A&E

After all the excitement of the last few days my husband went back to work Monday to his fire service job.
Over the weekend it was extremely hot, he had to wear quite a few layers of heavy clothing and hadn't had enough to drink, back at work he had two prolonged bouts of hard physical work wearing full fire fighting kit in the extremely high temperatures we are having at the moment, and again he hadn't had enough to drink!
During the night he woke me up feeling extremely unwell, muscle cramps, joint aches head ache and several other symptoms. I rang the out of hours doctors but changed my mind half way through the conversation and decided to take him up to the casualty department of the hospital.
Once there he saw a triage nurse who took him through to the majors area of the A&E unit, where he was seen by a doctor. We were there for about 5 hours in total, but came away with some antibiotics as he has managed to get a kidney infection probably from not drinking enough fluids in this heat!
My poor husband is not feeling at all well.

Bouquet, Birettas and Banoffee pie

Yesterday morning I got up at the same time as my husband as he was going to be participating in his first service at 0800 am, followed by another service at 1000am where he and the other new curate Rachel would be introduced formally to the congregation. Between the two services we came home had some breakfast and collected Beth and Litlun, My husband's friends had come down to watch the service which was nice for him too. During the service the two new curates were presented with cards and the keys to the church and Myself and Rachel's partner were also given a gift, I was given a huge bouquet of beautiful flowers whilst he was given a bottle of wine. Then afterwards it was into the church centre for cake and wine (or squash in my case as I was driving).
Back at home my husband put the new cards up and I put the flowers into THREE vases, the vases were all big too, the bouquet was so huge. We had a cup of tea and a snack then it was back to the priests house for a hog roast (!!!) to welcome my husband and Rachel to the parish. There were about 100 people there and live music. The food (can't comment on the hog, being as I am a veggie) was fab! there were all sorts of different types of salads, and couscous and bread it was lovely, there was wine beer and soft drinks, then came desserts..... what can I say, there was a huge creamy mousse with strawberries, meringues, brownies cakes of all types, key lime pie, but best of all (in my opinion) banoffee pie, it was delicious. (we took the car and were going to walk home).
Near to the end of the evening Rachel and my husband, Fr Ted, were presented with Birettas, oh the joy!!! oops sorry I'm sure they are lovely I just can't take them seriously, which there was some amusement over, especially as Rachel had never worn one before.
It was a lovely evening, both the new curates mingled with all the guests, I sat with Litlun, Sam, Flower, my son CJ and his girlfriend amber.

Ordination

Today when I woke up, I had breakfast and did all the animals just as normal, but that's as normal as it got, after that it was showers and hair washes, Beth doing my hair and hers then getting dressed up and my mum coming round. Then we set off for the cathedral in which my husband was to be ordained Deacon, together with 22 other people.
We were very early but I didn't care I wanted to get as good a view as I possibly could, and the second row from the front, I think, was a good seat. I was sat with the girls and my mum, the boys, Sam and flower, and my husbands father and his partner were there together with lots of our family and friends, including a Priest friend of ours and a couple of my husbands work mates.
The service was quite long, about 2 hours, and it was very hot inside the cathedral but it was great, I don't think I can explain how amazing it was and the atmosphere, Just amazing. When the service finished the Bishop led the newly ordained Deacons out of the cathedral to get their licences and Bibles.
Everyone then began to leave the church to find the person they had come to support, it took ages for us to find him but when we did I have to admit I cried!
Once all the family had found us there were some surprises too, people who we didn't expect to see had turned up to wish my husband well, and give him cards and gifts, it was a really special day.
After about 45 minutes we decided to go and get something to eat, as by now it was almost half past seven, a local pub did the trick, then we set off home where my husband opened his cards and presents whilst we had a large glass of wine each.

Slowing down

Today things started going at a slower pace which is rather nice to be honest. I went shopping this morning, tidied up a bit, watered the tomato's and runner beans, then Sam came over and had a cup of coffee with me before the two of us and Beth went out for lunch. We decided to go to the cathedral that my husband is being ordained at, as they have a lovely restaurant, and I thought I might catch a glimpse of him. (I didn't) We had a lovely lunch though, Beth and Sam both had jacket potatoes whilst I had a salad. Once we had eaten we came back home and had yet another cuppa. When Sam had gone to collect Flower from school I went down to the stables to sort Mouse out, the owner of the yard was hay bailing hay in one of the front fields, it smells lovely even if a little dusty. Tonight we are having a film night, Litlun, Beth, Sam and Flower are coming round we are having some snacky bits to eat and watching some DVDs a nice end to the day.

four legs

I don't sleep well when my husband is away and although he isn't far, he's not here so last night was no exception, I was still reading at half past midnight, then this morning I was up at six thirty, not through choice though.
Once up I decided to take the dog for a walk, I took her to a park that, if my husband had decided to go for a run before breakfast, he would have gone to. Very sad I know but I have only seen him fleetingly over the last week or so, and wouldn't be married to him if I didn't want to be with him.
He didn't go for a run and I didn't see him, but I did get the dog walked early and as I was on a roll I went straight to the stables and did mouse, she has a new habit, on her tummy she sometimes gets flies settling (its a sort of hair free patch so it probably sweats and the flies go for it, all the mares seem to get it) well I had started to brush all the flies off before spraying the anti fly spray and she has got used to it when I get there now she walks over to me and slightly past me and stretches its so funny, the problem is she loves it when her tummy is groomed and leans over, when my husband went up to see her with me the other day she nearly fell over. Having groomed and sprayed her I mucked out the field and went back home.
Today I agreed to do a shift with the private ambulance service at a race course, I really am not keen on watching horse racing but this was at least on the flat and I was working crowd side so I didn't have to watch them.
Stupidly I watched the first race on the TV inside the medical room, the horses were being started in traps, it took them ages to get one particular horse in, it was running backwards and in the end they practically lifted its rear end in. that's when things got bad! the trap was shut and the horse reared up panicking, the jockey jumped across to get away and the horse went up again coming down with its front legs over the adjoining trap, that jockey got out too as the horse flailed about, one of the strappers jumped on it as it managed to get back into its own trap and they opened the back and got it out. After the race was started the vet tried to get it into the horse ambulance but by now it wasn't having any of it. The next thing we saw was the horse being led down the track with one of its front legs bandaged.
Fortunately this was the only (to my knowledge) injury/accident involving a horse at that meeting,it is also the first one I have seen on flat racing at that track.
Once back home Litlun and I had our dinner sat watching Alice in wonderland, which I think I will have to watch again to decide if I like it or not!

Lunch at the Palace

What a day!
Today was the last day that I spend with my husband as Mr and Mrs! Next time I see him we will be The Reverend and Mrs.
We both set off to go to the Bishops palace at ten past twelve and found a jam of cars outside which we added our car to. Once inside we found several of my husbands fellow uni students and some from other Uni's. The Ordinands (those who are going to be Ordained either Deacon or, if they have done their Deacon year, Priest all had name badges, we were given coffee or tea and chatted amongst ourselves until we were called in to lunch, the food was lovely, we had Salmon and or Chicken with green salad, warm new potatoes, tomato and onion salad, coleslaw and Quiche.
Dessert was either Chocolate mousse or strawberries with cream.
After this all the Ordinands were sent to one place whilst the spouses were sent to another. We were told about a spouses group which is a cross between a club and a support group, (or at least that's how it sounded) to be honest I don't think I am one of the "in crowd" and don't think I would fit in somehow! Still there were four of us who knew each other from the uni do's and we all took each others email address' I think this will be of more benefit to me as we all at least are on the same wave length.
After this talk we went back to have some coffee, I got a quick glimpse of my husband before he had to go ( they gave him no warning, just asked if he was there so he didn't even have a chance to say goodbye, very sad!)
Having finished my coffee I said goodbye to the others I was with and drove home, feeling quite sorry for my self!
Litlun and I had dinner together (Beth was working) and then our priest came round to make sure I was OK which was a rather nice thing to do, he had a cup of tea with us before going back home.
Now its off to bed. I wonder what my husband is doing right now?

British Grand Prix

After my night shift I came home and went straight to bed, My husband had left on Friday to do his very last residential weekend with his theological uni, on Friday, the girls were at work and my mums so you would have thought the house would be nice and quiet for a good sleep.... the dog barked at the postman and then the phone rang!! In the end I gave up. Storm and I were going to Silverstone for the GP and had decided to sleep in the car in a layby or something. I got up and sorted out the car had some lunch then made sure all the animals were OK before driving round to pick Storm up.
We drove to Silverstone leisurely as we had plenty of time, and as neither of us had been before we thought we would go straight there to check it out for the following morning, as we got to the roundabout there were some security staff stood there. Storm said "Ask them where the nearest place to park up for the night would be"
the security girl said "You can park in this car park behind me if you like!"
Storm and I grinned, we parked in the car park which was right by the entrance to the event! sorted out the seats in the back of the car and got sleeping bags out.
I hadn't bargained on getting much sleep, what with comings and goings from the event and an obvious party within the event, and the fact that we were squashed into the back of my car (even though it is quite spacious) but we both managed to get to sleep. We woke up at about 6:30, got up got changed washed and had breakfast of tea and croissant, very civilised considering! Whilst we were having breakfast one of the security staff came and asked us to move the car into the other half of the car park which wasn't tarmacked as they were using the tarmac one for motorbikes.
After moving the car we went into the event.
As neither of us had been before we just wandered around for the first couple of hours getting our bearings before grabbing another cuppa then looking round the manufacturer's village, Storm got a Rossi flag, towel and mini helmet, I think she might like Rossi!!
Then we went off to see Dougie Lampkin do a short display, he is my favorite biker of any discipline so I was really pleased when he signed my ticket and Storm took a photo of me with him.
We wandered around again before deciding to go to club corner to watch the GP. What an excellent spot we chose, as we didn't have grandstand tickets we had to watch form the hill, not easy to get photos! but after the first lap the very nice security staff told us we could go and watch from in the grandstand as there were loads of free seats, but if any one came in with our seat numbers we would have to move. How cool was that?? it was the corner most accidents happened on! fortunately they were all OK, most of the accidents happened in two of the other races and not the GP, it also seemed to be the point in the track where the riders would attempt scary over/undertakes.
Well as expected Lorenzo won, unfortunately for Storm Rossi wasn't there as he had broken his leg in the last GP in Italy.
We then watched the 125cc race where the local lad came 3rd, before we headed home.

Fathers day

HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD. XXXXX

Ambulances Stacking

Well! Talk about dragging its feet, my day shift got off to a hectic start and really didn't get any better, although I was working with my part time crew mate Scott who has been away on leave and what with one thing or another I haven't worked with at all this year until now. We were extremely busy even though right now I can't bring to mind any job of interest, that led on into my night shifts, as this week is my relief week I don't follow the usual two days two nights pattern I'm used to and this time round I got one day and three nights (gulp) I am not good at nights at the best of times but three is a killer. Fortunately I had swapped one of them earlier in the month with another of my crew mates and have already done the shift so she is doing the third shift for me (phew). The two nights were no better than the day and to be honest probably worse, we did manage to get the whole half an hour meal break but that was about it. We took a patient in to one hospital and fortunately just had a Minor case, if we had been taking our patient into majors we would have been stacking. There were three resus's going on at one point, one of which was a 29 year old! As we came out there were 9 ambulances stacking! As we booked clear we immediately got another job (not surprising as all the ambulances in the area were waiting at the hospital!) this patient also needed hospital treatment but at a hospital 15 miles away, when we got there it was pretty much empty, very strange. our last job of the night (early hours) was to pick up a patient from a vehicle which had broken down 26 miles away and take him and the police escort a further 12 miles to a predetermined hospital then travel back from that hospital to our base station, so that would have been a 72 mile round trip, with a stop to transfer the patient onto our stretcher and get a hand over from the crew, then give the receiving hospital a handover and transfer the patient onto a bed. This was not a blue light drive which meant normal road speeds, and we received the job at 0430am, and were due to finish at 0700. Well we did the first leg of the journey to the broken down ambulance then found out that the crew and the police had devised a plan of action (as they had been waiting for so long due to the amount of emergency calls we have been getting) So we were no longer required, what a stroke of luck! Eventually we got back to base and the day crew arrived and I was able to finish my shift, for two weeks of annual leave, but I'm not kidding myself, even though it will be leave and for the most part exciting I know the first week is going to be hectic!

Calm before the storm

The last couple of days have been rather slow, which has been really nice, but I am aware that it is the calm before the storm! and what a storm it will be!! Together with my husband we have been delivering some of the invitations to his ordination which will take place during Petertide (26th June to be precise!) so it has been rather nice to drop invitations in and have an occasional cuppa with people along the way, in fact it has been really nice, I get to spend some calm relaxed time with friends AND my husband which, due to our shift work and normally hectic lifestyle is a very rare thing. Yesterday evening Flower came over as normal, she had made some rice crispy cakes with marshmallow in for us, yummy. Each day I have been down to do Mouse, when I say do I mean groom and spray her with bug spray and muck out the field there isn't much else to do. My husband is on his second night tonight and I am off to work tomorrow morning before he gets home so I won't see him until tomorrow night. So from 4.45 when I get up tomorrow morning the storm is brewing, starting with work, then together with my friend Storm (what a fitting name for this next couple of weeks!!) I am off to the Moto GP whilst my husband attends his final residential weekend, then . . . . well lets just wait and see how it all pans out. For now I am enjoying the last few hours of relaxation.

Race for Life part 2

Today, along with five other members of my family, I did the race for life. Last year I was one of the ambulance staff that provided medical cover for one of their events, but having had a cancer scare before Christmas I decided to actually take part in it, My Mum, two daughters, daughter in law and Granddaughter all decided that they too wanted to take part. So all dressed in pink tee shirts and pyjama bottoms we set off to do the 5k race for life nearest to us. It was a hot day but just for the duration of the race there seemed to be a nice cool breeze just taking the edge off. We each had a bottle of water to take round with us and we set off at 11am. We took one hour four minutes and twenty five seconds to complete the race, not bad really seeing as we decided to all stay together and the Oldest of us is 75 and the youngest 5. We all agreed that we had a good time, the atmosphere was brilliant, and the look on my Granddaughters face when she was handed a medal at the finish post was priceless. We drove back to my house and all had a cup of tea before heading off to do our own things. Fantastic day. Thank you to every one who has sponsored us.

Quick turn around.

It was only Sunday night that I was on a night shift for another of my crew mates so coming back to work my own shifts on Tuesday and Wednesday seemed rather a quick turn around! The two days I have just completed have been dominated by self harm and suicide attempts, with a record number for me yesterday of 3 suicide attempts in one shift! Two of these people had also tried on the previous day. Almost every job we went to we had the police there already, (good job too in the case of one who was using a shiny new Stanley knife!) To be honest I'm not sure whether the Stanley knife or the Glock carried by the armed policeman was more scary! Still we all lived happily ever after! Today I start my two nights, I am never very eager to go in for nights I am too fond of my bed and a good nights sleep, but we all go in hoping for a good shift, and ultimately we are all disappointed by the end of it, but by then its too late!

Two of my unfavorite things?!

Last night I did a shift for one of my crew mates, who is going to do a shift for me in a couple of weeks time.
When I have a shift to do with someone I don't usually work with I always hope its a nice shift with easy jobs which I can do without too much ado.... Last night our first job combined two of my least favorite things ( actually the two things that scare me the most!) and that was Paediatric (child) jobs and choking jobs. We were to transfer a baby from one hospital into London to a dedicated Paediatric hospital, well what can I say, thank goodness I was driving for the first half of the shift and my crew mate was a paramedic, a CTL none less (clinical team leader). Stroke of luck that!
The journey was remarkably unexciting, the thing about London driving is people tend to use their rear view mirrors more so we had a clear run, the final stretch of the journey running along the banks of the Thames which at that time of night was well lit, including the Millennium wheel, London eye not that I had time to look. Our patient arrived at the receiving hospital well rested and asleep.
It is an amazing looking building made almost totally of glass and as our baby was going to the 5th floor we had some awesome views.
Getting back out of London was a different story no blues and twos so it was a stop start trip taking far longer.
The rest of the shift was pretty uneventful with the rest of our patients going into local hospitals.
Whats more we managed to finish on time yay.

Playing catch up.

Just recently I have been very lazy about writing my blog, well, maybe not lazy just not allowing myself the time to do it! These last few weeks have been manic, I have been having job interviews (I can write that now I have got the job!) and medicals (for the afore mentioned job), I have been doing extra shifts at work, trying to bring in a bit of extra money, Litlun had several orthodontic appointments, she now has fixed braces on her top and bottom teeth! Then there's the normal family stuff and the animals. . . Ok, so all of the above is a bunch of (true but never the less..) excuses! I did manage to find time to have a couple of nice outings... It was my mums Birthday a couple of weeks ago, so we decided to take the dogs down to the beach then have a fish and chip takeaway for dinner, It ended up that Litlun, my granddaughter and her mum came and my brother his wife and two kids and their dog came along too so it was a lovely evening, even if my dog and my brothers dog don't get on too well. It was lovely and warm, the tide was out which meant the dogs had plenty of beach to run on, and once we eventually got to the sea and paddled it was also warm. Flower and Litlun collected shells and made sand castles and when my brothers daughter arrived she joined in too. It was a lovely evening just a pity my Husband had to be in London for his Ordination training. The other outing we had was to an open air museum which was having a working animal display, there were heavy horses, working dogs and loads of stalls together with all the normal things the museum offers. It was a hot day we took a huge picnic which we all contributed to one way or another, there were supposed to be seven of us, but one family couldn't make it for some reason. so it was just my Mum, my granddaughter her mum, me and the two dogs. (My husband was at work and the girls were both out with friends!) Flower and her mum Vikki had a horse and cart ride while mum and I stayed in the shade with the dogs, we watched heavy horse displays and dog displays, a vintage horse drawn fire engine display, then we went and found a shady spot to have our picnic after which we wandered around the stalls and had home traditional homemade ice cream, which was delicious, before heading home for a cuppa.