Well, not really, but I couldn’t think of a good title.
The weekend went brilliantly – I left Cardiff Saturday morning handing over care of my lovely Discovery to , who despite his best efforts couldn’t break my gearbox between his house and the train station. Wondering how many pieces he’d be handing back to me on Monday I jumped on the train and headed into London. Coffee sorted my tiredness out and I hit Paddington on schedule before heading into the joy that is the Underground. Managed to get to Victoria on time without issue despite large chunks of LU being closed down, managed to resist the call of the bagel stand (mmmm, salmon and cream cheese bagel) and headed off to catch my train to Croydon. Managed to miss it, only to find another train about 10 minutes later so I jumped on that. On the way we passed the train I missed in the first place (woohoo!). I should have known I needed to stop and think and get more coffee when I was trying to work out the map in front of East Croydon station, but I headed off for the bus and sat down. My head jerked up as I woke up after a few minutes and I purposefully kept myself awake watching the bus stops wondering how far from the station Matt and Yudit lived. When I started seeing signs saying “Lewisham Borough” I thought “Hand on a moment…” and jumped off sharpish. A quick call to Matt and I was headed back where I came from until I got to his stop – all of 6 stops away from East Croydon – I must have slept through it.
Other than that the evening went well with lots of drunken people being….well…drunk, really. Lots of food. Oh, and Min brought a small field of Banoffee Pie. Wow.
Sunday dawned wet and dreary as we drank water and downed our Ibuprofens. Croissants for breakfast and a recap of the more drunken moments from the previous nights for those who couldn’t remember (yes, you Karen). It was good just chilling out as I recuperated – didn’t fancy meeting ‘s parents hungover…
So I headed off to Gatwick when ‘s dad called to say they were stuck in traffic, so I waited at the gate for . Amusingly I knew when the flight was on finals and when the baggage was in the baggage hall because I used BAA’s SMS Service which is nifty. Anyway, coffee with parents was good and we headed off to ‘s place. I had a great weekend there and got on swimmingly with his parents which was good. It was so nice to see him again. I even managed to blag a second-hand VCR off his next door neighbours (they were throwing it out anyway).
I finally got back about 0230 on Tuesday morning – had picked me up. Surprisingly the Landy still had a gearbox – though he pointed out that it was probably due to the fact that he’d avoided using 2nd all weekend. Nice. I also managed to miss two sheep rescues, a search in Neath and a near-callout for someone else – more details will be provided after Thursday’s debrief.
Since then I’ve been cleaning the house ready for a new tenant who arrives on Friday, and laughing at the local authority who, it seems, can’t quite get the hang of bilingual signs it seems. Oh well.
She stopped for a second to catch her breath as her husband laughed with their three year old daughter on his shoulders. She smiled – it had been a wonderful day walking around the Waterfalls, but they needed to head back now and get something to eat. She looked around, admiring the view and smiled again as she spotted another family on the path below them – three adults and what looked like a young girl. Older than their child, this girl must have been about 10 – and she watched horrified as the girl disappeared from view down the impossibly steep bank, the mother screaming for her child. She shouted at her husband and threw off her rucksack as her nursing instincts kicked in and she headed down to help. Her husband held their daugher safe with one hand and quickly dialled with the other.
I was just getting my kit ready for training when the pager went off. “Crap,” I thought, “another admin message.” My heart skipped a beat as I stared at the message:
111505
I threw my kit back together and rushed out of the house, brushing off the poor door-to-door salesman who at that point was trying to come up my steps to sell me cheaper gas and electricity. Bouncing into the car with my kit, I shouted out an explanation as I quickly hit a pre-programmed sequence of keystrokes on my mobile that sent a message off that I was en route to base. Within seconds my car was gone as I headed up the A470. Within minutes of pulling into base, five of us were putting final touches to the landrover that sat on the concrete outside the front doors, blue lights already lit. We already knew the RV was Porth yr Ogof and we were soon on the road, making our way through the light evening traffic on the Heads of the Valleys road. Another message – the RV had moved to Clun Gwyn Farm, and the casualty was a young girl fallen by the falls. Lacing my boots up as we went, our siren echoing off the surrounding houses, we headed along country lanes to the RV.
Several vehicles made the RV easy to spot and as we jumped out, we heard requests over the radio for kit. We were quickly dispatched along the track to Sgwd y Pannwr waterfall, where the girl was thought to be. As we headed off, I heard a message over the radio – 169 was inbound, with an ETA of 1953, 13 minutes from now. We quickly headed along the track around the falls and down towards where we thought the casualty would be, and quickly changed course when we saw 169 hovering above the casualty site.
She watched as people appeared as if from nowhere with equipment and radios and helmets, all coming to help this girl. Two people attended to the girl where she’d fallen, another three were busy with some equipment and a few others were busy milling around looking like they were discussing options for a way out. A noise made her look up and she saw a second helicopter – the first had landed and a few minutes later two paramedics in flying suits had come down the path.This one was different though. Bigger, and yellow…who was this?
We headed to the casualty site where we found the casualty on a path on steep ground. Kit came out and we were soon tasked with various tasks – carrying kit, changing oxygen cylinders and helping with the evac plan. Pretty soon we were ready to move the casualty. The plan was that we’d carry the casualty up to the waiting air ambulance where the paramedic who’d administered drugs already could continue his care until hospital. The mother would be taken onboard 169 and get to the hospital minutes before the air ambulance and await her daughter’s arrival.
Amazed, she stood to one side. On such a narrow path there were now over a dozen people each moving with a purpose, efficiently carrying out their task, with one person in an orange jacket stood in the middle directing everyone like a conductor and his orchestra. Gently the stretcher rose and moved off and the people left quickly grabbed all of the remaining equipment and helped her up the path.
We arrived at the clearing in the forestry where the air ambulance had grabbed the only landing spot. 169 hovered above the tree stumps and the mother was rapidly winched in and 169 headed to the hospital. We loaded the casualty into the air ambulance and watched as they fired her up. With the sky rapidly darkening, the air ambulance quickly took off for hospital.
She watched as the smaller red helicopter rose gently into the evening sky. Her husband had his hand on her shoulder and she held her daughter close as she offered a prayer for the poor girl flying over her and her family. The rest of the family had already headed back along the path. She realised how dark it was getting suddenly, and wondered now how they were going to get back with the light dying.
We headed back to control taking with us some passers-by who’d helped the casualty before we arrived. We quickly offered them a lift back to their car and while one of the vehicles did that, we stopped for cups of tea, cans of coke and a quick debrief. Thanks was received from the mother who’d day had gone so badly wrong and to top it all off had been winched into a Sea King – quite an unnerving experience at the best of times. We also received hearfelt thanks from the family and also from the lads of the air ambulance.
A good callout, but definately time for a quick pint after all that…
I tried to get two viewpoints at the same time here, don’t know if it worked. Let me know what you think. Some cracking photos too, that last one I particularly like. I have taken some artistic license in places to fit the story better, and I have changed some details, especially of the casualty.
I just spent the last hour writing a fantastic blog entry covering tonights callout in a new format that I was well chuffed with.
Then the laptop crashed. Bastards. I hate computers.
Right, so despite my usual care, I was a very silly boy on the weekend. At Dad’s on both days, as I started work on the car the weather was very humid but mainly overcast. As both days wore on, the sun came out and I found myself sans shirt, up to my elbows in car and without sun tan lotion (Maryann took it to Ibiza with her). So yes I caught the sun. Quite a lot as it turns out – Monday and Tuesday were extremely painful, things have calmed down a lot by today. So some stuff on sunburn.
What is it?
Sunburn is when the sun’s radiation damages your skin. The skin usually releases a pigment to protect itself in the sun which is what makes your skin brown. Everybody’s skin reacts differently. Sunburn is when the sun damages the skin – your skin goes red and stays hot even after you’ve moved from the sun. If the skin is merely red and sore, then it’s not serious[1], see treatment below. If however you get blistering, then you’ve damaged the underlying layer of skin which is now releasing fluid. Go see a doctor.
Prevention
Duh! Wear clothes or sun lotion. High SPF is best.
Treatment
First of all remove the heat source – cover up and put sun block on. There are various cooling lotions to help cool the skin, and you can take a cool bath or shower to help as well. The lotions will moisturise the skin as well because it will have dried out in the sun and it will feel as though it’s tightening and stretching. Keep the aftersun in the fridge for that added coolness, and look for one with antibacterial goop added if you do blister. Having said that if you blister, feel nauseous or get a headache, you should probably go see a doctor. You can take your analgesia of choice for the pain (Ibuprofen works well for me). Don’t drink alcohol, you’ll be dehydrating because of the sunburn, so drink plenty of water. Oh, and don’t pop the blisters. 🙂
Everyone’s probably talking this morning about the UK’s state of alertness, so I won’t. Only I have. Crap. Er, OK but I will mention the humour this morning on the radio station – a comment from a listener: “Does this finally mean that I have a valid reason to tell my wife to leave the kitchen sink behind when she’s packing?”
[1] Cancer risks aside.
So a few things have happened this week.
Most of the week was fairly busy but uneventful. I gave Stu a lift home on Thursday night – well, that was the plan.
Now my car has been a bit ill for a while. Some time ago, coming down a particularly step hill, I suffered from the joy that is brake fade. This damaged the disk and caliper seals so I bought replacements and two of the lads from the team were supposed to be sorting them out – problem is scheduling, trying to get me, the car and both of them in the same place at a convenient time has been difficult. On top of that, about 2 months ago, an odd rattle turned out to be the universal joints on my propshaft. Money and scheduling both consipred againts getting it sorted, and that’s what caused the joy that was Thursday night.
Coming through Whitchurch, there was a distinct clunk and I immediately knew that something was wrong, as the rattle became a distinct shake. I pulled over quickly and ducked under the car to find that the universal joint had become so loose that the propshaft had worn to the point where it had come off at one end. Arg, bugger! Thankfully, I’d offered Stu a lift and he came to my rescue. We walked to the train station, where I remembered why I drive instead of taking public transport as we waited over an hour for a train to arrive. He took me home where I picked up some tools and we headed back to the car to try and at least remove the damaged propshaft so that I could drive. No joy on that front, the nuts just weren’t in the right position. Even my trusty gaffer tape failed me (see, Sean, you can’t fix everything with gaffer tape). So Stu dropped me off home, and in the morning I rang Ian from Promec, my trusty Landrover experts. He came and picked up the car from Whitchurch, took it back to the garage and by the end of the day, I was driving away complete with a new propshaft, and lighter by about £200, which is pretty reasonable considering.
So having had the chance to see my brake discs up close, I decided that I had to do something about them. So, with apologies to Jon and the team for this weekend, I called Dad and on Saturday morning I headed over to his place. Over the course of the weekend, we dismantled the necessary bits and changed the brake disks, change the pads, reconditioned the calipers replacing all of the seals and pistons and changed the oil and filters. Coupled with the new propshaft my Disco’s feeling very loved at the moment. I’m very glad that I did change them – you can see how worn the old disk is. Although Landrover don’t specify a minimum thickness for the disks, this is probably a little thinner than you want it to get.
Driving home tonight, the car felt and sounded great. It probably still needs some TLC, but for now at least it’s running again. I’m a bit miffed I missed Thursday night, but such is life. I was looking forward to the debrief to be honest, although the next debrief might be interesting – we had a callout on Friday while I was stood by the car with Ian in Whitchurch. Could be a repeat customer, but I need to get some more info first.
I dislike The Student Loans Company (SLC). While they do give a very low interest rate, I’ve found them to be bastards on the phone and extremely difficult to deal with. Today, I think I found a nice guy. They sent me a letter two days ago charging me £80 for being in arrears even though I’d already made arrangements to pay it off. So I called them…
Me: So I’ve made arrangements to pay it off already, so what’s this all about?
Agent: Oh, it’s not one charge it’s an accumulation of charges. So you want to bring your account current, it’s blah in arrears.
M: Yes, I know, I’ve already made arrangements to pay foo per month.
A: Yeah….do you want to pay it over three months? That’d be bar per month.
M: Er, sure. The last guy wanted it over two months, but three would be easier for me.
A: Ok, so that’s three monthly payments of bar+some.
M: I thought you said bar per month?
A: Yeah…..er….I miscalculated…I was…well…some of the fees…..Look. If you you it off over three months, I’ll refund all of your fees. So that’s three monthly payments of bar in the first week of every month.
M: Sure, great. Thanks. *grin*
So what was that all about?!
Dear God it’s been a long day…
After going to bed last night feeling nice and warm after a little glass of that sloe gin, I was rudely awoken at about 0330 by the pager going off. Actually, I was woken by Mal after he’d turned the pagers off – I have to admit that I did consider just turning over and going back to sleep. However, we got up, wiped what little sleep we’d had from our eyes, and jumped in the car. The incident was in Llanedeyrn in Cardiff where a young lad hadn’t returned home last night. So we started searching the area – not a bad response considering, we had around a dozen personnel and 3 dog teams out. It was fairly cold when we arrived, so I put my Paramo waterproof trousers on – they’re a single layer so you can’t take them off (well you can, but you’d get arrested for it). We walked around Llanedeyrn enjoying the sunrise as the dew gradually got us soaking where we weren’t wearing waterproofs, and sweat soaked us where we were. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t…
So around 0700 the call came in – return to control. We headed back to find that the young lad had been tucked up in bed in a friend’s house all night and was currently being severely bollocked by his mother. We packed up and Mal and I decided to head off to Ramone’s in Cardiff for some breakfast. I changed into more comfortable trousers and shoes and we placed our orders, heading out to the back garden and just enjoying the sunshine – until the pagers went off again. What?! Another call? You have to be kidding….
As it turns out, no you don’t. This was a request to assist the Brecon team in a search for a young man injured in an RTA in Llansteffan, the other side of Carmarthen. Ramone’s quickly put our breakfasts into take-away containers for us and we ran out to the car and sped off down the M4, with me eating my breakfast and feeding Mal his as he drove. Poor Tom has had his third text of the day to update my whereabouts and my ETA at the Big Cheese, looks like I’m not goin to make it at all. I have to admit that both incidents were in my mind “serious” – a missing child, and a head injury, so I felt obliged to attend.
Anyway, Llansteffan is on my home patch – I spent many summers there enjoying [***] the pollen free air of the beach, and I know the area reasonably well. More than that, I also speak Welsh with a local accent, as one farmer found out to his joy today.
We arrived, and I was asked by Huw to stick around control, as I had “local knowledge” – a key piece of the puzzle that is a search. Admittedly, the depth of knowledge I had on the area wasn’t particularly brilliant, but I did know my way around. After a quick discussion in the control vehicle, Mark and I headed out in one of our vehicles to scout the area around where the RTA had occurred in order to determine whether a team of people or a dog would be most suited to that area. Additionally, with the recent rain, he may have taken shelter in farm outbuildings or similar, so a quick chat with the 3 or 4 farms within that area wouldn’t go amiss either. Mark and I headed off and I was busy talking to the first farmer and checking their oubuildings when the Police arrived. Apparently the helicopter had picked up a heat source in a nearby wooded area – could we assist them to investigate? So off we go and I’m about to contact control when the Police, who sped off ahead of us, asked another group for help as well, and they radio back. Control says no, the dogs are on their way there, so we continue our previous search. A nice drive down a greenlane sees Mark trying out his off-road skills, until we get a radio message – the misper’s been found, head back to control.
Back at control, the police fill in some of the blanks about the incident in the debrief and we’re invited to breakfast in Carmarthen in McDonalds. Most people head off but we now have several dogs and handlers who’ve been searching without a find, which isn’t good for the dog’s training and more to the point, it’s SARDA training day. So Mal and I run off into a field where we’re repeatedly found by dogs. Most interesting was Caroline and Tadpole – Tadpole has been trained as a tracker, a ground-scenting dog and he followed my track across the field without any problem today.
The SARDA group finally head off to Carmarthen for what is rapidly becoming lunch. A pager message comes through – panic from all corners and I think “Not again!” but indeed, it’s just a message to say that the vehicles are back at base OK. Mal and I finish, head off to my Dad’s to pick up some tools and head off home, finally arriving back here at 1730 – 14 hours after we left.
So I come in, say goodbye to Mal and joke with him – “See you in about an hour or so at tonight’s callout….” and sit down to write this post. Where you see [***] above is where I got to before the pager went off again. No, really. Area Call this time to Glynneath where a child has fallen off the falls. I quickly grab the kit I’ve just taken out of Mal’s car and put it into mine and head off. En-route, I get the stand-down and head home to finish this post off. And so here we are, 1800 on Sunday, on our third callout of the day already. I’m knackered, badly in need of a shower, and hoping for a quiet night so that I can get some sleep. I actually wish I’d stayed on Llansteffan beach in the sunshine enjoying the day. *grin*
So the weather finally broke…after weeks of working in an office while the sun was shining, I’m due to spend the weekend marshalling cars at The Big Cheese, and it rains. Bloody typical.
So today was good fun as was last year, though there was some silly politics and general running around sorting things out. Rain made this year a lot quieter than last year, though the show looked like quite good fun. One of these days I’m going to have to take one of the Big Cheese days off so I can actually go and see what the show is all about. I wasn’t feeling particularly awake first thing as Mal had popped up on Friday night and we’d stayed up drinking Guinness until some silly time…worse than that however, was that he’d brought his mother’s sloe gin up with him…..and this is a good one. A very good one.
So, Saturday night, here we are again, sat in the house watching films – The Italian Job (the new one) and Firefox, an old classic; drinking Guinness and sloe gin, having eaten the really nice bit of fillet that Mal picked up and that we cooked on the grill outside. Gosh, but life can be so hard sometimes. *grin*
Today is the 7th Annual Sysadmin Appreciation Day.
Appreciate me. 🙂
Right, this is not a post about leather fetish gear. Well, I suppose it depends on what your fetish is I suppose…
Anyway, I need help (shutup Jon). I quite like the kind of accessories currently being classed as “surfer wear” – stuff made of natural leather, hemp, stone and shells – if you see me, you’ll notice that I’ve found my leather wristband which went missing in the move from London. It’s the kind of stuff work by many climbers, surfers, skaters etc. Now most of the stuff I’ve found on the high street is “designer” (aka “rip-off”) and I’m looking for somewhere, preferably online, that sells this kind of stuff. My google-fu is obviously failing me at the moment, anyone got any suggestions?