exercise was on the Wednesday but I flew in a couple of days earlier to ensure that the crew were all familiar with the equipment and processes that are used by the MFS and CFS. The exercise went well with lessons learned by both the MFS and CFS personnel and hopefully the SAPOL Officers as well.

Even though it was a work trip, there was time after hours to get some caching in as well. There is a very active geocaching community in Port Lincoln with around 150 caches hidden around the town. In the 4 days I was there I managed to find 42 of them.

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12 of 12, Firefighting, Geocaching, Scott at Work, Work, Work Life

12 of 12 August 2010 – Breathing Apparatus ……

August 12, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

The day didn’t start well with a couple of Geocaching Events I was planning being knocked back for approval. After doing a little research and a letter to the Ump, I hope that he will reconsider the Events and have them listed.

Today was my annual Breathing Apparatus Re-accreditation. It involves some theory, then some drills in the Training Tower where the house prop and cage prop are darkened, filled with smoke and “heavy” dummies, we suit up in our Fire-fighting PPE, Breathing Apparatus, take in hoselines and drag out all the dummies.

Even though today was cool and drizzly, it was still warm enough to work up a sweat.

The day finished on a high though with a FTF on a cache at Upper Sturt on the way home, GC2D8VT – Beagles Boyfriend 🙂

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Geocaching, Scott at Work, Work Life

Home through Brachina Gorge …

June 20, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

This morning was spent with more workshop sessions and after lunch it was time to head home. I decided to take an alternative route through the Brachina Gorge.

The Brachina Gorge is a step back through geological time with a number of different features that are Earthcaches.

An Earthcache site is a place that people can visit to learn about a unique geoscience feature or aspect of our Earth. Visitors to EarthCache sites can see how our planet has been shaped by geological processes, how we manage the resources and how scientists gather evidence to learn about the Earth.

I decided it was time to take the plunge and place an Earthcache myself at the Slippery Dip or Brachina Formation. The process for an earthcache is more involved than hiding a normal cache and the process takes more than a month. My listing is GC2B2R0 – Slippery Dip anyone ….

Another big day of caches on the way home with 26 finds but no FTF’s this time.

And now for the kangaroo story. Just after leaving Carrieton, I spotted a kangaroo on the side of the road in the distance. Unsure of which way it was going to jump, I started slowing down and of course as I came up on it it jumped my way. Quickly on the brakes but the roo went under the front of the car. Once I stopped, it picked itself up and jumped off. The only damage I could see was a dented number plate.

I later found that I had a oil leak as well which was easily fixed at the next car service 🙂

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Scott at Work, Work Life

Bonding on Sky Trek ….

June 19, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

The first activity for Saturday Morning was to drive part of the famous 4WD route called “Sky Trek“.

The Sky Trek took us through the Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby Preservation Association Bunkers Conservation Reserve, culminating in reaching the summit of Mt Caernarvon ( 921 metres above sea level ), the highest point of vehicle access in the Flinders Ranges with spectacular views towards Wilpena Pound.

It wasn’t all about enjoying the views, but there were also a number of activities undertaken along the way to bond the crews in each vehicle as well as stops along the way for group strategic activities.

After the mornings activities, it was back to Willow Springs for more Strategic workshops until late in the night ……

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Geocaching, Scott at Work, Work Life

Caching my way to the Flinders …

June 18, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

I had the opportunity to attend the CFS “Operation Compass” Strategic weekend as the MFS Representative. This was held at Willow Springs Station (NE of Wilpena Pound). It is a trip of 477km from home and it allowed the finding a few Geocaches along the way.

A couple of days ago there were a number of caches hidden around Hawker that hadn’t been found yet so there was a chance of some “First to Finds” (FTF’s).

It was a productive trip with 27 finds and 4 FTF’s.

I arrived at dusk with a number of kangaroos on the side of the road making driving interesting but didn’t hit any (yet …)

First to Finds:

GC2A9JN – Alone or Lonely (Gordon)

GC2A9J3 – Alone or Lonely (Kanyaka Hotel)

GC2A9HZ – Alone or Lonely (Yappla Waters Station / McDill )

GC2A9JE – Garden Gate

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12 of 12, Geocaching, Scott at Work, Work Life

February 12 of 12 – Everywhere a Sign …

February 12, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

I almost forgot about todays 12 of 12 but as I was heading down Anzac Highway for some shopping for work, todays date popped up in my mind and I was already half way through the day. What was I going today. It hit me when I got to my first location – Sign Sign everywhere a sign, blocking out the scenery breaking my mind, Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign …..

So I decided that the theme for this months 12 of 12 would be signs.

First stop was Officeworks which didn’t have what I needed, so off to Ikea and more signs only bigger. They had what I needed.

It was now lunch time and the GPS was telling me there were 3 caches nearby – a sign.

First Stop was GC233JB – Prince of Thieves which was near a tennis club with signs on the fence. Next stop was GC1VMB8 – The Hex Hill Cache where there were signs on every bin telling you what to do. Third cache was GC1TX84 – Magnetcacheon where the cache itself had a little sign on it.

Enough of caching, it was time to get a feed on the way back to work – C Coffee for a Cappuccino followed by a pastie from Cafe De Villi’s.

Back at work and there was plenty of signs to keep those not wanted out. From my Office window there is signs of change with the car park across the road rising from what used to be a petrol station in a former life.

The end of the day and the end of another week, and with half the family off to a chick concert and the son having already made himself some pasta for tea, I decided to head up to Blackwood for some take away but which one did I choose?

It was then time to drop the son at Venturers for a DVC. Since I was up at Belair I put the car through the car wash so it would look its best for the Seaford Fire Station opening tomorrow. In order to dry the car off, I headed down the hill to grab a cache in Brownhill Creek – GC1XCD2 – Mitcham Quarries #1 Brownhill Creek.

For a 12 of 12 that I nearly forgot, it turned out not too bad, and remember:

Sign Sign everywhere a sign
Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind
Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign 🙂