Thursday started out like any normal day, albeit a very wet one. The showers we'd been having on and off for a few days had increased to solid rain that did not let up all through Wednesday night.
I had this feeling in the back of my mind that I was going to get a phone call. That morning, I could clearly remember my SES group leader telling us newbies that "just because you're not fully accredited members yet, doesn't mean we can't call you out if we need help!" Lo and behold, just as I was about to leave for work... ring, ring... there goes the mobile. "It's Mike here, group duty officer for Eastern Group SES, are you available for an activation?"
"Uh...yeah...I think so...let me call my boss and ask... what will I wear?" You gotta sort out the critical stuff - and no, I wasn't being fussy - since I'm not a full member I haven't been issued with the orange gear. And one does not always go wading through flooded streets.
So to cut a long story short, I met up with three other members who were available from my group at Eastern, I donned a spare orange outfit (that was a large size, mind you, so I looked like an even bigger twit), and we fixed roofs all day. It was lots of good fun - we jumped in the big fat SES Patrol vehicle, did a couple jobs in Brisbane and then made our way down to the flooded Gold Coast. I became really good at unloading and re-tieing the ladder! And I stayed put on the ground - they always need someone to hold the ladder!
We also winched a couple of fools out of a flooded street. While the two guys in our little team hauled them out of the water, I got to direct traffic!! How very important!! It's amazing how people will listen to you and then do what ever you tell them, if you're wearing the orange. Bit scary, really...
We worked all day and got a nice hot'n'hearty feed from the footy club. A big thanks to all the great organisations like the local clubs who support the SES volunteers with free meals. After a quick break we were out on the road again, working in the dark and rain until we had only just enough energy to get back to Bris Vegas.
After wringing our socks out and drying off, we drove home getting back to Eastern Group at Morningside after 9pm. We did five minutes of paperwork (normally 10 minutes , but thanks to speedy typing by yours truly!) and then I wearily trudged home for a nice hot shower!
A very satisfying day. And much more fun than sitting under the fluoros at work.
p.s. speaking of work, on Friday morning I got to the office and the girls in the marketing team had taped pictures of an orange lycra-suited female cartoon superhero all over my computer. Yeah, yeah, real funny...I obviously hadn't missed a busy day at work. Damn.
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