In a conversation with a certain Senior Developer:
[…]
Me: Ya, thanks. Fuck you too. 😛
Him: sorry, you’re not my type. hairy? check. welsh? check. female? bzzz 😛
Me: You like hairy welsh females? Er, ok.
Me: But your wife doesn’t ahve a beard…
Him: there are no other typesÂÂ
I worry about this place sometimes.
Given the weather over the last few days[1], you’d expect to see walkers on the Beacons with waterproofs, hot flasks, etc.
So why were we called last night to a pair without waterproofs?
The pager went off at 1848 – just as Mal and I were getting ready to head off to fix his car (he replaced the head gasket on the weekend, but broke something). We jumped in mine and headed up the A470, getting details as we went. Two walkers reported lost somewhere around Pen Y Fan – this one went out as an Area Search. They were reported to be lost, cold and without waterproofs. Drizzle fell making the cold night even more frigid as we headed up past base and into the Neuadd Valley.
As we arrived, we heard over the radio several teams busy looking for them. We didn’t manage to get on the hill – as we were getting ready, one of the search parties found them in the saddle near to Pen Y Fan. Both were taken off the hill, though one was ill enough to be stretchered I believe.
Saturday’s incident was similar in nature – two people out for a walk, and one had become cold and stopped, refusing to move. Sounds bizarre until you realise that one of the symptoms of hypothermia is a change in consciousness and personality – normall quiet people can be irrational and belligerent. In weather that prompted some team members to start pulling out winter crampons, the casualty was found almost unconscious.
Mumsey teases us about the mountains in Canada being bigger and colder and more dangerous – and without a shadow of a doubt. The highest peak in the Beacons is about 680m, and there is a main road that runs within about 45 minutes brisk walk of the peak. We don’t see glaciers, snow and ice the way they do. But I think that perhaps is one of the greatest problems with the Beacons. They’re so friendly and gentle that people forget that no matter where you are, hypothermia is a killer. I have no doubt that both of these callouts would have resulted in deaths had we not been at hand to bring these people off the mountain.
In other news, the recent callout in Bridgend has resulted in a very nice letter from the wife who was quoted in the press as saying “I wish I could give them £50,000”. What she did give though was a £100 donation to the team and a letter expressing her gratitude and thanks. It’s up on the board for all team members to read and Mal and I both agree – that’s what really makes this job worth it.
[1] It’s been wet. And cold. Very cold. And lots of patchy rain. And cold.
Sorry I missed the updates on callouts over the weekend what with all the other joy that was going on.
Typically, on the weekend that both Mal and I decided to head to Aberystwyth for weekends with respective better halves, we get two cracking callouts. Very little information on these so far – I suspect more will come tonight in the debrief.
The first was friday night, 3 missing walkers. From information so far, they were 3 lads from the Army who were out on a long-distance endurance hike fo about 14 hours going from Talybont to the Cray reservoir and back again. They hit some horrendous weather on Friday night – one of the lads on the call commented that it was the worst weather he’s been out in. Another said “at times the fog was so thick you couldn’t see your feet never mind the ground around you”. By 0500 the three had been found, exhausted and hypothermic and brought down to safety – again around the Neuadd area, this time they were on the Neuadd ridge itself.
Sunday brought another call – an area cal to a fallen climber. Nothing at all on this one yet.
Finally, yesterday we had an unusual event – an area search. Search for a missing child over on the Carmarthen fans, we were stood down as we were heading up the Swansea Valley, but on our return we got involved in an accident on the M4 which wasted an afternoon.
More details later.
Still no car at the moment, Merthyr Motor Auctions had a gaggle of petrol cars – not what I was looking for, and I’ve looked at a Mondeo and a Fiesta. I’m going back to see the Mondeo again, see if I can drive it and if they’ll knock the price down a bit, I’ll buy it.
Finally, CRB disclosure certificates have started appearing, though not mine as yet, so I’m expecting to go live in the next week or two. Expect discussions of the cases we see starting to appear shortly, hopefully.
This update has been slow in coming, apologies – I was having a relaxing weekend away and my ADSL router decided to route the world up its own ass.
So, on Thursday, Alex asked for a lift into Cardiff. When pressed, he admitted it was to buy heroin. Colour me unimpressed, I refused. He then asked for a lift back from Cardiff, to which I decided to agree, telling him to meet me at a pre-arranged location and a pre-arranged time. I dropped him off at the Job Center where he was going to get personal loans online (well, as Taffytails said, I’m being a bit harsh – being out of heroin and money probably is a crisis…) and then take the train into Cardiff. After dropping him off, I headed up to the police station where I had a nice long chat with their intelligence officer who took all the details and advised me to get rid of him as soon as possible. He also gave his opinion that with 23 years of policing experience, he didn’t expect the “taxi driver” to turn up, if he existed.
So, after checking the situation with my solicitor and a friendly local authority housing officer, I changed the Romford Locks on the doors and collected his things in a bag, which I placed outside along with a letter informing him that he’d been evicted. I didn’t however give him back his drug-related “paraphernalia” (as the police apparently call it), nor did I give him the wireless card to my laptop that I found in his stuff. More astute readers will now make the connection to the alleged theft of my laptop a few weeks ago (while he was upstairs someone came in and nicked it, apparently). Of course, this throws a different light on the situation.
Friday morning I headed down the police station with two sealed bags of presents for the police, which I’d carefully collected according to my superSOCO training, and spent a few hours filling in evidence bags and giving statements. The officers in question indicated that they’d need to talk to Alex so I said I’d keep an eye out for him. I popped down to West Wales to see family…where I had a phone call from the office. Alex was sat outside. Joy.
A quick phone call to South Wales Police and they were driving up the street outside the office….and driving back down again, sans Alex.
Another phone call to South Wales Police saw them driving up the street again….and back down again, still without actually getting out to pick him up.
By the time they came around the third time, he’d legged it. A bit unimpressed with that performance, lads.
The rest of the weekend went quite well, apart from being told that my car needs £1600 worth of work to pass the MOT, so tonight I’m looking for a run-around to use for the next few months while I collect money to pay for fixing the Landy before I sell it.
Thanks to all of those who sent messasges of support, not all of which I’ve made public. Stay tuned for the saga of trying to get money out of his Dad to pay for things…
I had to drop the car off at the garage today, and on my way got a phone call from my tenant, Alex. He said that he owed a taxi driver money, and that if he didn’t pay, the driver was going to drop him at a police station. I pointed out that I a) wasn’t his bank, b) didn’t have any spare to lend and c) was on the way to Llantrisant.
 So after taking the car over, I headed back to the office, where Alex rang to say that he’d like a lift home. So I picked him up and headed home….to find the front door wide open and a wheelie bin in the doorway. This is where Alex starts telling me what’s going on…
 Apparently the taxi driver came back to the house and took my TV, amp and speakers instead of taking Alex to the police station. At this I was not amused. Additionally, he’d left the door unlocked since he’d left the key with another taxi driver.
…
So, the police came around, unfortunately there’s some kind of armed incident in Caerphilly tonight, so after checking the place to make sure there was nobody there, they legged it back to the joy that was the armed incident (possibly involving a Tazer from an overheard conversation, though one of them indicated it was a “gun” instead).
So I’m working from home tomorrow, the house is secure (mostly) for now, I think I’ll change the cylinders in the locks tomorrow. I really don’t know what I’m going to do about my tenant. Two good things – firstly his father’s a Guarantor, so he’s an option. Secondly, this isn’t an assured tenancy agreement. I think we might come to some “gentlemanly agreement” like – get out now and I won’t hold you to the rest of the 6 months.
 I so really don’t need this right now. I need to get up to Aber this weekend to see Sean, and that’s a definate “need” now, but I don’t trust him in the house anymore. Housesitter maybe?
[13:48:16] Jon Pearse says:
mysql> delete from table WHERE foo=’a’ AND tableId=8169;
Query OK, 1 row affected (4.39 sec)
[13:48:21] Jon Pearse says: Holy shit
[13:48:27] Jon Pearse says: That scared the crap out of me
Yup, that’s a crap and very busy server.
(For the non-techies, a simple query like that should take a fraction of a second. The fact that it took several seconds makes you think “Just what am I deleting…ohshitohshistohshit…”
Ok, so I don’t do memes. Ever. Not really. But I kinda like this one, so I figured I’d better.
If you comment on this thread…
1) I shall respond with something random I like about you.
2) I shall tell you what song, movie or book reminds me of you.
3) I shall name something we should do together.
4) I shall say something that only makes sense to you and me (or at least me).
5) I shall tell you my first or clearest memory of you.
6) I shall leave you a quote that is somehow appropriate to you.
7) I shall ask you something that I have always wondered about you.
8) If I do this for you, consider posting this on your journal. You don’t have to 🙂
If you’re not interested in knowing any of this, don’t comment, *grin*
Seeing as Sean and I were discussing this last night, I’ll put his up here already. My answers may be different this morning:
1) The way you try and curl up into my lap like a kitten when we’re cuddling on the sofa.
2) Got it now – Orson, No Tomorrow
3) *snicker* Er, clean thoughts. Watch the sun rise over the mountains together.
4) Look, caveotter, Mammoth!
5) Today’s clearest memory: Eating lunch in peace with you on Pen Y Fan. You, me, food, nature. Nothing else.
6) “Let’s bother Jon! Bother bother bother bother bother bother.”
7) Knowing what your parents side is, what in your childhood allowed you to grow into the mature, openhearted and bouncy man that you are?
8) Done. Will I regret it…?
Now, excuse me, I have 5.5 days’ work to do…