I’m ready…

What a fabulous couple of months I have had in Hobart preparing for this adventure of a lifetime. I  am however pretty happy to be writing this update from pre-departure quarantine, yep another 2 weeks of iso and 3 more COVID tests, but this time I am days away from jumping on that plane where shit gets real!!

These last few weeks have certainly been packed with learning and new experiences but I have to say its also been a lot of fun.  With the exception of the Responsible Service of Alcohol course that I can’t seem to get through successfully…I am not prepared to admit defeat just yet!  I realise this may not surprise you and I can hear some chuckles but also want to assure you that my 19yr old niece also couldn’t work out what I was doing wrong and I’m not the only station leader struggling to get through it. Not sure what that says about us.

A highlight was spending a week with the Tasmanian Fire Service preparing ourselves to be the one and only Fire response team at Davis.  I can’t tell you how grateful I was to have so many of the team willing to train in the breathing apparatus as hearing myself breathing like Darth Vader is something I definitely struggle with and unlike diving there are no fish to distract me.  

The BA team entered and searched dark and smoky burning buildings, put fires out and rescued dummies.  I learnt how to ‘bowl a hose’ (terrible first time but nailed by the 3rd time), be the ‘pumpy’, attach ‘the branch’, be the BA controller and used a fire extinguisher and fire blanket for the first time. Oh and the less fun job of rolling the hoses back up once finished.  

It was a fun week of training where we really started to bond as a team. We will continue to train and run drills on station lead by my cracking newly appointed Fire Chief and Deputies (all volunteer roles) but fingers crossed we never have to deal with a real fire.  The weekend after fire week is the last time I cooked and for good reason as I managed to set off the fire alarm and evacuate the hotel…. oops.  I maintain the ventilation was poor but as you can imagine this will be a tough one to live down.   We’re had 2 more fire alarms since then which all involve messages/jokes from my team ‘Dani??’.

Station week quickly followed where we all got to live together for the first time and do some awesome first responder training where we learnt how to approach an incident, used all the gear available to us and had some fun role playing incidents. While not part of the training our very talented, inquisitive and super fun Doctor even tested how many people could get into one of the tents.  

We spent a couple of days on the softer skills including some personality profiling and learning who are the peacocks, doves, owls and eagles and how we can understand each other a little better in the hope of living harmoniously.  It is through this session that a nickname of ‘Killer’ emerged for one of the team – was a little uncomfortable at first but now a genuine term of endearment. 

We designed the behaviours we are committed to for the year ahead and put them into an acronym to help us remember. BEAUTI Brave, Encouragement, Awareness, Unity, Teamwork, Integrity.   We also thought ‘Don’t be a dick at Davis’ summed it up perfectly and its already getting regular use.

It was great to have a week of leave to get last minute things done.  I jammed in a bunch of things I won’t get to do for a year including hair cut and colour (a professional one at least!) massage, facial, nails, sitting in a park, eating in restaurants and enjoying some me time.  Hobart was inconveniently locked down for 3 days at the end of the week but came out of it just in time for the team to get together a couple more times before pre-departure quarantine.

It’s so hard to describe but the energy of the team was almost electric in these last days.  The excitement just radiated from some people and I could feel it standing next to them. I can truly say I’ve never felt anything like it.

The chat on what to pack continues including how much is reasonable to wear on the flight (with some taking it to the extreme) as everyone tries to maximise our allowance of 55kgs which includes an issued 10kg survival bag. 

I might regret this but I have decided to predominantly use the station issued toiletries until my supplies arrive by ship in February.  My hairdryer, pillow and ugg boots are coming with me – they were not negotiable. And mascara is small so that made the cut too.  

And yes I have bought a good camera but haven’t used it yet so for now am reliant upon some iphone pics and the constant stream of shared pics on our group whatsapp chat. Stay tuned the next update will be from Antarctica!!!