Hardly Blogworthy.

Title says it all. Life is, tranquil. I went back to my old school yesterday, it was nice to show off to the people I knew that I was living the dream. My Health and Social Care teacher hugged me, I didn't expect that from him.......

I ironed my uniform and placed it neatly in my cupboard. And that's about it.

Its nice being able to see the Missus every day, and the family too. Its just being stuck inside all day is driving me a little bit potty.

*sighs*

As The Numbers Increase..

I thought it would be nice to share a few new blogs with you all:


Basic Proficiency- Ellis James' blog about life as an EMT with MRAS. Scoot on over there and have a look, its always interesting to read somebody else's viewpoint on things. Cute kids too.

The Paramedic's Diary- a blog from a Paramedic in Central London.

Life of a Trainee Paramedic- a trainee Paramedic like myself, and at Uni to boot! Things will never cease to amaze me, as I thought I was the only trainee blogging. Ah well I had my time. It'll be nice to compare their experience to mine.

Slip of the Tongue- Dianne's blog about life in general, she works with "Yoofs". Brave lady. She was the first ever person to link to me without me seeing her site, I was touched. I took it as a deep compliment.


On a sadder note, Defib appears to have given up the ghost. I took him off the "Things I enjoy reading" list, because there's nout new to read. A real shame. Come back!



Also, since when was the colour red a bloody trademark?!?

Somebody Must Be Smiling Down On Me.

Isn't it nice when you find the cause of all your problems is something tiny and easy to fix?
Just spent the entire morning ripping apart my car dash-board with my Dad to try and ascertain why the fans and de-mister aren't working. In the end we were happy to find a little, tiny connection that was burned out, nothing more. Its also nice to spend time with Dad, we actually work as quite a good team.

On another note site-meter appears to have died, so my 2,500 hits have gone down the drain. Although thinking about it I probably won't get another counter, it becomes a silly obsession trying to get as many hits as possible. Also I feel quite rude in a way, as site-meter is quite a clever little thing that can tell you all sorts about those who came to your site. Anyway, so more monitoring. Hoorah!

*UPDATE!*
For some unknown reason sitemeter had returned, so I lied. Lots more snooping about then.

Life In The Electronic Jungle.

Ok then. Second day on the trot of e-learning, and amazingly I'm not finding it too bad. We get given a dose of material each day to read through, I make notes by hand and then print off diagrams. There's also a forum on which all the guys in my class can discuss what we are doing under the supervision of the module leader. This electronic classroom stuff is more intuitive than I thought it would be, although a bit lonely. Mum was very nice and took me to her hospital's library, I borrowed 4 A&P books under her name so I can start reading around the subject, under various interpretations. Until I buy my own book that's all I got.

Its nice to be home. Its nice to be indoors and close to all the people I love, I knew I missed the Missus lots and lots, but didn't realise just how much I had missed my family.

My uniform is sitting nicely folded in a box in the corner of my room, and that's where it'll stay till the 13th of November when I go back to the training centre. No more trying it on, and anyway I don't want the novelty to get too old too quickly.....

Its also odd as the past three weeks have been dripping with stuff that's blog-worthy, but now things are calming down a bit, and truth be told I'm not entirely unhappy about it. Its nice to reflect, chill out and calm down.

Don't ask me why..

...but if you type "johnny bast" into google (with quote marks), I'm the 5th search result. To anybody whom that insult means anything I swear I have nothing agaisnt St. John, and if you check the search, you will see the reason for it coming up is a comment made on here. Not by me!

Uniform.

That is what (in no particular order),

• 1 x pair of leather gloves
• 4 x pair green combat trousers
• 1 x black glasses case
• 1 x safety glasses
• 7 x boot socks
• 1 x utility belt
• 1 x LAS Hi-Vis tabbard
• 7 x white t-shirt
• 2 x LAS green fleece
• 2 x pair Redwood safety boot
• 1 x LAS long sleeve shirt
• 7 x LAS short sleeve shirt
• 1 x wooly hat
• 1 x LAS kit bag
• 2 x LAS Hi-Vis Jacket

looks like. I didn't include the epaulet's, but I got four of those that simply say "London Ambulance Service" on them, denouncing me as the lowest of the low. Bloody hell that's a lot of uniform. Yes, before you ask I did parade around both my house and the Missus' house showing it off. Yes it does look fantastic. Ok, I think I have (just about) got over the uniform thing now, as surprisingly when we found out that it had come on Friday it was a bit of an anti-climax for me.

Unfortunately for the moment, that's about it for ambulance things for the next couple of months. We are just starting an anatomy and physiology module that is delivered via the net, that takes us up until Christmas. Of course during that time I'll try and get some more observational shifts wherever I can, Mum's trying to get me some at the hospital, hopefully I can go out with the local ECP as well, as they're funded by the PCT. Although I am waiting on an e-mail from another ECP to hopefully go on an obs shift with them too, but I suspect they're quite busy. We've also got a few dates back at the training centre to practice ambulance skills, so it won't be completely dead. I think I also need to earn some money, car insurance is coming up soon. Eeek.

A Sense of Accomplishment.

This is the first A&E ambulance I ever went on. I know before I said I was going to be on a car, but in the end I ended up on this with a training officer, Sally, and newly qualified Paramedic, Phil.
I was due to do a 07:00 to 19:00 shift, and I wanted to be early. I left my house at about 05:00, and was at the station by 06:00. I knocked politely at the door and the night shift let me sit down and wait for my crew. As the crews came in I sat there quietly until Sally came, and we introduced ourselves. Shortly after Phil came in, we shook hands. They seemed like nice guys.

Ensuring that their Paramedic bags were stocked up, we waited for our vehicle to come in from a job night staff had been on, but another job came through on the phone. So, we had to take the ambulance that was in the garage, the one above. In went all the kit, as well as me, in the back. And off we went, sirens screaming at the traffic to move out of the way, while the blue lights bounced off the surrounding buildings. It felt strange, I was expecting a rush of adrenaline to be pumping through my body, to be fair I thought my brain owed me a little stimulation considering I had woken up so early, but alas none came. I was excited, just not as much as I thought I would have been. So after going through lots of red lights and round the wrong way of traffic islands, we finally made it to the address in double quick time. The MDT (mobile dispatch terminal, it gives information about the job in question) stated that it was a 76 year old male complaining of chest pain. Phil told me to grab the carry chair and blanket, and off we went. The FRU had already beaten us there:


(taken on station, I'm not silly enough to whip my camera phone out on a job)

The FRU Paramedic had started doing some basic obs, and had the gentleman on O2. Phil started to ask the gentleman whether he had any chest pains, and we quickly began to ascertain that he didn't, but that he had been having a domestic dispute with his wife, and wanted the police. Phil asked me to set up the carry chair and blanket it. Thank God the training kicked in. Up until this point the experience had felt a bit like watching an episode of Trauma, but it changed once I began interacting. Phil got the gentleman onto the chair with ease, and asked me if I wanted to take the bottom end of the chair and carry him down the stairs. For a second I panicked. i had only used dummies before. Then, a moment of clarity, "I'm going to have to do this for real at one point, so it might as well be now." As there was a training officer there I wasn't too worried about anything going wrong, so we did it. By this point the adrenaline had kicked in good and proper (finally), the gentleman must have been about 50kg, but it didn't feel like it, for all I knew he could have been made out of paper.

In the gentleman went into the back of the ambulance, and we did some more obs on him. Phil explained everything he did, he was so damn smart! We took him to the hospital, and handed him over to a member of A&E staff looking rather dubious about dealing with this gentleman. Bless.

Back into the ambulance, to carry out a decent VDI (vehicle daily inspection). That took a good hour, checking everything was stocked up and clean. I now have a good understanding of what equipment we carry, and where it is too.

So. Off we continued through the day, all the jobs we went to apart from the first were people who were genuinely sick. No time wasters. I was amazed.
The jobs included:

• Suspected heart attack who we had to blue light into hospital.
• A lady reported having severe respiratory distress, who had a heart rate of 226. Needless to say we blued her into hospital, and the doctors gave her a drug called Adonzine (I think), that slowed her heart down, as if she kept beating so fast her heart would probably stop. I think the diagnosis was Narrow Complex Tachycardia. I helped carry her to the ambulance, so in a tiny, tiny little small way I helped to save her life. It feels good..
• A poor gentleman who had extreme abdo pain, you could tell he was in deep pain. Its really not pleasant to see somebody who is genuinely in pain, you can just tell there are. We carried him down two and a half flights of stairs too.
• A gentleman with a query stroke, who looked really ill and was shaking a lot. We suspected an infection of some sorts, but Phil was surprised when he took his pulse and it was 29. He asked me to get the chair quickly, he thought we needed to move sharpish. However, he did ask if this (66 year old) gentleman was an athlete, or a runner and he was, which explained the low pulse. Panic over. Phew.
• A transfer for a gentleman to an eye A&E from his home. The doctor advised him not to drive and to call LAS, but the gentleman wasn't expecting an A&E crew to turn up, to be honest neither were we. In truth a "green crew" should have been sent, crews who deal with low priority calls, but none were available. But since we were the only available resource we were sent. I was just about to go to the loo when the call came through on station, I swear that damn phone is connected to the toilet door handle. Bless this guy, he knew he didn't need an A&E ambulance, but I tried to reassure him on the way there. The trip took us about 45 minutes, so once we got there we popped to the loo and pushed green to mobile i.e. ready for a job. Unfortunately it was about 18:15, we knew were going to get a job before we got back to station and of course we did.
• A pregnancy! A Somalian lady was lying on her bed writhing in pain at the contractions, her husband had to translate as she didn't speak a word of English. We had to take all the family, as there was no one else to look after the couple's other two kids. Very cute they were too. The lady didn't give birth in the ambulance, but all the time I kept thinking, "I bet you're kicking yourself for doing the naughty nine months ago".

Well that was it. We got back onto station at about 20:00, so had done a thirteen hour day. It had zoomed by. I honestly don't know where the time went. All the time during the day all I could think about was "What an absolutely fantastic job!". The fact that someone is mad enough to pay me to do it as well is the icing on the cake. Life is good.

Tomorrow: UNIFORM! I got a massive box of it yesterday, I just need to catalogue it. The Missus loves a man in uniform. Till tomorrow then.

Patient Transport Service.

Ok first things first. It might look like an A&E ambulance, but its PTS (Sorry I should have taken a picture of the side that said "Patient Transport Service" in big blue words). This is an "Urgent Care Vehicle", so is equipped with all sorts including blue lights and sirens, O2 and basic ambulance equipment. It also has a stretcher in it too, but oddly can seat 6 as the stretcher acts as a seat and the rest of the seats fold from the walls. Its a strange hybrid, somewhere in the middle between A&E and PTS, and as with most things that try to do too much at once wasn't particularly good at either. All sorts of little things were badly designed inside it, making it not quite useless as an A&E ambulance but close, yet it couldn't sit enough people to be a really useful PTS vehicle. However, being able to carry a stretcher places this vehicle in its element, it was the only non-A&E truck on station that could carry one.

I was with a two-man crew, Fred and Gavin. Gavin had trained up to EMT 2 standard, but had stayed with PTS as opposed to going to A&E, for reasons unknown. This meant he could use all the equipment on board if it was needed. Not all at once of course, that's preposterous. Don't be silly.

We started off nice and easy, taking 4 OAPs to a day centre. I had a nice chat with one about Cornwall and Butchers, I had fun pretending I knew what meat tasted like, otherwise I would of have had to explain all about being a vege etc etc which is all very boring, trust me.

Next we transferred a stretcher patient to a hospital about 20 miles away, which went without a hitch. I did try and talk to her but she was a bit confused, a lad trying to speak to her while wearing a bright yellow observers jacket (picture to follow later) probably wouldn't help much.

Back to the hospital for lunch, then a request to quickly drop a lady and her mother home. The lady had been staying with her mother in hospital, and both seemed happy. The mother was a hundred years old! I'd pay to look that good at a hundred. She might not of been able to stand up on her own accord, but apart from that she was in perfect working order. I also saw for the first time the Banana Board used in anger, as well as the carry chair.

Lastly we transferred an elderly gentleman by stretcher from his ward back to his nursing home. It was BUPA run, and a word of advice, when(and if) you do need to go into a home ensure its a BUPA one, as it was very nice. I mean really nice. I mean super-dooper really, really nice. Nice advert there lad..

So (unfortunately), we didn't get to play with blue lights, but I had an enjoyable day and I'm sure I'll get more than my fill of "The Blue Mist" tomorrow.


Nee Naw Nee Naw Nee Naw Woooooooooo Woooooooo OoOoOoOoOoOoOo................ etc.

Back to Control.

Well. Apart from being an hour early to Waterloo, by severely underestimating how fast the Northern Line can be, today went off without a hitch. I was with a great EMD named Glen, it was nice to be back.

Calls of note:

• Woman had pulled feeding tube out of a tracheotomy patient and wondered why it was bleeding.
• Road traffic collision that happened behind the caller, who was now a good two miles away from crash site. Why he didn't stop I don't know, but at least he made us aware. Another call came in about the crash, the driver had blacked out and crashed into a bridge pylon, with severe hip injuries.
• Heathrow Airport had a report of a plane coming in with a crew member who had been fitting, so phoned us in good time (well over an hour ahead of the plane landing) to tell us about it.
• Poor old dear who had fallen in the street, and hit her chest and throat on the kerb. I'll never forget what the caller said "I told her not to worry about calling an ambulance because they'll be here in three minutes". Sorry about a reality check about to come in darling.
• Classic heart attack, all the symptoms the system could throw at the caller she said yes to, textbook it was.
• THE PERFECT CALLER! A woman had tripped and fallen in the street, hurting her ankle. A nice gentleman had dialed 999. You could her here cries of agony over the phone, but since it wasn't life threatening it was classified as Green 2. Which meant she could be waiting a long time for an ambulance. The caller and her did, but at least control rang him back to tell him about the delay and lack of resources. Then something amazing happened. He rang back, cool, calmly and collected asked if he should transport her himself, as he could see there was no ambulances immediately available. None of this "WHERE'S MY BLOODY AMBULANCE?!!!!!" malarky, just a nice calm gentleman. Because he was so nice we even helped him get directions to the nearest A&E.
• Also lots of requests for transfers of patients with schizophrenia, all of whom had a police escort. I think I counted at least 4 in so many hours. The world is going mad I tell you, mad!

Also, receptionists at Surgeries are useless. Some of these women (sorry, not a single man was a receptionist) didn't even know the address or phone number of their workplace. I was disappointed. Towards the end of the shift I sat on dispatch for about half an hour, chatting along merrily with everyone there. I also gave some advice to an EMD 1 who is in the process of applying to Uni to do Paramedic Science. I left her my e-mail if she needed any help. That felt quite odd. Me helping, or at least giving advice to, someone who is in the position I was this time last year. Definitely odd.

PTS tomorrow!

Highlights for the coming week:

• Tuesday- Another observational shift in Emergency Operations Control, I'm supposed to be there from 8:00 till 13:00, but I might stay later if the fancy takes me and the EMDs can tolerate me.
• Wednesday- I'm observing on a Patient Transport Service Vehicle from 7:30 till 15:00, I know it isn't tearing about the streets of London on blue lights and sirens, but it allows you to talk to people from all across life. I like listening to stories.
• Thursday- A 7:00-19:00 observational shift on a Fast Response Unit. Needless to say I'm, as they say, "bricking it", especially as I'm with a training officer.

I'll do a much more detailed post about each as it happens, although I don't know when I'll be able to get them up, as between Wednesday and Thursday is a long trip from south London to my home, and then leaving home Thursday morning about 5:00ish (probably earlier) ready for the 7:00 start at a station in north London. I was told specifically to be there 15 minutes early, which translates to me being at least an hour early in the oddly twisted method of logic that I enjoy practicing. Big things are happening!

On Thursday I was strapped to one of these,

, and lifted up. My group then decided to turn me upside down. I shall never again make the statement: " I don't believe that velcro alone can hold me to that thing, let alone when I'm upside down!"

Sometimes the only way you can describe yourself as..

..is a dickhead. That's how I felt today. Let me explain.

Today we were "familiarized" with the vehicles. Basically this means being shown around the back of the standard Mercedes ambulance (sorry no photos), told where the equipment is kept, and given a basic introduction into the cab and Mobile Dispatch Terminal (MDT).
Anyway. Next was the driver's seat. A guy from my course was sat in it, playing with the blue lights and occasionally (I suspect accidentally) sirens, under the guidance of our training officer. The guy was getting slightly confused by the controls, so put the lights on and jumped out of the cab to check they were on for himself.

He invited me to take the seat while he checked the lights. Of course I obliged. I took my seat. It was raining, the headlights and front strobes flashed against the surrounding vehicles. The rain made the light distorted somewhat, but the LED lights cut through the droplets of rain with a crisp precision. Time slowed down somewhat, Matrix style. I was here. Sat there in the cab. Lights flashing all around, yet oddly I didn't feel excited. It instead was something more of content, of "I belong here". I brought myself back from this state with an abrupt embarrassment. I suspect I wasn't there for more than a couple of seconds, but I switched off the blue lights anyway to bring me back down a bit. As I pushed the control to switch them on again, the siren came on for no real apparent reason. I panicked and fumbled it off ASAP. Little did I realise that coming over was another training officer from the direct entry tech group. He opened the passenger door;
(Angry training officer's voice) "Is there any reason why the siren keeps going off?"

(Me, worrying) "Um, er, um, er, no not really I just tried to turn on the lights and the siren came on"

(Even angrier training officer) "Well, maybe you should stop fiddling with the buttons, that siren going off is very annoying"

I felt like such a dickhead. Imagine this from the officer's view. 18 year old Uni student playing around with buttons that he doesn't have a clue what they do while playing "ambulance". I later found out that the reason for the siren going off while I was in the driving seat was my friend leaning over from the passenger seat, and pushing the pedal that (I didn't know) also operates the siren. I had simply got into the cab, hadn't pushed the siren once and now I felt like an idiot.

Wrong place, wrong time doesn't even cover it. My youth had been playing on mind all day since that incident so when I voiced my concerns about being young to one of the officers in casual conversation (a really nice guy from the north of London), he said something that really helped:

"You know what Carmelo? 4 years ago I would have agreed with you. 18 is too young, but since then I've seen guys come from Uni at 18, enter the service and become bloody good Paramedics. Good luck to you"

Everything melted away. I felt fine.
I'm starting to get over this youth thing. I honestly think before I was making a bit of a big issue out of it. Yes I am 18. Yes I am enthusiastic. Yes I do make mistakes. Yes I'm immature. Can I help that? No. I need to remind myself that despite my youth I got through the interviews and selection processes.

Despite my youth an employer is willing to pay £3000 a year for my education to do a job that can change people's lives.

Riding the Airwaves.

Well today was interesting. We had a nice talk about data protection, and as far as I can see writing this mean's I'm safe, as long as I don't implicate patients. That means by any names, photos or identifiable traits. Which is fine, I have been trickling along this course so far with a niggle at the back of my mind asking, "are you sure blogging about this is a good idea?". Well I'm now pleased to say that niggle has turned a few notches down, but I'm still aware of it..

Next on to the most important form ever, the infamous Patient Referral Form (LA4 in LAS-speak)*. This huge A3 piece of paper for reporting everything about a job seems comprehensive, although a right b!tch to fill out. I suppose with time writing it will become easier, at least I hope so. Alas, it is a very important piece of paper I need to know how to fill it in properly to report things, both to help the patient and cover my own ass. Sometimes I dislike the blame culture we continue to perpetuate.

Finally on to the radio. We are lucky enough on our course to have an EMD 4, so he obviously knows how to play the radio game. He, in conjunction with a training officer from the north, mapped out all the key phrases and operation techniques about RT techniques, so we were in good hands. After an hour or two playing about with the EMD as "control", and sending fake jobs down the radio I felt much more confident in its usage. I love that LAS radio terminology for "dead" (we can't certify death) is purple, or purple plus for really dead, although purple for the Met's Diplomatic Protection Group and Airport Police means a royal passenger, I suspect you can all imagine potential mix ups that might occur...
(I'm very sure that Nee Naw has touched on this)
Altogether now:

Charlie
Alpha
Romeo
Mike
Echo
Lima
Oscar!

*So much LAS terminology is seeping into my vocabulary at the moment I may have to do a reference page..

What a brilliant idea!

Just stumbled across this, first aid MP3 downloads! So if anybody feels they need to brush up on their first aid skills download these files to your Ipod or MP3 player. Always good to know, and they're free too. I'll do a post tomorrow regarding some ambulance stuff.
You know what? Actually being able to talk about ambulance stuff with some (small amount of) knowledge is a great feeling.

Ok. I know I shouldn't. I really shouldn't. But I've been looking at The Big White Taxi Service. For those of you who don't know, this site is full of rude, obnoxious and bad-taste humour regarding ambulance work. Do not click that link if you are easily offended, it isn't generally meant for public viewing. BWTS is a place for ambulance staff to vent off steam, and I didn't really feel like I"deserved" (is that the right word?) to look at it, at least up till now. Well, I've been browsing through it, and while some of it is quite shocking, some of it is actually funny, the picture below sending up Tom Reynolds was simply too good to miss, I genuinely laughed out loud when I read it:

It also served as a bit of a reminder not to keep this blog too serious..

5 of 5: The end of the beginning.

Well folks, that's the end of my first week. Yesterday we had some interesting debates regarding capacity and consent of patients, and also a very nice talk about the history of the LAS, again given with lots of passion. Just how I like my teaching. I also found out about my three placements coming up, the first at EOC, second with PTS and lastly with A&E. Except my A&E placement is going to be on an FRU, with a (two star) training officer. Should be fun, but I crossing most parts of my body that I get my uniform before placements as otherwise I'll have to wear an "observer" tabbard and look like a right pillock.
We are also having to get out CPR skills up to a really high standard, the resus annie's they have plug into a little machine that measures you performance to both the millimeter and second...
Next week I have more of the same, 8:30 to 16:30 days, but we get introduced to some more complex ambulance equipment. I however, am knackered, and intend to enjoy today relaxing with the Missus, enjoying every moment I spend with her. Speak to you next week.

4 of 5: Life through rose-tinted spectacles.

Well after yesterday's bout of exciting uniform fitting, today we went on to have a talk about "diversity". I'm sure lots of people have their own opinions on political correctness, and I suspect there is a very diverse range of opinions in those. Mine falls into to the area where I should, regardless of any guidelines, treat others as I would like to be treated and in a manner in which is polite. I realise that to be polite in some cultures requires a certain amount of research for the slightly ignorant like myself, but in general I think I've got it right. However, today somebody made a very good point about respecting diversity:

"If people are nice they tend to stay nice, but if people are dickheads no amount of classes or guidelines will ever change that"

Hard to disagree with that I think.
As the day progressed we moved on from PC things to more practical ones, Basic Life Support. We were all given a free (not so very) Pocket (size) Mask, and introduced to the idea of primary survey. This is all new to me, so I'm trying to keep my mind open very wide to absorb everything. After this we got to practice our new BLS CPR skills on a very expensive mannequin, that gave an electronic readout on our performance of CPR. I got 83% first time, not too bad I thought, but it should be around 95%. Again back on to the carry chair, this time with a 45kg waited dummy on it. It wasn't so much the weight I found difficult (being O so very strong...), more the technique to lift it correctly. A skill I need to develop for sure.

Finally we moved onto stretchers, playing with the 3 different types we have for the 3 different ambulances. The first and most basic was for the LDV trucks, and we also practiced loading it onto the back. Bearing in mind the LDVs don't have lifts, it was actually easier than I thought it was going to be, a pleasant surprise. However I'm sure the addition of a 60kg person screaming in agony may make a slight difference..

The other two are for the Mercs. In a startlingly dangerous move back towards ambulance geek-dom, though most LAS Sprinters look the same, there are some differences between them. I *think* they're already on the 3rd edition, somebody correct me if I'm (probably) wrong. The differences lie in the Blue lights, going from strobes to LEDs and some other internal positioning of equipment. The stretchers are (blissfully) hydraulic, so much easier to use and load compared to the LDVs.

So as I lower the lift at the back of the ambulance, lift up the hand rails and lower it to the floor, I feel content. Despite the fact that the rain is coming down hard and fast, and soon making my white shirt appear see-through, I feel happy. As I load the stretcher on, and press raise on the controls, push it in and lock it, the rain drops don't bother me a bit. For all I know those rain drops could be little beats of sunshine beating down on my back. I then take off my rose tinted spectacles, and enjoy the fact that I'm still young enough to enjoy simple things like this.

3 of 5: First steps...

(Please excuse both the terrible acne and tired look, the week's taking its toll already..)

As I tried on the LAS uniform for the first time ever, a sense of pride surged through me. Despite the fact it was only trial wear to ensure we get the right sizes, I didn't care. For that brief glimpse of time I had properly, truthfully and tangibly achieved my dream. I was wearing it.

Elation just about covers it I think.

I definitely think green's my colour.
I also realised I'm about to receive copious amounts of uniform, hopefully in the next two weeks or so. I was also measured for my stab vest, great fun. I also passed the fitness test no problems, its hard being the Demi-God I am. (SARCASM)

Anyways. Lola's bit.
1.The last movie you saw in a theatre, and current-release movie you still want to see.
Snakes On a Plane, and I desperately want to watch the upcoming Tenacious D movie.

2. The last movie you rented/purchased for home viewing.
Um, Dodgeball, Constatine and 28 Days later on UMD for my PSP.
3. A movie that made you laugh out loud.
O geez..um most things, Dodgeball I suppose having just watched it.

4. A movie that made you cry.
Patch adams... but shush.

5. A movie that was a darling of the critics, but you didn't think lived up to the hype.
Lord of The Rings. All 3 of them. Rubbish. Dwarfs and beards. Great..

6. A movie that you thought was better than the critics.
Not much..

7. Favorite animated movie.
Shrek. Full stop.

8. Favorite Disney Villain.
Zurg from Toy Story.

9. Favorite movie musical.
I don't do musicals.

10. Favorite movies of all-time (up to 5).
I'll get back to you on that one..

2 of 5: My first Trolley Cot.

Today was fun. We had a lecture through the morning and up to lunch about communication and the various ways on how to manually handle a patient safely and correctly. Again I sat at the front.

The afternoon involved getting acquainted with the various stretchers LAS use. The first is the one the new Mercedes use, its all hydraulic and easy to use, unlike its equivalent in the LDV's. These ones seem a world away, no high-tech equipment, just metal tubing and a mattress. Guess which one I liked best?
It was lovely to open the back of the Merc, pull out the lift and stretcher, lower it and discover that somebody hadn't cleaned it properly. Cue blood in all the little nooks and crannys that should have been cleaned but weren't. Also cue an officer trying to show us said piece of kit getting slightly angry, taking fleet number of said vehicle and tracing back who used it last. Needless to say I think heads will be rolling...

(tomorrow I'll do Lola's tagged thing)

1 of 5: Merys isn't the only one with a Stethoscope...

Carmelo's back baby yeah!

I have just returned from my first day in the world of ambulances, and I've been lumbered with more paperwork and books than I suspect most libraries contain....

But, I'm not complaining. I enjoyed it.

When we first walked in, I took the very mature approach of sitting by myself at the front of the room. I'm very aware of the side of me that can become easily distracted, so I did my best to hide it as the rest of the guys seem to distract me somewhat, much as I try to hide it. See, reflection in action. Realising faults and trying to correct them. Maybe I am growing up?

Anyway. So we sat through the usual things that happen on the first day, introductions to the course and ice breaking activities. I was also issued with the following:

• The above stethoscope. (Doubt I'll use it much in the coming months)
• A pen-torch.
• TufCut Paramedic Shears.
• Blanket Clips (?)

We were also given a talk by our training officer about Health & Safety, I was very impressed as I had never seen anybody talk about a subject I had considered quite boring with such passion and interest. Well done that man. So I've sat quietly all day, and also have been quietly trying to control quite an urge of the ol' "ambulance fever", the centre I'm at is stuffed with them.

Its hard not to go into childish giggles about it all, I'm very sure most LAS crews would shoot me on site for being so "into" it.

Alas, do I care? Nope. I'm me, I can't change that so I might as well enjoy it. Speak to you tomorrow.