A real live John Doe....!!

Err.. well.. sort of!
I was remembering back today to a job I did with Denise several years ago.
We were called to a male unconscious, en route it was up graded to a full cardiac and respiratory arrest. On arrival a young girl flagged us down, I grabbed the response bag whilst Denise got the defibrillator.
Sitting upright on a sofa in the lounge was a 59 - 60 year old male, clearly not breathing.
Whilst, doing CPR and wiring him up to the defib I asked the girl to write down his name date of birth and any medical problems he had. She looked at me blankly and said he only came to collect something he purchased on line from my mum, she doesn't even know his name, just a log in name.
Just then a second crew turned up, one of them helped us with the resus whilst the other went out to the mans car to see if there was anything in it. His pockets contained nothing but an envelope with the money for the purchase in it.
The police turned up as we had requested them as it was a sudden death, (at that time we hadn't realised we had no idea who he was).
The police grinned, we will just run the number plate they said... when they came back they said the car was a hire car registered to a woman who they couldn't trace!
We took the man into hospital, sadly he passed away.
What was even sadder was that he wasn't named for a week. It took that long to find out who he was.

15

In fifteen days the Northern bird will be wending her way south to spend some time with ME. With all the bad things that have been going on this week it will be fab to have some fun and catch up with her. I think its time you moved south Mrs! Oh the trouble we would get into if she did move back down. Fun fun fun. See you on the fifteenth Northern bird, if you have any requests of things you would like to do or see, you better let me know! I have some but there's always room for change. xx

Angel

Whilst I was at work yesterday I got a text from my husband asking me to phone him as soon as I could! it sounded urgent and as we had just finished a job and were on our way back to our base station, I decided to call him there and then.. "what's happened?" I asked "something has had the rabbit in the night, I think it was a fox, its torn the hutch to shreds and I found Angel dead behind the hutch" What a shock! My beautiful bunny. We rescued him about four years ago on a freezing cold day in February, I brought him home and he spent his first two days in the dogs cage as we didn't have a hutch. He was thin, young and had an eye infection. I took him to the vet who did the initial check up for free as we had rescued him, I just had to pay for his jabs and some eye drops. in a matter of weeks he was a happy, bouncy healthy bunny. he has had a couple of eye infections since but other than that he has been fine, so to hear this news was dreadful, I am overly daft about my animals anyway, so this death in this way was just awful, especially as we are going through some other trials and tribulations at the moment. My husband buried him in the garden, even he was upset by the situation as he had a soft spot for Angel, maybe because he was the only other male in the house! RIP my little bunny.

Lunch

Today is supposed to be our day, the day that the Vic and I have to ourselves and go out for the day! Too much going on at the moment for this to happen, so instead we settled for lunch, next weeks day off together will have to make up for it! We both have a bit of a thing for Ploughman's lunches... so that is what we both had today, the Vic had a ham ploughman's and I had brie, and very good it was too. We went to a pub in town, I have been there before for a meal, last time it was dinner with two friends several years ago just before Christmas, that was actually the last time I saw them, I must ring and see if we can arrange another catch up (and dinner even). I am unable to put on here why the present time is stressful as it is ongoing and there are a lot of people involved! I just hope it gets sorted and things can get back to some degree of normality, where every email and phone call doesn't have us living on our nerves, and we don't have to wonder what is going to happen next! Still back to work tomorrow.... oh the joy!!
If you are observant you will notice that this picture is not a brie or ham ploughman's, that is because it was taken at a different time, see I told you we had a thing about ploughman's!

Bank

As well as working for the ambulance service, and helping at the museum, I also work at the local hospital, I only do a couple of shifts there a week as a bank HCA, its quite a pay drop but the work is normally enjoyable, I really do like helping people, its not just a phrase! Well today I did a shift on a ward I haven't worked on before, it was a male surgical ward (we did however have a lady in a side room) I didn't meet her though. I always find the men quite happy and jokey, even when they are in pain or scared about the procedure they are about to undergo, this lot were no exception, there were two under 55 the rest were nearer to 85. Well I was about half way through my shift when the ward clerk came in and said I wasn't supposed to be on duty today I wasn't due until 26 February! I rang staff bank and told them what had been said, I was extremely glad when they said it was their fault, carry on till the end of shift and I would be paid as normal. I have been doing a few extra shifts at the hospital recently as when the Northern Bird comes down in 20 days I want to have some extra cash so that we can go out and do some things. When I got home I completed my time sheet for this week and added it to the last two weeks sheets and put the lot in an envelope, theoretical I will be paid three days before my friend comes down, and if I send next weeks sheet off on Thursday I should get the pay from those shifts on the Friday she is here. I just hope I have got it right!

Do not quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit-
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow -
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup;
And he learned too late when the night came down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out -
The silver tint in the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It might be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

Books

Today I am just going to post some photos of the covers of books I have just read or have just got, the ones I have read are brilliant the others I am sure will be!

Manic Nights

I have just finished my tour of work, the day shift wasn't too bad, but the nights were crazy! The first night was all jobs that really didn't need an ambulance people were calling us when really they should have seen their doctor during the day, or made their own way to hospital in their own cars. The real shock job was last night we were on our way back to base.... well trying to any way! we reached the the one way system in town when at least twenty people ran across the road towards a similar number coming in the other direction punches being thrown, and police trying to restrain some, it was a battle zone, I have never been in such an intrinsic situation before it was quite scary, suddenly beside me a young man was punched to the side of the head, he was unconscious before he hit the ground which meant that he just fell, his head hit the tarmac road and he just lay there, I put my four ways and blue lights on and my crew mate made his way to the lad whilst I got the stretcher off the back, we decided that we wanted to get him into the ambulance out of the road and away from the fighting! he was unconscious for about five minutes before coming round, we persuaded him to let us take him into hospital so that he could be checked up on. When we had left him in the care of the hospital staff we got ourselves a cup of tea. That had to have been one of the most violent scenes I have ever witnessed at close quarters, and one I don't wish to ever repeat. The bulk of our jobs were drink related, with just a few genuine jobs which really warrantied an ambulance.

How the tip cart should be driven.

Every "horse" has its day??

Today, being a Monday and being as I wasn't at work, I was at the museum. The horseman decided that today we should give the youngster a go in the tip cart,.... well it seemed a good idea at the time! The horseman harnessed him up whilst we handed him the harness so that there weren't too many people doing things to him with a set of harness he isn't used to. That done we then walked him backwards into the shafts of the cart this took several attempts as he managed on each occasion to step over the shafts. Ten minutes after the first attempt he went in and we did the fastest hitch up we have ever done. Well to say he was difficult would be something of a lie not to mention an understatement... he was a complete nutter, I was for the first time since being there scared that one of us was going to get hurt, Leah who also helps out on a Monday and Friday was there and although she is younger than me she is not at all agile so she had to keep a fair distance as when we did manage to get moving the youngster would jump forward with a little buck then try and follow me! This isn't a good idea as the track isn't wide and to have a tonne of shire horse and half a tonne of cart bearing down on you isn't the sort of thing you really want. He also kept looking for me to follow as he was quite nervous, so even though I had him on a lead rope to keep him going forward and for an extra bit of safety I tried to keep out of his view, which isn't too difficult usually as the bridle has blinkers..... however the youngster is slightly smaller than the other two and strangely he seemed to be able to bend his head round and find me. The bin run around the museum took twice as long and took twice as much energy as usual but it was worth it,............... same time again on Friday!! Every time he saw the other two horses on his trip round the museum he would want to go to them and it took even more effort to work him. Needless to say we decided not to take him into the field to do the mucking out, instead we gave him the afternoon off and brought the old fella in to finish the days work...ahhh the old fella is soo easy to drive..

Who are You

"Thats what friends are for Bob!"

Having left my patient in the care of the nursing staff at the hospital the other day, I went to get some more blankets to put on the ambulance when I saw and heard two young men in their twenties sat with an elderly man who was laying on the hospital bed looking very unwell. The elderly man had obviously just apologised for something, maybe holding them up or taking them away from what they had been doing before they had come to his bedside, what I heard was.."That's what friends are for Bob," they may have said more but it was just such a nice thing to hear from two young men that weren't related to him. Sometimes I wonder who my friends are, and sometimes I wonder if my friends know just how much they mean to me... I hope they do. "That's what friends are for Bob!"

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!

Why?

Why does the theme tune come up louder than my programme on the TV? Why do they do that?
Why are there over 15 minutes of adverts in one hour of my TV programme, and why are they all louder than my programme..... Why do they do this?
If they were to cut all the darn adverts in three programmes of CSI, NCIS and Criminal minds, there would be time for another one, and that would be brilliant.
Why don't they do that?

30 minutes

Thirty minutes is how long I have left until my jacket potato is ready, and I am starving!
I have a solitary minnow in my fish tank! He is a white cloud mountain minnow, he used to have a little shoal of five friends but over the years they have all passed away leaving this solitary little chappie, unfortunately over the last few years its not only been the fish that have passed on, the plant has gradually died too.
Yesterday when I went down to do Mouse I had a look in the river to see if there was any plants I might be able to bring home and use in the tank, I managed to collect some kabomba, (with out falling in too!! you should see how steep the banks are. Once back home I washed it thoroughly and treated it with something to kill any snails that might be on it I really hate snails in the tank, this evening I have put it in now all I have to do is hope that I washed it properly so that there is nothing harmful on it that may damage the fish and also none of those dreadful snails!
Good luck Minnow, enjoy your new plants.
(Oh good grief, that only took five minutes to write! still 25 to go)

I won!

What a night shift! We were busy up until 4am then some one in control decided that every radio message should be sent to all radios, so that is what happened, our radios don't turn right down so all night we heard all the messages sent to all the other vehicles. No rest even when we didn't get a job (in my moaning anti management moments I wonder if this is just another way to get the staff down?!) At least the day staff came in in good time so we were able to finish on time. As I was driving home I put the radio on, something I haven't done lately. Just as I was nearing home a competition came on the radio, the prize was a four week membership to a gym, they would help with fitness and diet. Just what I need so I thought just for fun I would enter. Well, I entered, I chatted to the host on the radio, I answered the question and I won the competition! All I have to do now is wait for the confirmation to come through the post! Maybe this will be my lucky year who knows....

Work rest and play

Ahh four day shifts over! This week, had I had enough leave left, I would have been on annual leave, I didn't which meant I had some shifts to do anywhere, usually we get to cover shifts on our own station but this time I was given shifts on three different stations with three different crew mates none of whom I had met before and all of whom I enjoyed working with, especially the last one with whom I spent two shifts, he was very easy going and we had a lot of laughs even though we were so busy. Then Today I went to the museum to work with the big boys. The horseman is getting the newest and youngest of the boys up to speed so he took the little fella and the filmstar (there's another story!) to do some chain harrowing, whilst Nic and I hitched the old fella into the tip cart to do the bin emptying round and then muck out the field. I am hoping to have some big news soon regarding the big boys but at the moment I am not allowed to say..... I'm such a tease!! Back to the filmstar, that is not a true title but here's the story. Some very nice people came to the museum from Microsoft, they wanted to stand, with a video camera, in the back of one of the waggons and film the horses movements, they filmed from lots of angles to then copy for a computer game.. which means he is famous, or will be.

40 Days.

In forty days the Northern bird is coming down to stay for a few days. I can't wait, the last time I saw her was when I went north and spent some time with her and her family, we fitted in loads even though the weather wasn't to clever, I only hope she will enjoy herself as much when she comes down here!
We usually get to meet up twice a year and always seem to have a laugh, then always disappointed when the time comes to go our separate ways.
Still as it stands right now I have 40 days till she comes down and I know those days will drag and after she arrives the days will fly past.

The algebra murderer!

Yesterday I had a panicking text message from Beth wanting to know what was written on the wall outside our house, when I told her what 20+C+M+B+11 (which is what she was on about) meant, she laughed, "I thought we had been picked out by the Algebra Murderer", she said, then added "I think I have been watching too much CSI".
Gotta love your kids (even though she is 20! and the daughter of a priest!!)

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 . . . . .

The big boys

Twice a week, shifts allowing, I help out at an open air museum. To be exact I work with their three shire horses. Today was the first time this year that I have been up, last time the place was white in a thick carpet of snow, today however it was green again and the boys looked quite content to eat either the hay put out for them or the grass. We decided to work the eldest member of the team today, at 21 years old and a tonne in weight he is a beautiful old boy, he happens to be my favorite one also! We gave him a good groom, as anyone seeing him would think we were trying to get a cart over a pile of mud! then harnessed him into a small cart for doing the museums small jobs, we use it for going round and emptying the bins, and mucking out the horses field (well they make the mess its only fair they help clear it up! Old boy was eager to work and having had some time off during the Christmas period he raced on, it was quite a job to just keep him at a walking pace as I have to drive him from the ground on this particular cart! Once all the work was done and he was happily out with his field mates I left to start again with Mouse, Having mucked out her stable, hayed and watered I brought her in for the night, apparently its going to be cold again tonight!

Stone soup.

Years ago when I was single I used to have a stone soup gathering, and I had a real stone (for cooking, all nice and clean) to put in it, everyone who came would bring something to go in it like a potato, carrot, onion, any veg would go in we would slowly cook it up and while it cooked we would chat or watch a film, it was nice to just chat then after a couple of hours have a huge bowl of soup with some bread, I was thinking of doing another one, especially as its so cold now, that and I really must catch up with my friends!

One down three hundred and sixty four to go...

yes yes, leap year blar blar. I have decided to start blogging again, (wonder how long it will last this time!!) And what better day to start than the first day of the year. It hasn't been the best start to the year as things go.. I have not eaten for four days, well that was up until an hour ago when I decided to try some scrambled egg on toast, it was rather nice and I no longer feel ill, so maybe things will be better now. I thought I should update here, Still have two boys, two girls, two jobs too many hobbies and one husband! Also there is one dog one rabbit and one African pygmy hedgehog. We still at present have one Grandchild, but that is about to change as in February a second is due.. watch this space! Flower, our 6 year old granddaughter was an awesome angel just before Christmas, the rev and I went to see her nativity play, (can still remember the others doing theirs all those years ago)... Litlun spends 99% of the time away from home which I hate, she doesn't seem to like being at home now and its rather sad! Beth is still working (not quite what she wants to do I think) and playing XBox but in this present climate I can't see her changing her job in a hurry, still... she has one! CJ graduated last September, OH YES! and has a job doing exactly what he wanted to do, he also got engaged to Amber so a wedding soon maybe? No1 son is still with his girlfriend and it is they that are about to have a baby in Feb. Well, that will do for now, I will (try to) keep blogging on..

Christus mansionem benedicat

Christus mansionem benedicat 20+C+M+B+11

Gilbert White

Since starting his studying for the priesthood, my husband and I have had very little quality time together. So we decided that once a week on our day off, we would go out for the day and do something different from the normal everyday stuff.
Today is the first of these days, we also decided that one or other of us would choose where we were going as a surprise to the other. My husband chose today's place which turned out to be Gilbert Whites house in Selbourne, Hampshire.
It took a while to get to it and from the outside it looked like any of the other houses along the road! Once inside however you could see how much land there was at the back!
We wandered around the rooms looking at the displays, upstairs is also a large room dedicated to Captain Lawrence Oates, the Antarctic explorer who famously said "I am going outside, I may be some time" as he walked to his death in a vain attempt to save his fellow explorers.
Gilbert White was a priest and naturalist who was the first person to record in detail much of the natural history of the English countryside. Once we had walked around the inside of his house we had a cream tea in the tearoom before heading out into his gardens, which were amazing! we spent a long time walking around the acres of gardens and wild areas, and saw lots of birds and insects. As we were almost back at the house we found a labyrinth, well of course we had to walk it. My husband told me about them as I literally walked in his footsteps around it.
We had a really relaxed day together and both enjoyed it, roll on next weeks day together!

Sports and Welfare

This morning I got Flower up for school as usual, we always have her over on a Monday night, and then once she had been picked up I went quickly to get some shopping before going to her school to watch the sports day. It was very warm and all the children had a sports bottle full of water with them. Flower was in the Yellow team so I together with her mum Sam, had put yellow tee shirts on i support. Go Yellows!! There were loads of races for all the year groups, Flower did her first race which was the obstacle race, Sam and I went to the finish line so that we could get photos, she did really well and came second. Then came her second race which was the "egg and spoon" race, well what can I say!!..... she pretty much ran with it, she didn't drop it once and as she crossed the finish line the others were still only half way down the track! One of the mums said "she's glued it to the spoon, but just as she said it Flower tripped on her way over to see us and I caught the egg just before it hit the ground! It wasn't a real one though. When all the races had been done the children came over to their supporters and had their lunch, lots like us had brought a picnic, which we sat on the sports field to eat. What a lovely time we had. My husband had asked one of his parishioners if he could visit, as she had not long come out of hospital, (she together with her husband are very dear friends of ours), so when she told him she would love to see him she also asked if he would bring me and Litlun and have dinner with them. It was a lovely late afternoon and evening, we all chatted then later we sat down to eat. MrsY we had a fab meal, and wonderful company thank you so much.

Bath time

For some time now, whenever I have applied the fly repellent to Mouse the sponge has got dirtier and dirtier, she really needs a bath, so today I decided to give her one. I did wonder who was going to get the wettest! I decided to fill her large water bucket with water before mucking out the paddock that way it would have a chance to warm up a little, as it is yet another hot day, much hotter than yesterday. I brought her in and tipped jugs of water over her mane and tail then added shampoo, then did the same for the rest of her body, after ten minutes of trying to rinse the shampoo out of her mane I decided there was nothing for it but to use the hose! Now Mouse is 3 years old and hasn't had a bath in the 2 years and 3 months that I have had her, I don't know about before that. So this was going to be quite interesting... or so I thought, I began doing her legs as she has had them hosed to get the mud off in the winter, she was fine so I went up to her shoulder, across her back over her rump down her tail, round her udders then back along her back up her mane..... in fact the only time she showed any emotion was when I accidentally stuck the hose up her nose! she turned round and sniffed the jet of water!! then her ears showed surprise (it was rather funny) she even tried to drink from the hose! After using a sweat scrape to remove the excess water I put her back out in the field, no rug or anything as it really was hot enough to dry her off. She didn't roll either! as for me, I just got wet arms and feet, quite amazing really as I thought I would be in for a battle.

Rare Breeds Show.

Today we went to the rare breeds show, Mum came over with her dog,then the two of them together with Flower, Litlun, me and my dog (my husband and Beth were working,) set off to the show.
We had, as usual got a picnic with us which we left in the cooler box in the car.
We wandered around looking at all the cows, sheep and pigs, my dog was quite unfazed by any of the animals including a huge pig which tried to taste her foot, where as Mums dog was quite scared, we had to walk round the animal free stalls for a while she got so upset, she doesn't like goats!
It was lovely and warm but not so hot that we needed to worry about burning, at 1 pm we went back to the car to have our lunch, putting the dogs in the crate with the boot open and plenty of water, they were happy to look out of the back window for most of the time.
Usually I prepare the picnic but this time Mum said she would do it, there was a huge salad, ham, chicken cold sausages in bacon, eggs salmon bread rolls, crisps, olives and feta. After which we had dessert which was Apple pie and custard. Yummy.
When we had all eaten as much as we wanted, we went back into the show, we wandered around the rest of the stalls, went and saw the rabbits, chickens and ducks, then some alpacas, then Litlun found a stall with ferrets on it, having had several ferrets I couldn't help having a cuddle with a lovely albino Jill ferret, even Flower held it, they were so docile, lovely animals.
We sat down and had ice creams mid afternoon, before heading back home for a cuppa, then Mum and her dog went home whilst I prepared the dinner.

What happened to the old me?

I thought I would have a little look through my old blogs, starting from the beginning, just randomly and read a few. I am beginning to wish I hadn't now.
What on earth has happened to me? The blog used to be funny in parts with the odd joke or funny blog but now its drab and flat. May be my outlook on life has changed, as my husband has just suggested. I suppose in the last year and a half I have seen and had a few life changing experiences...
Maybe I should have more fun maybe I should change my job for something more fun, there is no fun in our job any more management have ensured that it is totally impossible, yet I read a newspaper report last week that stated work force performance was almost doubled if the workers were happy. I know that we now do all our obs and paperwork at the scene now as opposed to on the vehicles en route to hospital, just to give us time to think.
Yes I think its time for a change, but as I am no good at anything other than monkey skills I have no idea what I could do!

In need of sleep!

I got home from work at around 8am and couldn't believe how tired I was! Although we didn't have a great number of jobs we had quite a few cover moves, so I still had to be awake!
I decided to go to bed for a couple of hours before taking the dog to the swimming pool, that was a mistake! I was woken by my husband at ten past eleven, I was supposed to be at the pool at eleven thirty! Ahh well, we got there at 11:35 (speeding officer, me?? Never) Where I met my Mum and her dog and a man with another collie, the three have all swum together before and got down to the serious business of chasing tennis balls which we threw in for them.
Having got them out half an hour later and dried them off I returned home for some lunch. Storm rang to see if I would like to take the dog for a walk with her two today, we often walk the three dogs together. I collected them and drove to one of our usual walking places, it was quite cool today, although I may have felt it more being so tired. There are two paths we can choose from in this area, and today we took the shorter of the two.
Back home having done the dinner and sent my husband on his way to work, I settled down to a nice read before I went to sleep.... I'm not sure I reached the end of the page.

Naughty.....

The above post appeared on our notice board at work. A little rude but rather amusing......and probably true!

Hot dogs

This morning my husband got up and went to church in time for the 8:00am service leaving me to sleep on, when he got back he woke me up with a cup of tea, ahhh.
Then we both went to the 10:00am service where I sat with Flower and Sam, whilst my husband got dressed up in all the vestments for the service.
Afterwards we had a glass of wine and some birthday cake as one of our friends was celebrating her 90th birthday.
Back home I prepared everything for dinner, as my mum and her dog are coming over for the rest of the day.
After a cup of tea we set off with the dogs for a walk in the woods, its not easy walking then in this heat as they are both dashing around all over the place getting hot and then find it difficult to cool down, at least its cooler in the woods! We stopped off to do Mouse on the way home then sat and chatted whilst the dinner cooked.
Yet another chilled out calm day, I am starting to enjoy this . . . unfortunately I am back to work again tomorrow, that will be anything but chilled and calm I'll put money on that!!

Wedding. Round one!

Today my husband and I both have the day off, we decided to go down to our local market and get some veg and have a wander, its been months since we have been to the market.
We walked down, it was boiling hot again! once there we were surprised by how few stalls there were! one of the vendors told us it was because the pitch price has gone up so much its stopped people coming!
We got our veg and a few other bits then wandered home again, stopping en route for some cheese straws and scones from the bakery.
After lunch I went down to do Mouse accompanied by Litlun and her friend Jo.
Back home we got ready for the wedding then drove, My husband is working tomorrow so he said he would drive and not drink (yippee)
The bride and groom looked fabulous, the bride was wearing a long sheer white dress with a train and tiara, she said it took two hours to do her hair too! The groom was in his family tartan and looked very smart, I usually see him in white!!! (a ghi, he belongs to the same Aikido club as me). There was a hog roast and loads of salads in the evening.
It was a lovely day, and we wish the Bride and Groom all our very best wishes.

Hot Hot Hot

Today the temperature is supposed to reach 30 degrees. Nice for my dog and my mums dog as we took them to the canine swimming pool again, so they were able to cool off a bit. They were swimming with a third collie this week and all seemed to get on well, each (as is the norm for collies) chasing after a tennis ball. Although it was cool for them in the pool it was very muggy for us!
Once back home my husband and I went into town to pick up a copy of the church times as my husband is appearing in it this week.
Almost as soon as I came home Storm rang to see if I would like to take the dog out for a walk with her two dogs. I would usually keep mine in until she had dried off completely but today it was so hot that I thought it would be fine, she drove round and picked us up then drove out to a wooded area we often take them walking. We walked through the woods chatting then as we came back out again the heat hit us! I hadn't realised just how much cooler it was in the woods seeing as we still felt quite hot but back in the full sun again was almost unbearable.
Once back home I had to prepare an early dinner for my husband as he has to go into work for his second night shift.
Litlun and I went down to do Mouses fly spray and muck out the paddock, and even at half past six it was really too hot to be doing it!
Apparently it was hotter in the UK today than in Spain! I don't doubt that for one minute.

1 of 2

This set of shifts (tour) is one of two tours before my proper annual leave, I have just had a weeks annual leave, which I had swapped with one of my work mates so that I could be at my husbands ordination and all that went with it! so it seems strange knowing I only have two tours before having my proper summer leave.
The first day and first night were not too bad, we did little cover moves and most of the jobs were genuine and fairly straight forward. The second day and second night were completely different though and I am sure some of the many unnecessary cover moves that we did were down to the staff who work in the dispatch centre, but the jobs!! any one who knows me will know that after a certain job about 15 months ago, I hate jobs involving babies (paediatrics) and both the day and night we got one, the day job was almost a carbon copy of the bad job except we managed to get this child into hospital in a stable state. I have not and will not find out the outcome of this job, I choose not to know. the other was an over anxious mother but all the way to the job we were wondering what we would be met with!
Still one tour down one to go.
On Monday morning my travel tickets arrived for my coach trip to see my friend up north, (8th August straight after a night shift) I can't believe how cheap the coach fare is and I don't have to do any driving after my night shift!
Ahh well five days off now.

Festival of Speed 2010

This year I did a shift with a private ambulance service at the festival of speed, we had to be on site for 7am we were given radios and maps and a briefing of how the management wanted the ambulance service to deal with the patients it received. We were also given a meal bag and as much water as we needed.
It was really hot and sunny which made the day a really enjoyable shift, even if it did run over by an hour due to a car dumping oil on the track!
I was put with a girl I hadn't met before which didn't matter as she was really nice and we spent most of the day chatting, there were quite a few patients to see but only one or two had to be shipped off to hospital.
The Red Arrows did an air display as did a couple of helicopters. There were loads of bikes and cars as usual and plenty of celebrities, one of which was Dougie Lampkin who I saw two weeks ago at the Moto GP at Silverstone. He rode over to our ambulance and chatted to us for a while, he is as I said before my favorite biker of any discipline, I think what he can do with his bike is wicked!
My daughter Beth also had a job there and as she was going to it she ended up following Dougie up the track crossing, she got a short film clip and a couple of photos, one of which I have posted here.
All in all it was a good day, I just wish it had been the Saturday then I would have been able to spend a little more time with Litlun, who's birthday it was on Friday. Happy Birthday Litlun.

Swimming

Today my mum and I took our dogs to the canine swimming pool. Mums dog has only been once before and really hated it, she couldn't wait to get out! Where as , on the other hand my dog loves it and can't wait to get in! Once there we showered off the dogs just to make sure they were not too grubby before they went in, then the lady who owns it put mums dog on a lead to ensure she did go in, she guided her round the pool for a couple of laps whilst my dog just kept going in after the tennis ball and bringing it back for me to throw in again. Suddenly mums dog saw the ball and made a bee line for it, that was the turning point, we found another ball and threw one for each of the dogs, ten minutes later mums dog was off the lead having as much fun as my dog.