Thanks for the invite, thanks for the comment, but most of all thanks for coming over and giving us a hand! Where were you working mate?

I typed up a reply, then got sidetracked reading comments under a news article on the ABC, then killed that tab. Grrr! Start again!

Night shift is always a bugger, trying to get sleep. I worked nightshift out of Healesville on Sunday the 9th but was lucky, I got home to bed the next day. Pity I forgot to turn off my pager and was woken after only 2.5 hours...

I live just at the end of the Yarra Valley, right up against the Dandenong Ranges so you were quite close to my place.

The news article I got sidetracked on was about UFU complaints re the non-use of career firefighters, about lack of cooperation between the two services. Luckily there was a good article from our DCO about the so-called issue. Career FF's not utilised? I know for a fact that there was an MFB Strike Team in Healsville, that there was a Pumper Strike Team (CFA career/vol Brigades) in Yarra Glen. We were told the night before that there would be two MFB Strike Teams on standby, that MFB resources were ready for step-up to some of our outer urban SStations if we had to strip them. Looks like there was communication between the services to me! I'm certainly not anti union, but sometimes the political grandstanding gets right up my nose.

That was a good sized team you came over with!