We had big adventures at our house last night. We even made the papers - look HERE if you don't believe me.

Marianna woke me at about 11:40 am calling for me from her room. I called for her to come but she said she was scared so I went to her room. She was standing in her doorway and I told her to go to my room. I could hear some sort of siren outside so I pulled up her blind and there, before me, was a scene straight out of a disaster movie.

Bennelong Road was filled with fire trucks and there were firemen and residents walking all over the road and the circular driveway at the front of our building. It was like Pitt Street out there. I watched for a moment trying to figure out what was going on. Eventually I thought it must be a gas leak or something like that. I woke up Jay and asked him to go down and see what was happening.

He came back to report that the penthouse in the block next to ours (there are two buildings which make up the Mariners Cove complex) was on fire. We both went out onto the kids' balcony from where we could see the top of the building next door. There was no fire at this stage but it was dark and there was smoke. We could see firemen with torches searching inside.

Sirens kept coming as police and ambulance arrived. It was a fascinating scene. I put on my dressing gown and sat on the balcony for a while watching. It was really quite entertaining (at the time I didn't know that someone had been injured). The smell of smoke made me feel a bit sick after a while and I decided to go to bed around 1:00 am.

This morning it was on the news. Ridiculous what a tiny thrill I get from seeing the building next door to ours on the tv. 15 minutes indeed.