Today officially marks the end of my first week at a new job, working with the New South Wales Fire Brigades.  I am basically in their media and public affairs office dealing with any and all video related needs. Specifically, I'm the in house Final Cut Pro guy and am supposed to be called upon to document as a videographer any "incident" such as a bushfire, major accident or other a hazardous material spill.  I hate to dissapoint but I likely won't be able to share much in the way of images/video here as it is all guarded for internal purposes. But I am tickled at the range of responses I've received from friends and family. Let me just dispell any suspicions:

No I am not thinking of becoming a Fireman.  No I don't see any hot firemen. No I am not part of any calender (seriously this one came from my sister!)

So far I've had the opportunity to photograph the Commisioner of our Fire Brigades in his signing of an official statement of reconciliation toward the Aboriginal communities in a symbolic meeting today.  I also will have the opportunity I believe of documenting a ceremony tomorrow meant to honor the newest recruits of the fire brigades from their rigorous training- in short the newbie "firies".

An interesting comment I heard this past week was questioning why we were apologizing to the aboriginals in the first place. It was not the first time I had a slightly uncomfortable conversation with someone in Australia regarding race- not to make any generalizations. This person in particular seemed to think a federal statement was good enough, but apologies by individual government agencies unecessary and a waste of money.  Then just a few minutes ago I became aware of someone sobbing on the local news, it was a representative of the "lost generation" who was expressing their gratitude at finally getting the statement of reconciliation. Guess it means different things to different people.