Happy New Year!

Well it's now 2007 and I'm still left wondering where the heck 2006 went. So I decided to find out where the year disappeared by thinking over what were the highlights for 2006 for me, the best times, the worst times and the plain odd times. Carmelo inspired me to write this after I saw his post on the topic sorry for robbing off with your idea, Carmelo!

This day one year ago started off with me at a friends house celebrating the beginning of 2006. By about 2am I had managed to fall asleep on the floor using my best friends leg as a pillow, I don't think he minded too much. I didn't sleep for long and soon headed back to my house.
Note: This is a strange parallel of this year, where I stayed at home, fell asleep on the sofa in the early hours and woke up and went to bed at 6am.

As I'm a january baby the next highlight for me was my birthday. I was 21 years old and for the first time ever I had an exam on my birthday! I survived evil exams but only just, and made a resolution to study harder for my next exams (which I did). The fun came roughly two weeks after my birthday, when exams were over and a group of my friends and I painted the town red. It was the first time I'd ever been into Reflex, and although I didn't swing round the pole on this occasion, I did pose on it, leading to a rather infamous picture... Later in the year I would play on the pole and it would lead to bruises and an incomprehensible urge to play some more.

In 2006 I was chairperson for Links (up until the summer anyway) and therefore had all the stress associated with running a division, plus that of being in my last year at University. My hair was slowly coming out in rather worrying clumps in the shower. However 2006 was the year I managed to get it together, and not only did the unit survive me running it, but I managed to cope with my last exams and dissertation reasonably well.

In Jan 2006 my Dad started the job of decorating the hallway and dining room, and I'm pleased to report it was finally finished in October/November 2006. Only several months behind schedule.

I attended the Grand National, one of the biggest horse racing events in the world. I went with St John, as there was no way I'd be able to afford a ticket. The first day of it I was paired with a friend of mine by the parade circle. Highlights include us standing still too long in the cold and then being unable to move our legs, getting a cuppa while a race was on and having to gulp it down as we had to get back to our post before they cordoned off the area for the horses to come back in, getting soaked in the torrential rain while talking to some police officers (they were wondering why they were doing this, but at least they were getting paid, damn them), and returning to the first aid post after aforementioned drenching, looking a bit frostbitten and getting a nice sit down and a cup of tea in there. Good stuff.

The second day I was on the other end of the grounds and was with the now current chair of Links (my vice chair at the time), we were given an AED and when we got called to a something where we would have to use it, I was nearly pooing myself. We couldn't find the casualty and we were running like hell while I tried to get a more definite location from control over our radio. We ran into my best friend (a paramedic) and then we found the casualty, the ambulance service were already working on him, and we got stood down, thank goodness for that. My mate was laughing at me later on saying he'd never seen me move so fast in his life. This was also the day when I "got arrested". We were walking a casualty back to the first aid post when all of a sudden I felt something stop me, I looked behind me to find that the strap of my first aid kit had somehow brushed against the handcuffs of a policeman and the handcuffs had snapped shut on the strap. The policeman seemed as embarrassed as I was, and handed the handcuffs to his female colleague while he searched for the key. Other St John members who passed by stopped to take pictures... (excuse the edited picture, I just thought it would not be a good idea to post a pic on the web of the police officer). The final day wasn't as eventful, which is surprising considering the actual race is on that day. Alas I had forgotten to put a bet on as usual. The winner was Numbersixvalverde, which to be honest I don't think I would have bet on anyhow.

The Links weekend away was a good time, we went to county Durham, and as usual, had a little walk, drank a fair bit, and did activities. This years activities were archery (I rocked) and a tree-top rope course which scared the hell out of me at first and then led to me and a friend of mine referring to ourselves as "tree whores" as we were straddling every tree going. I also amused myself by hanging upside down on a wire suspended high above the ground. No pictures of that unfortunately. Other higlights include having to put on a play for the rest of the group, using a bag of props we got handed. This led to some bad chinese food puns, Scooby Doo, partial nudity and a monkey called Bubbles, that's all I'm going to say.

I got ill, for one of the first times ever. I had flu just as my dissertation was due in. I got a doctors note and an extention, and as a result I've now got a dissertation that makes sense.

I got offers from all of the schools of pharmacy I applied to, and chose Manchester as my first choice. I deferred entry until 2007.

I again survived exams, but the difference this time was that I knew what I was talking about on them.

I started my brief job as a lab technician at a college. The job held such highlights of getting hopelessly lost on my first day (my sat nav took me to the right road but in the wrong area), getting to make fake blood, microwaving hearts and denting my car.

As you can see my now linking to blog posts, this is when I first started my blog. I've chatted to some fabulous people through it, and as you can see from my first post, I never imagined that anyone other than my friends would read it. So thanks to everyone who's either read or commented on any of my entries on this blog (and thanks to anyone who's reading this doozy of a post, it is a bit long). I'm looking forwards to reading more blogs in this new year.

I graduated with a 2.1. It was my first degree and I loved doing it, even though I played harder than I worked for the first two years. I think in the last year I made up for it. I'm slowly losing my ability to remember all the drugs I learnt about, but hopefully my books, notes and vague memory of this degree should stand me in good stead for the next degree. I sometimes think that it would have been easier if I'd have applied for pharmacy in the first place, but although it would have saved me time and money I wouldn't be where I am now in terms of my emotional development. I wouldn't have met some of my best friends ever. So although it has taken me longer to do what I want to do I wouldn't change it.

I went on holiday to Turkey for the fourth year running. I wont say much here except it was an enjoyable holiday.

I had an interview for the pharmaceutical company I now work at. I thought I'd blown it with my jet lag related nattering, but for some unknown reason I was taken to work in the QC department.

I attended Creamfields as a member of St John, and I can't really say more than what I already posted here.

I went on the course I did to become a first aid trainer. It was hard work but fun, with lots of staying up late and drinking wine while planning our teaching sessions.

I placed third in the "So you think you can blog competition" on the blog Theory of Thought. Many thanks to Thethinker.

I went to London to see Wicked, and The Last Five Years.

I had fun dressing up for Halloween.

I got really bad tonsilitis and moaned a lot about it.

A friend of my sisters passed away.

I discovered baileys irish cream brownies, and ate way too many.

I had a good Christmas. I laughed at my sisters expression when she opened what she thought was a 25 quid bottle of champagne and turned out to be a bottle of bucks fizz. I then later got to see her face when she opened the real bottle of 25 quid champagne. I got dvds a-plenty, ate a huge meal and partied in the evening.

I got taken to a casino for the first time, didnt spend a single thing all night, and made 35 quid from a tenner, not bad for a first timer. We also had a meal in china town afterwards at about 2am with salty rice, yuck.

Then we come to New Years Eve. We had a chinese so big that I had to open my top jeans button. Then we saw in the new year at home and watched most of "2006 most annoying celebrities".

2006 has been a fast year, but eventful. I've done plenty of firsts. I've been hurt, and hurt others. I lost my temper on occasion. This was the first year I became a redhead, and right now the red is here to stay. I've partied hard, worked hard, and also been incredibly lazy. I have grown into a more mature, slightly sassy girl, who can be sensible when she tries, but most of the time she doesn't want to try.

Happy new year everyone, I hope 2007 will be a good year for all.

(Thanks to all who have read this far, why not post a comment just to say hi!)

My first rti...kinda

Yesterday, despite being in my last recovery phase from my tonsilitis I decided to go out on duty to a Dickensian Day. This is a little event where people dress up in Victorian Era clothes and run stalls etc. I did have fun, I loved the costumes. My particular favourite was an old fashioned PC strolling around, complete with a cape.

I was technically down as third person (observer) on the ambulance there, but did nothing really for most of the day. I'd decided it was cold and stayed in the vehicle for the first part of the day. I did wander round for a bit, and become a bit more sociable later on. Myself and a few other members got a "hog roast" sandwich, they actually had a whole pig on a spit. On the way back to the vehicle I left my lunch with my paramedic mate and dashed into a coffee place for some hot drinks. When I returned, everyone (the I had gone for food with) and the vehicle had disappeared. Apparently while I'd been queueing for coffee they'd gotten a casualty and had gone to attend to them. I was a bit gutted that my lunch appeared to have gone awol too, and that I was stuck holding two hot drinks that were rapidly getting colder. It's always typical that the casulaties surface just as you get your lunch. Luckily my lunch hadn't been in the vehicle, and my paramedic friend soon returned and pointed me in the direction of my lunch. I gave him his latte. Vile drink.

When the vehicle got back I had been standing in the rain and had since mostly dried off but was a little cold, especially my feet which I couldnt feel. So I hopped in the back, and dozed off on the stretcher. My problem is that when I recovering from being ill, I jump back into things feet first and do daft things like stand around in the cold and wet weather, and do more than I should be doing. Then the tiredness usually hits me, so I sleep for a bit. When I wake up, it's more or less the end of the duty, so we say our goodbyes etc, and head back.

While on the way back to county, we came across an rti. Being in a big white ambulance we are somewhat implied to stop and see if all is ok. I was again asleep in the back, so got woken up by my paramedic friend shouting at me to wake up, and by my other friend flipping the lights in the back on and off to rouse me. No one was hurt but the accident was on a corner and had blocked off one lane of the road, so to avoid another accident two of us directed traffic. After the paramedic had made sure everyone was ok, he took over from me directing traffic and told me to sit in the ambulance and get warm. Good job really, as I could feel my throat starting to hurt again. The police showed up fairly quickly, and the tow truck a little while later, then once all was cleared they thanked us for our help and we all trundled off back to CHQ.

I personally was so tired that I fell asleep in my computer chair a while after I got back home...

Lest we forget

Remembrance day was today and I spent the majority of it at services. As a member of St John Ambulance I helped to cover the main service in the town centre. The service was moving and a pleasure to watch over. The one thing that slightly spoilt the day for me was during the two minute silence, when a family strolled over, stood in front of us and started having a conversation. You'd think that with everybody else being quiet, they would have gotten at least a hint that they shouldn't be speaking, but no, they seemed to be fairly oblivious. Now I dont have a problem with people who personally don't want to observe the two minute silence, but they should have the decency to go elsewhere and conduct their conversation there, rather than distracting those who are trying to pay their respects for those who died in battle. Just my two pence worth.

The second service we attended was a spur of the moment thing for me, as a friend of mine who was giving me a lift mentioned he was going, so why not. I got there and was horrified to find that first aid cover was technically not needed there, and that we all had to march in the parade. St John Ambulance has a military side to it, which involves drill practice etc. Having joined at University I had not been exposed to that side of it (and dont think i'd have lasted very long in the organisation if I had). So this led to things being said like "Right dress" and me standing around wondering what the hell it meant. I don't seem to know my right from my left, and the girl in front of me, bless her, could not swing her opposite arm to opposite leg, so I had to concentrate on someone else to keep step as she was confusing me. Finally I had my fmb's on and they really hurt me when we had to stay still for long periods of time. Never again.

I wasn't impressed with the sermon at the service either, it was patronising. Yes I did agree with many of the points, but I disagreed with others. War is something I am strongly against, many people lose their lives, and the thought of it makes me feel ill. I think Captain Hawkeye Pierce put it best when he said that war was worse than hell, because "In hell, there are no innocent bystanders, war is full of them." I recognise the sacrifice these men and women made, and I respect them deeply, but I have no respect for the reason why they died. I understand that there can be "just" wars, but a lot of wars aren't always "just".

Anyway, before this turns into another rant I'd just like to remember the men and women who have died in any war, the war veterans, and the families who have lost loved ons in combat. May we never forget their sacrifice.