Lunch thief

Today was one of those days which is more if a roller coaster than anything else. To start with we got a team call out at about 3am due to this and the fact I had got in after midnight, I managed to over sleep by half an hour. Doh! When I arrived at the field, the horse had decided to clamber in to the adjoining paddock and stand with her friend, meaning I had to get her back through and sort out the fencing. Double  Doh!
At 11am I set off with Rafi to Sussex County dog training for his first session of 1 to 1's we are going to see if we can get him used to being in dog company without him being overbearing and trying to pull their tail fur out... (I have no idea why!) The session went really well and this evening we managed to put some of what we had learned into  practice on our short walk. Our next session is next week but before then I intend to go to places where we can practice, he also has his first pool swim booked in for tomorrow.
..But I digress, cut back to this afternoon, lunchtime to be precise, my husband had decided to take a pack up and do a quick bird watch at Lavington common, he parked the car and off he went, when he ggot back to the car someone had smashed the back window and passenger window and stolen two jackets a bottle of orange tango and half a tub of pringles(!!) He called me then called the police. When I arrived at the car park there was evidence of two further break ins and a couple who came over and spoke to us said they had had their car broken into just down the road earlier that week.
For the sake of 2 jackets and my husbands lunch, they caused so much damage and trouble!
I hope they choked on the pringles!

London Calling....

I have family and friends in all three of the main emergency services, I come from a military family, I am British!
I have friends who are Muslim, Jewish, Rasta, Catholic, Atheist, Buddhist. I have friends who are very rich, struggling to make ends meet, Amputees, Gay, hetro, students, stay at home mums, NHS workers, adult film makers! Blondes, Brunettes, Red heads, bald, grey and all the colours of the rainbow.
I do not like racism, Sexism, bigoted and people who are quick to judge others on how they look or where they come from.
There are extremists in every walk of life, don't judge all by the actions of a few.

CHARLES MANSON                 had Brown hair

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR      was Black skinned

ADOLPH HITLER                     was a Christian

MOHAMMAD ALI      and JANET JACKSON are both Muslims

IAN BRADY                       was white British

MYRA HINDLEY           was a Woman

HAROLD SHIPMAN      was a GP

I could go on.....
But you get the point!                                                                 Image: Yoga Farm

Blackout Friday!

A post with this title should really only have a one word body... DON'T!

This is the night that Ambulance services across the country (World maybe, who knows) get totally crippled by people who :-

Can't hold their drink,

Think of nothing but themselves,

Spend a week or more's wages on alcohol in one night,

Embarrass themselves in front of their co workers, friends and possibly family

Kill someone or cause them suffering. Yes I did mean to write that. When someone gets so drunk that they become unconscious or their "Friends" (Inverted commas as real friends wouldn't let them get that bad!) are worried because someone has had their drink spiked!!! or isn't responding properly due to the amount of alcohol consumed, an ambulance gets called, an ambulance which will then be tied up for an hour or so dealing with some stupid person who has caused their own situation by stupidity, when it could be attending to someone who has life threatening condition and needs an ambulance through no fault of their own!

This is the night which sees Ambulance service and Police personnel assaulted  in the line of duty due to intoxicated people.

Is it OK to go out of control when so much is at stake?

One last thing... DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE, STAY ALIVE, And let everyone have a Happy Christmas!

Image from The Telegraph.

Tonsillitis and a chill

Today I have been sent home from work! Maybe shouldn't have even gone in to start with! It feels as if I have a throat full of razor blades, I can barely speak and I have all the symptoms of a chill, with I high temp, sneezes and all the other delights that accompany it. If I booked sick I would have got into trouble, for a job that deals with sick people all the time they are not very accommodating towards their own staff when we inadvertently catch something from our patients! Which is why I went in to start with, ahh well I wonder what punishment I will receive for being ill this time? 

STRIKE! Part Deux.

I wonder what my boss would say if I went in to work an hour and a half late and said "Sorry I'm late my life had an over run", I can put money on him not being as accepting as my husband, when almost every shift I call him or text him and say "Going to be late home, sorry, I have another over run!" I'm just not feeling the love right now! The reason for all the over runs is people calling an ambulance for ridiculous things, ever heard of pharmacists and GPs? Well have you? And a lack of staff!
There is another strike on Monday morning, Ambulance staff have not had a pay rise for over 4 years, the Politicians get one every year amounting to 10% per year I believe, or there about! They set unrealistic goals for us to attain, but take away the money required to be able to reach those goals. Is it any wonder Paramedics, Technicians and ECA's are jumping from the sinking ship? (That was a rhetorical question, the answer is blatantly obvious!) Some of the best Para's and Tech's I have worked with have either gone or are going. The government is succeeding in its challenge to break the service if not the whole NHS.
Very sad!

No Thanks!

And I don't mean no thank you! I mean no thanks.
I find myself in a job where the line managers do not see the bigger picture. Since I started working here I think I have been told once that I did a good job, and I can probably count on my fingers the amount of times I have heard my work colleagues praised. Its not that I expect it but I have seen the people I work with pull off some really epic tasks and nothing was said. In a recent staff meeting we were all told we would be taking on more work, we were told off for laughing and for some errors that had been made. We were told that some staff who left would not be replaced. Not once in the whole meeting did anyone say "Thanks you do a good job"
Today we were told that we can't have any food or drink in our office any more, yet today at lunch time I saw people eating in the managers offices.
Morale is low. Staff are getting moody....in fact the staff are revolting ( hehe)

Unsolicited

So far today we have had three phone calls and when the post dropped through the door there was just one letter, and that was junk mail.. Oh wait there's the phone again, I'll let it off that one!

Why do companies insist in sending rubbish through the post? Lets face it 99% of people throw it in the bin without reading it what an absolute waste of paper!

We had so much come through the door at one point that I let my Godson play with it, he started opening it and pretending to read it then he put all the things that came out of the letters into the free post envelopes and stuck them down, When we went to walk the dog later on in the day he posted all his letters... (Naughty Godmother!) Well lets give these companies a taste of their own medicine that's what I say, plus I was re using their paper so no more trees were chopped down, the postman was kept in business delivering the letters back to them and their post room was kept in business as they had to open the letters and yep my recycling bin didn't get filled up with their rubbish, but oooh look! Theirs did!

As for the phone calls well the people on the other end of the phone seem to be trained in 

A) Calling just on dinner time, and 

B) Talking non stop from the minute you pick up the phone.

So I just put the phone in the draw shut the draw and carry on eating my dinner, by the time we have finished eating they have usually gone and I can put the phone back on the hook.

Jeremy Clarkson

I am not into slating people, in fact I really hate offending people. Maybe that is why Jeremy Clarkson winds me up so much. Does he go out of his way to insult people? Does he wake up in the morning and think today I will have a pop at Bikers, Ambulance staff and the list goes on! Not only does he say insulting things on TV and in the newspaper he writes for but he goes as far as to suggest ways to "deal" with the "problem"... piano wire being one such solution for motor bikers. The man is a total idiot. Or is it just that I am a motor biker and I am an ambulance technician? I know that my job helps people, we save lives we deal with things that he would never have to deal with, life and death things, all ages, and all manner of nasties in between. My fellow Ambulance staff across the country have probably had to deal with the results of this dreadful man's ideas, both with the "piano wire" and because of some of the stupid self inflicted stunts he has pulled ... all in the name of TV! And whilst I am on the subject of Jeremy Clarkson, I wonder if he has ever spoken to some one who has been so desperate that they have commited suicide? I think not! Jeremy Clarkson you need to think before you open your mouth, if that is at all possible..... unless of course your life's ambition is to insult everyone at some point, in which case congratulations you must nearly have reached it!

Man or Machine.

I have just seen an article it can be found in the "Mail online" I am certainly NOT putting a link to it as it is so one sided and ridiculous that I don't want it here! It says that a woman died somewhere up north because a crew were on their meal break and this half an hour was protected so they couldn't be used! The Coroner thought it was disgusting that this should happen, the crew should have been sent. Yes it is dreadful that a crew were sent from further and the woman died, But, the coroner goes on to say that she would have died anyway but Ambulance crews should be disturbed! I would welcome this person on my ambulance for a set of four twelve hour shifts! I would like (Her/Him, lets say her for now) Her to see that the minute we start we are out, that we are sent to a pile of rubbish in 9 out of 10 jobs and IF we get a meal break you are damned right we are going to be undisturbable we have to get some food and rest we are not machines. If we were not sent to non emergencies because the general public "PAY YOUR WAGES YOU KNOW" the jobs would not get stacked and the crews might be able to grab a bite here and there and then agree to be disturbed on their UNPAID meal break. I have been to several jobs where I have been told "I pay your wages you know" as if I don't pay any tax!! I have taken to telling them that they should give me a pay rise then! I have also been to more jobs than I care to mention where there are several cars sitting in the drive, but "if they go in by ambulance they get seen sooner" this is very misguided, every patient who is taken in to hospital is triaged, which means they are assessed and those in greater need are seen first, in fact I would go so far as to say, if the crew is told that they have been called for this reason they will tell the hospital staff who have their own way of dealing with it. What a waste of Tax Payers money and a misuse of an Emergency ambulance, its no wonder there are calls stacking and people dying! It is also no wonder that the crews are absolutely knackered and so are choosing to be undisturbable for their half an hour unpaid meal break... if they actually manage to get it in the first place, many crews every day do not get a meal break, so Mrs Coroner, who spends half her day at least in a nice cosy office with tea making facilities, a toilet and breaks when ever you wish, Oh and probably an hour for lunch next time you knock us for being undisturbable just try and remember we are NOT Machines we are Human.

Warrick

Oh and whilst your about sorting out the adverts, get Warrick Brown back, what do you mean by shooting him, he was my favorite!

Money...The lack of!

What a way to spend the day!
I have just spent the last 5 hours trying to sort out my finances, its very depressing, when I started I had no money... now I have finished, I still have no money.
At the beginning I was resigned to this ... now I have finished I am just stressed out I wish I had never started now!
Still on the plus side, I have decided to do loads of bank shifts at the local hospital, at least next month will be a little better and maybe I can get a couple of days off next month too!
Both the ambulance service I work for and the government see fit to take extra money away from me at the moment and increase the work load! (The ambulance service are having a shuffle of rotas, which isn't going to plan, and within this rearrangement they are cutting the number of ambulances at night, what a brilliant thing to do seeing as the cover is not managing the calls we currently receive!
Call stacking has happened both day and night yet the service still wants to cut vehicles, personally I think the job cuts should come from above, after all we are an ambulance service we should be able to provide a good service, which again in my opinion should start with ambulances being manned and the staff to control this being at the top of the list!
Ok maybe I shouldn't have tried to sort my finances out, it only makes me cross!
I'm off to watch criminal minds, NCIS and CSI . . . . .

EeeAwwww

The law is an ass!
I would like to point out that this is only my opinion, which I believe I am entitled to have!
What right does a country have to state that an item of clothing cannot be worn?
I am of course referring to the buqa (burkha). Its not as if it is such a scanty item that a persons assets(!) are on display... Bikini, Mankini!!!... It doesn't have any bad language emblazon across it, and its not advertising anything illegal. I am sure there would be public outcry if bikinis, rude tee shirts or clothing bearing adverts were to be banned. This seems to me like yet another excuse to persecute a particular group of people. I wonder what the next item on the list will be? Why cant politicians get their own houses in order and start working on serious issues and leave what people wear up to the individual.

That Monday morning feeling.

I was up at the crack of dawn this morning, putting the horses out and mucking out, then I had to go and buy a corner manger to put Mouses feed in as she has been trashing buckets and throwing her food all over the stable. My Husband had charged up his power drill so that I could use it, so I was back at home in no time. My Grand daughter and her mother came over this morning too, we exchanged presents and had a coffee, before the two of them left to do some last minute shopping in town.
The ambulance service that I work for has decided that things have got too bad recently, what with rota's being unfilled, people off sick and the 20% increase on top of the usual increase in workload this time of year. So, as an incentive (your going to love this!!) the boss has decided that the first 40 people who will do an overtime shift each day over the Christmas period will get....... are you ready for this,?? ..... Not time and a half but double time! Wow now theres an incentive, not! So if like me you happen to be rota'd to work those days anyway, I will still get normal time!! we don't even get time and a half! and they are wondering why there is so much bad feeling in the service. The arguments that are going on, and the bad feeling it is causing is really not good for our already low morale.
This afternoon my Husband decided that we better go shopping for a few food items! oh boy! first find a parking space... Then find a trolley... then slowly amble round the store as the isles are so full of people oh and did I mention the being run over by other peoples trolleys, and pushing and shoving, anybody would think there is going to be a national food shortage! aaggghhhh!!!!
I have one day left of my annual leave before I go back to work, just in time for Christmas, You know that Monday morning feeling? I've had it all day!

Stunt Granny!!

I just finished my Christmas shopping! How pleased am I, normally its a last minute rush to find a present for somebody but its in the bag woohoo.
I woke up this morning at 10.30! My husband let me sleep in after my horrid day and the night shift yesterday. I drove down to do the horses and could almost hear them saying "what time do you call this?" Mum met me down there and between us we fed hayed and mucked out the field.
After driving home I went on line to try and find the last of my Christmas presents, whilst looking I found the "Stunt Granny" (photo above) how much fun, I really wanted to get it for my brother as it is definitely his sense of humour, but I have his already! I couldn't stop laughing, does that make me a bad person? What will they think of next!
Then it was off to do the food shop, I hate food shopping and today was no exception, why do people wander aimlessly around stopping suddenly and blocking isles, picking things up then randomly putting them elsewhere when they decide they don't want it! Grr, and now there is a mad panic on, Hey people there are still two and a bit weeks till Christmas!! What about the way everything is moved so, as its getting busy and you just want to go in get your shopping and leave you can't find it everything has been shifted either for Christmas or to try and make you buy other stuff that you don't really want but find as you try and find what it was you went in for!
Beth has gone to a quad bike party today, I'm not sure what she will look like when she gets in! But, I will have my camera ready.....
Yesterday I realised that some of my friends phone numbers were stored on my phone and not the Sim card, which means I have now lost their numbers, including your home phone number Northern Bird, and all of yours Soutie! How brainless am I? That was a rhetorical question people please don't answer!

"MOBILE" Phone??

Am I alone in thinking that the "Mobile" in mobile phone means you can take it anywhere?
You know, so many people think that it means "You have to be mobile" ie on the move in a vehicle. Wake up people what are you thinking, apart from the fact that it's against the law (UK) what is so important that it can't wait until you have stopped?
Are we really living in a world that moves so fast that we have to talk on the phone whilst we are driving? Is our live or the life of a passenger in the vehicle so worthless that we don't care as long as we take that call?
I am referring to people who are holding the phone to their ear, I know that bluetooth and other hands free devices exist, which makes me wonder all the more why I still see people driving one handed sometimes at great speed with their phone held to their ear or even texting, you have to look at the phone for that, and while you do that how can you see that child run across the road, or the car in front stop suddenly.
The law just isn't tough enough on people who insist on using their mobile phones in this way!

Bonfire Night.

On my way home from work today I got stuck in very slow moving traffic going through a village that was having its firework display. People were all over the place some even walking in the middle of the road. A huge fire was visible and I could hear excited children laughing even through the closed windows. I was glad this village was miles away from my house!
Unfortunately when I eventually arrived home there were three separate displays with my house at a point somewhere in the middle. I opened the front door and immediately saw the dog panting fast, ears flat to the side of her head, pacing up and down the kitchen, I turned the radio on to drown out some of the loud bangs, but she was already too stressed to settle down. I will have to see if I can get her something stronger than the DAP to keep her chilled out, this year she seems more anxious than she has in the past, maybe the loss of our Jack Russell has had an effect!

Remember remember the .........20 October to 31 November!!

Remember remember the 5th of November, with gunpowder treason and plot!!!
As I have said before, I have a Border Collie, she may be highly strung but I know a good many cross breeds who are equally as terrified of fireworks as she is! I have a simple question, or two, Why are we celebrating some failed attempt to blow up the houses of parliament several hundred years ago? ( If it had been successfull then maybe there would be something to celebrate!! heehee!) but it wasn't, so even at the time they didn't get what we have to put up with. My second question is Hello people it was the 5 November not half of October and as far into November as it can be strung out, (I mean if thats how it happened they would surely have noticed that someone was trying to blow them up every night!!!) I like fireworks, but surely for the sake of all animals, and a great many people it should be just for the one day? One of the elderly patients I went out to the other night said it was just like being blitzed during the war!!!

I wish.......

As you know if you read the side of this blog, I am an EMT. My job has the ability to tax you to max, or drive you mad at peoples stupidity and ignorance and every conceivable mixture in between.

So..... here's the scenario.......

999/911 call comes in.....
we respond, putting our blue lights and two tones on, rushing to the scene, taking a position in the middle of the road, driving fast its an emergency after all, split second to think about what you are going to do when at last you see or hear us above the stereo.........

and what do you do??......
well from personal experience, you stop dead! Stop on a bend so we can't see past, drive past the lay by to crawl along the road, or the classic, you indicate that you are pulling over, but thats it, you maintain the speed and stick your fingers up when we get so frustrated at not being able to make progress that we give you a blast of the air horns.

On arrival at the scene, all the passers by who are crowding around won't let us through, your drunk friends try to fight us, you try to fight us, because you have had too much to drink, but claim your drinks have been spiked, (and yes we do put bets on to see how many times we hear that in a night) and yes calling an ambulance because you can't control yourself is a drain on resources and finances. Once on the ambulance your friends all want to come too, well news flash, one drunk in the back of an ambulance is more than enough.

Or..... the relatives are anxious, they tell us every thing we need to know, they shut Tyson the man eating Yorkshire terrier away so he doesn't bite us or get shocked at 200 Joules, and clear everything out of our way so we can get the stretcher in. They answer questions and remain as calm as they can, then once the patient is on board they follow the road signs and laws and make their way to the hospital.

If the patient is very ill we take them into hospital on blue lights and two tones, alerting the hospital that they have a priority patient.
We have to pass an exam to drive on blues and two's, just because you are following doesn't mean you can jump red lights and "ride the bow wave". That is putting peoples lives at risk.
Follow sensibly, after all the doctor will usually have to do several assessments before you can come and sit with the patient, the emergency is with us not you.

If you go into hospital by ambulance you are assessed the same way as if you had gone on your own, you don't jump any queues in fact if the hospital staff think your trouble didn't warrant an ambulance but you wanted to be seen faster you will have a long wait! Yes we know you pay your taxes! SO DO WE!!

One last thing, we are there to help, we are doing all we can for the patient, please don't be rude or violent, usually someone has called and asked for our help.