Sad start to the day. Got a text message from Buzz that Jim Wilson's little boy Sam had succumbed to brain cancer at age 6. So unjust when you see some of the scumbags still walking around.

Assigned to cover the launch of new talk radio station MTR but switched onto the Bushfires Royal Commission instead. Christine 'Nanna' Nixon admitted in evidence yesterday that instead of staying at the Integrated Emergency Coord Centre on Black Saturday, she knocked off at 6pm and left. What she didn't tell the Commission was that she then went out for dinner with some friends - a crucial fact elicited by the Herald Sun after the end of the day's hearings. In fact she gave the clear impression in her evidence that she went straight home and spent the night monitoring the situation by TV, radio, phone and internet. She is in more strife than the early settlers. She has really turned out to be a dud. Lousy Chief Commissioner, retired from that after feminising the force and was immediately handed a lucrative job as head of the bushfire recovery agency. Last week she accepted a $200K job on the board of Fosters. Amazing.

Commission folo was dull - just another CFA drongo admitting how inefficient the agency is. Still not ready for a big fire more than a year after Black Saturday. By the end of the day my package had become a combination of the day's BRC hearings plus some reaction to Nanna's exploits from fire victims gathering in the city for a 'Thank You Melbourne' event.

Hard to work up the City Editor's round when I keep getting assigned to general reporting stories.