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.

On yer bike....

Last night I realised that I had no petrol in the car, so instead of filling up I decided to cycle to the stables, which meant getting the bike out, (poor bike hasn't seen the light of day for years!)which meant pumping up the tyres, dusting off the dead spiders cobwebs and all the other debris that has accumilated over the years.
I then had to find my helmet... fortunately Litlun couldnt find hers recently so she borrowed mine, that was not full of cobwebs and dead bugs (phew!)
I set my alarm for 7 30am, and when it went off this morning I immediately remembered that I was going to cycle to the stables, turned the alarm off and went back to sleep, well, it did seem the better option by far!
Eventually, half an hour later I got up and by half past eight I was cycling to the stables which is about an 8 mile round trip.
Normally when I arrive Mouse hears the car and gives a welcoming whinny, today she didn't know I was there until she heard me say hello to one of the other horse owners, and I might add this was after several minutes, I think I need to back track a little, I arrived in the yard and attempted to get off the bike, the best way I found of doing this was to fall sideways then stagger off before I fell over, I wondered if I would be able to actually walk Mouse out to the field or if it might be better to sit down for five minutes and have a cup of tea (we have everything at the stables, well we have a kettle at any rate). I decided that I should put the kettle on then take Mouse slowly out to her field and finish making the tea when I got back.
I am extremely lucky to have such a laid back horse, she just walked nicely out to the field and I was able to slowly walk back to the yard and pretend that the kettle was taking ages to boil, when infact I was just trying to decide whether my legs would carry me to the stable again and actually allow me to muck out or maybe round to the hay barn to have a lie down. (I am joking now) I would like to point out that I always have a cuppa whilst doing the stable, and the cycle ride although there are one or two slight inclines, was nowhere near as bad as I made out. In fact I really enjoyed the cycle, it was lovely and cool but bright and sunny, perfect.
Having mucked out, made up Mouses hay nets water bucket and feeds I got back on the bike to do the return journey, I decided to time myself, not because I wanted to rush back, I certainly did not wish to rush back, but I just wondered how long I would take. Back home in 15 minutes, not bad seeing as I was only pooteling along. I have a feeling I am going to be very stiff on Wednesday... and my days exercise is not over yet....
Aikido tonight.
I found this cartoon online it belongs to Stuart McMillen

Blood

Well that's another tour done, two days and two nights! Quite interesting they were too, on my first day I had to have a meeting regarding the amount of time off sick I have had, it makes me laugh really, to ensure I could be at work I just took the days off I needed for all the tests I was having before Christmas, which meant I had been off sick on seven separate occasions!
The service I work for is the most uncaring caring profession I have ever known, but I am not going to rant on about all its miss givings today I might store them up for a later date, Suffice to say that if I am ever ill again and require tests the service will get one massive block of sickness off as I will ensure I am booked off for the whole lot as this seems to be what the service wants!
Other than that we did have some very interesting jobs, and I seem to have done the full rounds going to pretty much every hospital in our area (and a couple of others besides) Our jobs ranged from a four month old baby with testicular torsion, which had to be blue lighted into a large London hospital, an elderly gentleman who had a circulation problem in his leg due to a hip problem, to an epistaxis (nosebleed) which I had to prioritise into the receiving hospital due to the fact he was on Warfarin and had lost so much blood.
On my last night shift I also went to a blood loss job, in fact I think it may have been the worse blood loss I have ever seen on an alive patient! He was a self harmer, he had decided to cut through his arm and managed to hit an artery, the clots and blood were everywhere and we really didn't want to put the kit down or touch anything. His blood pressure was in his boots and for the third time that night we found ourselves prioritising our patient into hospital. I think the theme of this tour could either be Blood loss or nose bleeds, as I think I responded to three nose bleeds and saw at least another two crews bringing patients in that clearly had also had them.
As for Friday night I think the theme was police, as every job we did we either required them or they had called us, including one where two teenagers had absconded from a children's home, one had managed to badly cut her face, (possible self harm, taking the rest of her face and arms into the equation) they both absconded from the hospital before they had been assessed let alone treated, I think they may have realised that we had called the police, because some of the things they were telling us just didn't add up!
Even on our way back to base we required the police as we were following a car which was so obviously driven by someone who was over the limit it was laughable! She had trouble keeping it on the road let alone on her side of it!! Needless to say we kept behind at a good distance, as we didn't want her hitting us.

Marley

Today I was going to blog about the walk I took with the dog in the most amazing bluebell woods I have ever seen. But, ( I was always told you couldn't start a sentence with "but" so I am going to!) But, today I had a phone call from my husband who told me he had bumped into one of our friends during the course of his work and that her dog had died. She had a full of life 10 month old black Labrador, he was into every thing and full of fun. We had taken him for walks together in the fields where she lives and I know he will be very sadly missed. He had managed to get to some slug pellets, apparently just one or two can be fatal to a dog! Sadly in this case they were. Whilst on the subject of slugs, these also can cause problems for dogs as they carry lung worm which can also be fatal to dogs. It seems you can't win sometimes. Three years ago we lost our Jack Russell to an adder bite, according to the vet 50% of dogs are killed by the venom of adders and sadly 50% of dogs are also allergic to the anti venom, yet another can't win situation! Today's blog is posted in memory of Marley and Milo. RIP my little friends.

Nothing lasts forever.

When I was ill a while back, I went down to Somerset to a place called Compton Durville and spent three days with the sisters of the Community of St Francis (CSF).
Nothing was expected of me, I didn't have to go to church 6 times a day or walk around in silence with my head bowed and eyes lowered. I was able to go out for long walks, across the fields and footpaths, there was a library a television room and a chapel and a small shop which sold everything from chocolate to handbags.
I spent most of the time outside in the wild garden and walking, and also sketching.
The atmosphere was so calm and relaxing that when I returned home I was much better. I decided to try and go back at least once a year just to relax and get away from the usual rush of things.
I have just found out that it is closing, after 50 years, and the CSF sisters are all going to different places through out the UK. It seems such a shame as it was such a relaxing and peaceful place to go to escape.
I have posted some photos, for me as much as anyone, and I hope that they all settle happily into their new homes.
I will now begin the search for another quiet relaxing place, any ideas welcome.

Call an ambulance!!

I have just finished my set of four shifts, two days followed by two nights, and it never ceases to amaze me just what people call us out to, and their reasons for calling us too!
This tour I was called out for a 21 year old with period pains! (boyfriends car was in the drive), we were also called to a lady with a UTI (wee infection), by her son who had driven over to see her and followed us up to the hospital in his car. When I realised what he had done I asked him why he hadn't taken her himself he said, "well if she goes in by ambulance she gets seen quicker" I quickly put him right and told him that we were being run ragged by people like him who thought this would happen, and by doing this he could very well be causing a genuine emergency to have to wait longer for an ambulance, to which he replied "I pay my taxes I, I pay your wages! I have just as much right to call an ambulance", To which (we had just had the worse night shift) my crew mate replied in which case its about time you gave us a pay rise!
As we greened up from this job we were immediately given another to an elderly lady with severe breathing difficulties. We brought this patient also, to the same hospital and were prioritised through to the resus department. The son of the UTI patient began to complain that we had said something to the staff which had stopped his mother being seen in order, to which one of the nursing staff said every patient is triaged (assessed for urgency) and as my patient had a life threatening condition and seeing as he could have called a GP or out of hours Dr out to see his mother, he didn't have anything to complain about.
As I have mentioned before every patient is assessed and the more urgent cases are obviously seen first, people seem to think that if they go into hospital by ambulance they will automatically be seen first, the sooner people realise that this is not the case the better it will be for the genuine EMERGENCIES.
I have no problem scooping little old ladies up when they fall out of bed, this is an emergency, if they were to stay on the floor all night or even all day their circulation and general well being will be affected, but when I am called out to a non emergency and there are two or three cars in the drive and at least one sober driver, just because they think they will be seen quicker then please don't expect me or my crew mate to be overly impressed! We won't be!!
My first night shift was I think the busiest night shift I have ever had, I had reached the point where I was worried that I might fall asleep at the wheel on the drive home. Fortunately I didn't and I managed to get a good 5 hours sleep that day before going back for my second night.

Harping back...

The other day I mentioned how fast we seem to be living these days, and I have just realised how much I have managed to cram into my morning already. I got up at 8am, which was rather nice as I am normally up earlier than this, I let the dog out, fed her breakfast, did the rabbit then drove down to the stables to do Mouse, I decided that I would take her for a walk down the road today as it was nice and the roads weren't to busy, Having given her a quick groom we set off, the ducks on the mill pond were being fed some bread so there was quacking and flapping going on there, then three dirt type bikes drove past followed by some racing bikes, then just as we were nearing home again three horses from our yard came out going in the opposite direction, did she care about any of this? No she just looked and didn't even check her stride, we even passed under a creaky pub sign which she didn't worry about either, (may have to see how she feels about going in for a quick half next time (^: ).
I think I should point out here that she is not yet three years old and unbroken, which is why she was not ridden out.
Then once back I turned her out mucked out the field, did her stable made up her feeds for the next two days and came home. Then Beth and I took the dog to the station to see how she would search in a smoke smelling dark indoor environment (the Breathing apparatus chamber ) she did two searches and did very well, Thanks to my husband and Bomber for being willing MisPers. Back home I had some lunch and uploaded the photos that Beth had taken (in the dark) of the search.
All in all a busy but enjoyable morning.
The two photos were taken as pot luck shots in the dark, as although we had a torch it was very dark.

The Marathon!

Today Beth has a friend over and the whole of their day is to be spent doing a marathon.... I would like to point out that her friend has a back and ankle injury and has been going stir crazy at home for the last three weeks. Still the marathon seemed to be in order, the pair of them prepared well, plenty of coke to drink and some sustenance for the marathon ahead of them, pringles, chipsticks and the old favorite... Dairy milk chocolate!! Oh yes this would see them through the miles and miles .................................. ......................................................................................................... of disc footage of Johnny Depp films that they were about to take on, they started off with Sweeney Todd, then Chocolat then threw 300 into the pot for good measure then back to Johnny for Pirates of the Caribbean 1. they did also stop half way for a roast dinner. Well done girls.

Slow down.

Today is the first of May!
When I turned the calendar over this morning my husband said "Its not May yet!" I just gave him the 'there, there, there' look, he grinned and checked the date. Then he looked up at me and with a strange look of mingled fear and excitement he said...."I'm being ordained next month!"
Is it because we try to fit so much in to our day, week, month now that time seems to have sped up or am I just getting old! Good grief!
Sometimes I think it would be nice to look at the calendar and say, I have a free day (actually I would like a free week but that is really asking something. Even when we go away on holiday we try and fill the days with sight seeing and keeping the kids amused. I could never understand why people took three or four books and just sat on the beach reading all day (and I am a book worm).
I think I get it now though, I don't think its all about catching the sun, not completely, I think its about recharging the batteries and slowing the pace down. The fact that I will never be able to sit on the beach all day for a week, because I want to explore the surroundings is beside the point, maybe when I am old and can't climb the nearest mountain just because its there or ride into the desert on a camel just because I haven't done it before, maybe then, just for a day or two, I might sit on the beach and read a book.

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.

Banging around

Bish was on nights last night, fortunately he didn't have a bad shift, because when I got back from the stables this morning at 9am there were builders in next door drilling and banging, fitting a new kitchen! The noise is really deafening, I am hoping they are quick workers and finish what they are doing really quickly because its already driving me mad. I do have a low tolerance to things like that though, so maybe its good for me! (sarcasm there!) Still if Bish had been on job after job last night he would have needed to get some sleep today and would have been less than impressed with that racket, at one point we thought they were going to end up in the bathroom!
Storm text to see if I would like to take the dog out with her two, we took them for a wander through the woods where we do our search and rescue training, then when we got back I sorted out a few things on her computer for her whilst having a coffee and a Viennese whirl, my favorite.
After cooking the dinner I went down to the yard to put Mouse to bed.
All in all a very mixed day, I hope they will have finished banging around tomorrow so that normal noise levels will be resumed.

Election

I know more about the ministry of magic than I do about the houses of parliament.
That is the title of a group on facebook, I joined the group just as a laugh, but then realised that it is probably true! whats more its probably true about a lot of the people who will be voting at this up coming election. Rather a worrying thought really....I mean Cornelius Fudge didn't do a very good job when he was minister for magic, and Dumbledore is dead..... that just leaves Percy Weasley and we all know what a jobsworth he is! Ahh well I guess we will have to stick to, Brown, Cameron or Clegg...... maybe one of the two that aren't elected could run for Minister of Magic! now theres a thought.

out to lunch part 2

I did manage to stay up to see Bish when he got in last night (haven't stopped yawning all day though!) This morning when I got to the stables Mouse was much happier and when I let her into the paddock she ran around with the red pony for a short while before she got her head down to the serious business of eating. I have been driving around with a very bald tyre on my car so having ordered a new one I went to have it put on £60 later I drove to mums where we walked the two dogs down to a grassy plateau they played with tennis balls while mum and I had a picnic lunch and put the world to rights. Once home my husband told me that the church was not going to allow him to do a single year at his theological college to get his BA, but that it wanted him to do a further 4 years study at a different venue to get the same BA. Great!! that will be another 4 years of no holidays and him having to study all the time, why don't they get the concept of family life!! Anyway enough of that, I must get on with the dinner.

Out to lunch....

When I got to the stables this morning I found mouse's hay net still hanging up outside! Poor girl hadn't had any hay all night. I let her out and not surprisingly she put her head straight down to graze.
Having dropped Flower off at school I got ready to go up country a short way to meet a friend for lunch, he is a parish priest, so I travelled up to his parish and we went to a pub a short distance away called the gardeners arms. The service was excellent as was the food, and it goes without saying that the company was too. After eating and catching up we went for a walk around a huge reservoir it was so warm and sunny, there were a pair of grebes on the water and loads of different butterflies it was lovely. When we got back to the rectory we had a cup of tea then I left to come home as he had work to do.
I drove straight to the stables to muck out hay, feed and water then bring Mouse in, before I left I did a double check that she did have everything she needed for the night.
When I got in it was just Beth and Litlun at home as Bish was in London at Uni he won't get in until gone eleven, but I will try and stay awake to see him.

Vowes

A couple of things that have happened in my long time away from blogging were My operation at the begining of February and My husband (Bish, a little premature haha, it is the slang term used by Royal Marines for their Padre) and I renewed our wedding vowes on the 14 of february, we had invited family and friends but thanks to the postal strike 5 of our invitations did not get to their destinations and some of our family and friends did not know about it (we didn't put RSVP, wish we had now!)
It was a lovely day, although I was still in pain from the op it went well, our friend Fr James led the service and Lit'lun also received her grade two singing certificate.

All change....

I can't believe its been so long since my last post!
Many things have changed since then, for instance I have moved Mouse to a stables closer to my home, we have Flower, our Granddaughter every Monday night. Beth has quit her job got a new one and is off to College then Uni to train as a teacher. There are probably other things which I cant remember off hand but if I can get my backside into gear and keep the blog up to date, will come to the surface.
As I think this is a fresh start I may change a few names.... to protect the innocent and the not so!!!
Well here goes.....