Widnes

This last weekend I have been in Widnes seeing Jim and had a really good time, didn’t want to come home at all! Our weekend started on Thursday night when Jim came down here on the train to make sure I get to Widnes alright as it is a long journey. I did half of the driving and Jim drove the rest of the way. I decided to pull over when he tugged at my last straw saying “you don’t wanna do that, you should do this!!”, got on my wick so in the end I let him drive. lol I was grateful though as it was nice to chillax (well, the first few miles of Jim driving in my dodgy Corsa was a bit anxious, due to the gears playing up). The weather was horrendous and it just didn’t stop raining as we hit Shrewsbury. We got there safe and sound though and that’s all that matters.

On the Saturday we went to Liverpool and it’s a lovely place. Although the people there talk funny and it was hard to understand what they were saying! We went in a few museums, a few drinks, and went down Albert Dock. On the river they had people trying to walk on the water in these balls. They zip, you sit inside them, then the ball gets pumped full of oxygen and you’re pushed into the water and left to yourself for 10 minutes playing about. Looked like such fun, was a bit expensive though at £5 for 10 minutes but I wanted to go on it. However there was a queue and we thought different of it.

The buildings there are lovely. They have a mixture of old and modern and it looked really good.

In the evening we went for something to eat and went to a Chinese Resturant. On the menu it said £21.50 banquet and we thought we had to select one of each course, and we thought that was the price for both of us, 2 for 1. We sat down and when a waitress came to our table we selected our starter and we went on to say what meals we’d like and she said “all”. We thought it was a language barrier because of her broken English but we didn’t expect what was coming. When I went to bed that night all I could hear in my sleep was the waitress saying, “Ready for next course?” Seriously, we ate soooo much. I think we experienced all Chinese food in one sitting! Course after course, plate after plate. Then half way through Jim put his arm down on the table not realising a chopstick was on the corner and it summersaulted behind him. Thankfully the guy behind was facing the other way or Jim may still be in the cells done for assault and being sued for compensation due to loss of eye sight.

We were stuffed. By the time the dessert came we looked at each other and tried our best to at least attempt. We had melons but there was also a bowl of Sage, it’s basically like rice pudding except the rice is more like frog spawn. So, so slimy. I just could not eat it although Jim loved it. The taste itself was ok I guess just the texture, totally offputting for me!

The bill came and it was £21.50 each, although it was expensive, the food itself was absolutely gorgeous (expect the frog spawn) and was a really enjoyable evening and was with excellent company.

We ended the night playing Wii Fit. Fit!?? Ha! That’s a laugh. My Wii Fit age is 45. 45!!!!! WTF. We played bowling and tennis and went for a job and also some baseball. I so want a Wii Fit now.

On the Sunday I met Jims parents, one of his sisters, an uncle and his niece and nephews and everyone was lovely, just hope they thought the same about me even though I was quiet! I always am when I meet new people, I’m terrible, but after the first meet it’s usually ok. I also met Jims daughter properly for the first time and we all had pizza and played Guitar Hero. Such fun!!

On the Monday I intended to leave at 10am to get back in time for work and chillax a bit before my shift started (3pm). We hadn’t used my car all weekend and when I went to it my jaw dropped when noticed someone had smashed off my side mirror!!! I could not go on the M6 without one of them. So we went to Halfords to get some stick on ones and Jim sorted it out for me, cutting his fingers when trying to get rid of the shattered glass. Awww. The mirror wouldn’t adjust properly because one of the clips came off so I had to bend and look at an awkard angle to see along side and behind me. A combination of the mirror and my gearbox (hit and miss getting 2 and 4) made the drive a bit stressing but I got home by 2:30pm. Had a very quick shower and went to work and reality came crashing back. I miss him so much, 168 miles, but being in head and heart means you’re never too far away.

I have heaps of photos but haven’t uploaded them yet, when I do I’ll upload a few of them here.

Cardiff and Directions

I was up early this morning! Was due to provide First Aid cover at another national festival in Cardiff for 8am, but because I was in work this afternoon I only stayed until 12pm but it wasn’t a boring morning in the slightest! Never is, to be honest, because even if we don’t get any casualties the company is good.

I misjudged the traffic and left a bit later than I should have and got stuck in the traffic in the city centre and I ended up being 15 minutes late. I didn’t have time to do anything this morning, except the essencials such as getting dressed, washing, brushing teeth and going to papershop etc. While I was there I got the only cereal bar they had and was chomping at it as I drove. When I got to our base I was greeted with toast and coffee – perfect!!

We had a bit of a natter before being paired up and being sent out into the crowds. The organisers of the event could not have pushed us more to the back of the festival if they tried. There were no sign posts, except for a really small red cross first aid symbol on the map, which very little people had. So as we were walking about people were approaching us so it’s good we were out and about. Small things here and there, nothing major except a young girl who kept vomiting but my colleague and I didn’t deal with them, another two did.

While we were walking around we went into one of the many buildings, just to look around at the art work and the music etc that was happening that day. We heard a huge bump and turned around and saw a womans legs hanging out from behind a chair. We walked over to see if she was ok but she fell and banged her head against a glass wall. Went down with quite a wallop. Her head was hurting slightly but it was her neck which was giving her problems. After asking the general questions about consciousness, concussion and spinal injuries nothing was apparent but to stay on the safe side we tried to support her head but she wouldn’t have it, we offered her oxygen but she refused, offered a chair to take her to the first aid post to give her a good checking over and do paperwork etc (it was a very busy place and most of our kit is at base) but she didn’t want that either. Need to be careful with neck pain, especially after the whack she had. I think she was embarrassed, because she worked there, people trying to fuss over her but she just wanted to get on with the job but in the end we convinced her to come back to base with us, it was only a short walk anyway.

She laid down on the bed for a short time while we did some obs and checks, refused any further treatment (her neck was still hurting) so we gave her a head injury card to take with her and told her if she feels worse or doesn’t get any better or any other symptoms start to either call for us or if she’s at home, see a doctor or go to A&E. She was very appreciative of our care and help but unfortunately there’s only so much we can do. If she refuses treatment she refuses but we did the best we could.

Back out on ‘the beat’ my colleague and I preformed an operation. Seriously! Well, it was serious, but not on a living person. Nor an animal, before you say! There were a lot of stores etc around the place, offering different activities, freebies, lectures/talks, food etc and one of the stores was about a medical school. They had a plastic body and put the game ‘operation’ on top and we had to get the ‘organs’ out of him! When we did it we were given a free stress ball shaped like a doctor. It’s so cool!

So yeah anyway the morning was interesting, took me ages to get home because I tried to be smart. I thought I wouldn’t need the sat nav, only got to follow signs for the M4 – how hard can it be?? Well I did just that, and ended up driving towards Barry. I thought this wasn’t right, turned on the sat nav, “take the next exit… !!!” Ended up putting 15 minutes on my journey! Felt like it took forever to get out of Cardiff.

Tags: driving, life, red cross

Poor Baby Car is Unwell!!

I am really tired tonight but thought I’d type up a post. I saw my boss about the pay and she contacted the dudette who sorts out our payslips etc and she confirmed it is right. Because I am casual I get paid differently to my colleagues. My colleagues all work a set number of hours, so it automatically goes in at the end of each month. Because I’m casual they need to wait for my timesheet to see what hours I’ve covered – even though I’m pretty much working fulltime and I work the same hours as my colleagues, they still gotta see my timesheet as I’m casual, so I get paid a month behind everyone else. *Sigh* I don’t know. It really confuses me. So complicated.

Anyway my car is playing up something stupid. The gears have been pretty messed up lately and I find it hard to drive. The 1st and 2nd gears keep getting jammed and won’t ‘go in’, when I think I’ve got into 1st it’s actually 3rd, when I think I’ve gone into 2nd it’s gone into 4th.  The reverse isn’t working at all. I looked like a right idiot today when I got stuck in the works car park. I parked on a bit of a ‘hill’ hoping I’d roll down it backwards if I took the handbrake off but it didn’t happen – I ended up not rolling so I had to rock in my car seat trying to get it to move. Ha. I can laugh about it now but it wasn’t funny then!!

Anyway it’s no good… got it checked by the garage and it’s something wrong with the clutch I think, and it’ll cost £150 to fix by looks of. I’ll get taxi to work tomorrow and Friday, then I’m in London until Tuesday so I’ll get it fixed on Wednesday. It needs to be fixed, I can’t drive it when it’s like that.

Tags: driving, work

Two Idiots

Current Mood: Skeptical

I have had the ‘pleasure’ of being in the presence of two idiots in the last 24 hours. A plank on the motorway and my dad.

Story Of the Plank On the Motorway.

I was driving to Cardiff via the M4 late last night and it was dark (obviously). There are some major work contruction work around this part and as a result, only two lanes are operating. I was in the outside lane. In the nearside lane to the front of me, was a car and infront of him was a lorry. I saw the lorry slam on his brakes then swerve half into the next lane (one I was in) then of course the car behind hit the brakes and managed to get into the other lane thankfully there was enough room otherwise it would have been ugly! What caused this? A cyclist who has the IQ of a plank who decided to cycle on the motorway, didn’t have any lights or nothing, not that it would have made it excusable if he did. He wasn’t even cycling straight he was all over the lane, good thing the lorry driver was looking and the roads weren’t that busy otherwise there’d have definitely been a pile up.

Story of My Dad

Sigh. Where do I start? Well to sum it all up – his relationship with woman less than half his age who cannot speak much English, who’s family is taking my dad for a ride. Yeah I think that pretty much sums it up. Don’t get me wrong, the age isn’t really a bother to me but everything else is. I could rant about her family for ages but this post would end up extremely long so I’ll just include the outlines. He has known her and the family for a year and at the start they were really lovely, but then they started hinting towards money problems and we agreed to give them a loan. They promised they would start paying it back the next month but they haven’t yet, I’ve been told I’ll get a first payment this month – we’ll see. I’ve heard it before. L (dad’s fiancee) is from another country and she went there for a few months to look after a relative of hers, she kept putting off the date because she couldn’t afford the fare so my dad paid for her ticket because he missed her etc.

 The day before she is due back, her family asks if I can drive with them to Bristol Airport to pick her up, because I can talk English and may be useful if they get any problems along the way. I was ok with that. No problem. On the day, about 15 minutes BEFORE we were going to pick L up, her family ask if they can borrow my sat nav because theirs was faulty (I got it back straight after the journey, made sure of that). Asked to borrow petrol money as they didn’t have enough to get there and back (they ended up paying themselves). Dropped the bombshell that the father who was driving the car didn’t have a full UK license, only a provisional and wanted me, as a full license holder, to show my license if anything goes wrong. WHAT THE HECK!??? This really irritated me and I was certainly NOT happy. So they wanted me to go because of my English, huh? Yeah. Right. And I was born yesterday too. They are a nice family in the way that they don’t want,want,want all the time but they do expect a lot from us, and I worry my dad is falling into it.

I know they have been planning to marry for a while – L’s family had a lot to do with that, pushing my dad, he is quite content just living together or something. But now he is going for the marriage, and tonight L came by and dad asked me to go into the other room and shut the door so I couldn’t listen. I did listen. He said to L they can get married next year and he has … thousand to help them both settle down. I didn’t catch the amount, but it ended with thousand. He ust have got a loan or something because we don’t have that sort of cash. He is so besotted with her, I have bought up my concerns with him and he’s convinced L is for real. I pretend I’m “happy” when she’s here but deep down I don’t like her, and I’m getting tired of him talking about her. But he’s happy. She’s happy. I don’t know… Maybe calling my dad an idiot is a bit extreme and wrong, I just think he’s been badly sucked in and I worry he’s going to get hurt. I just don’t like the family. There’s nothing I can do about it.

Tags: driving, family, feelings, life, people, ranting, thoughts

Losing it while Driving

You know I was just thinking. I always say I hate driving in places I don’t know because I don’t know the roads etc, but I passed my driving test in Bolton – A place I had never been to before! I was taking driving lessons in Blackpool (on an ‘intense driving course’) so I really shouldn’t be scared driving in places I don’t know! I guess it’s because normally, I’m driving on my own, and I always fear getting lost. Even with a sat nav I take the wrong turns and don’t ask me about a map – I doubt I could even hold it the right way up. I think driving tests should have map reading involved. It seems to be a skill that is fading fast today because of all this modern technology.

Tags: driving, thoughts

Red Cross and Snow (unrelated, almost!)

I know, I know. I really must update this more regularly, I want to and I do GO to then but then I wonder if what I say is really interesting or a load of crap. Haha Probably the latter. But anyway, I do like writing here and at the end of the day I guess it is my blog so if it’s a load of rambling words then that’s what it’ll be. =)

I have been pretty busy lately, I’ve been working where I am now for over a year and the past few weeks has been the busiest period yet. I have had some time off lately, and I needed it but I’m glad to be back in work now, makes me feel like I do have some use.

I was providing first aid cover at the Britain’s Got Talent auditions on Monday. It was a busy day but so cool to see behind the scenes and actually meet the presenters and judges! Driving there was a complete nightmare though because there was heavy snow thoughout the night around the valleys etc which meant the A48 was even more delayed than normal so I got to the location a bit later than I should have. When I finally got there I missed the turning for the car park so I had to go back around the block, in the middle of the city centre which was at a standstill. *Sighs* Everytime I go somewhere I don’t know, I ALWAYS take a wrong turning or something. Seriously. Even with a flaming sat nav!

Anyway the day went well, nothing exciting as far as first aid is concerned but it was a good day. I had my photo taken with Stephen Mulhern which was awesome, when I saw him my jaw dropped to the floor he’s a lot more handsome in real life than what he looks like on the TV! Simon Cowell really is as short as the TV makes him out to be (but then you do see him quite often with a tall model of some sort on his arm), Amanda was wearing a lovely white dress but you could really see how thin she was, could do with eating a bit more chocolate! Piers winked and smiled at us and Ant and Dec are lovely. Woot!!

I’m going to Coventry to play dead in April, I’m still sorting out the transport and accomodation with the Red Cross but it looks like they’re going to give me their pool car! It’s the first time I’ll have drove that car and I’m a little apprehensive about it… if it was going to the racecourse or something I wouldn’t mind as that’s like 20 miles away, but Coventry is a 2 and a half hour drive! Anyway to elaborate it’s a Casualty Simulation course, I’ll learn how to be a casualty and help trainers on their courses.

The snow was pretty bad here during the night. It started about 11pm pretty heavy and I hoped it would have melted away by this morning as I had to drive to work. But it hadn’t. I decided I wasn’t going to be one of the 25% of people who stayed home from work today and set off in my thermals. My first time driving in the snow, and the first corner I took I skidded. Only a small skid but gee snow is dangerous! Thankfully my route to work is pretty straight and it snowed for most of the day but it’s all gone now. Snow is pretty and all, but that’s as far as it goes. The UK comes to a TOTAL standstill when we get a bit of snow, I bet other countries look at us and think, “you bunch of wimps!!”

Tags: driving, life, red cross, thoughts, weather

A Day at the Races

Today I was providing first aid cover at a racecourse, it was a large race meeting today so they were expecting thousands of people, and it was thousands of people they got. Thankfully we didn’t get many casualties but typically, the last race something just had to happen…

The race was 10 minutes late starting and what had happened was in the paddocks, one of the horses who was due out to race went a bit crazy, flung the jockey off him who fell onto the floor, kicked another person in the paddock in the head and then fell onto the jockey, lodging him between the horse and the wall. Didn’t sustain any apparent head injuries and was talking etc but was in a lot of pain in her hip area. She was administered morphine by the onsite doctor and strapped to a board to stablise her and then had to wait for the ambulance, the race happened and the meeting drew to a close by the time the ambulance got there, thankfully there were plenty of trained personel in the jockeys hospital (on site) including 1 red cross paramedic, two private ambulance paramedics, one county paramedic (only saw one… there was probably another around, though), a doctor and a nurse. Oh, and the trainer decided to say hello too, he was very upset and wouldn’t leave the jockey when we asked him to step back, in the end he spoke to the doctor he was most concerned about any possible spinal injuries, I guess seeing the jockey strapped to the board was a concern to him, but the doctor reassured him sayinng it was more of a precaution than anything and to stablise her. Anyway off the jockey went to hospital, the other person who was kicked in the head was surprisingly ok.

I got to drive one of the ambulances today. I was a bit reluctant because I was a bit nervous, haven’t drove this one before! My feet could hardly reach the pedals and the handbrake was in an odd place! Stalled it a few times and I think I scared one of the guys I was in the ambulance with, because when we got out of the ambulance and had to get back in, he jumped in the drivers seat before I had the chance to. Haha. I wasn’t THAT bad. Seriously, I wasn’t.

I’m waiting for Callum now, he’s staying a few days and I’m picking him up in 20 minutes, then going to my mums to drop off her Christmas presents.

Tags: driving, life, people, red cross