Today I finished handing over the last of the keys and paperwork (bar one piece that I missed) for the St John unit I’ve been attached to/running the last three years. Amoungst other things this had left my keychain looking horribly empty in my opinion but also potentially means that I’m free (at least until I return to Hampshire and find they need a new county commander or something…)

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve also been through the finishing events of my time at university, namely my final exam on Wednesday the 3rd (not my best experience), the VOSCARS where the society unfortunately didn’t win (beaten by stuff like stop the war…) but I came away with a small award for an outstanding contribution to volunteering (an award for over 100 hours of volunteering, personally I managed 336 hours, with 97.5 of them being in the first month of uni), again on the 3rd.

Following these events I was then given one day to rest up prior to The End (Friday 5th June). I’m still undecided as to whether this year was more or less successful than the previous year. It could just be that my perspective of it was different as this time I ended up as duty manager to in theory running the event. Luckily for me however all the St John personnel involved were experienced members and well acquainted with both the university in general and the event and casualty types specifically. In addition to the 10 first aiders on site (including a nurse and student nurse) and a St John ambulance crew we also had a doctor provided by the SU once again for half the night and this year the head of Colchester ambulance service as an NHS paramedic to back us up. Even so we ended up with 37 Patient Report forms filled in, probably saw around 50 people over all and sent 4 people off to A&E in ambulances, up from last year. As I said, luckily everyone knew what they were doing so all I had to do was listen into the radio (for a change we were using one of the campus patrol officers radios which was quite fun) and even got to pop off to the scene of a few things and do some treatment myself (something I technically shouldn’t have done as duty manager). Had there been fewer experienced people and more of our new members however, (in the end we didn’t have a single on of our new members on the duty) it would have probably been a much worse night for me to try and command.

Wasn’t much to learn from this year other than possibly increasing staffing levels a bit to make things easier on us and getting in a more powerful radio/additional radios. We do however now seem to be best mates with the paramedic who reportedly enjoyed himself on the night (despite of our new unit hero, possum boy) and seemed quite impressed with what we were doing/managing.

Finally before today's sorrow of returning keys the next night (Saturday 6th June) saw the Summer ball, a more classy and formal end to the year. Being my final year I only worked half the shift and didn’t see much before gaining free entry. I had a good time and was able to see several friends possibly for the last time, but it didn’t really seem like it would have been worth the £38, although if I’d paid and entered earlier I might have made it onto some of the rides.

The backlogs will return shortly until I have something else interesting to talk about, as it is beyond the events mentioned here my time at uni seems to have just fizzled out and run out of steam, maybe the job hunt will amuse me instead (or V festival should be good).

QOTD:

‘We are so screwed’ junior tactician shortly before being executed by the Commissariat.

Additionally, a picture of what happened to our break room in the closing hours of the end.

Been meaning to put these stories up for a while but didn’t get round to it. So today we have part 1, with part 2 and 3 to follow shortly before current affairs resume.

UEA vs UoE Derby Day 09:

Last term on Wednesday 11th March was the annual derby day between the University of Essex and the University of East Anglia where the two universities compete in pretty much every sport imaginable.

This year it was held at UEA (whilst last year we held it and my St John unit provided and organised the first aid cover of the event) and we received a request for assistance from UEA LINKS. In my first year ASP had contacted UEA to offer our assistance only to get a response along the lines that they don't cover it or their sporting events in general (didn't see it myself and can't remember that far back really). We then meant to invite them down last year but weren't organised enough to contact them in good time (something we will correct next year).

The event went well (resulting in the average 40ish casualties, was quite amusing when during the briefing it was stated that 10 PRF’s per 4 teams was ‘excessive’. I scoffed quietly at the back then made a sarcastic comment at the end). There were however a few teething problems but all were minor and just a matter of trying it one way, finding it didn’t work as well as possible and finding another way in future.

Having added a couple of UEA on facebook now I’m mildly concerned about this but hopefully they won’t want to kill me… maybe.

QOTD:

Bob: There is no honour without pie.

A while ago saw the end of exams at the University of Essex (I've been busy, leave me alone). If you remember back (as two of the three readers I have will, the third will have heard stories) last year the event (oddly enough also called 'The End') which marks this day went somewhat to pot to put it lightly.

Reasons behind this are still unclear as the previous times we'd done the duty had been just fine with only a couple of ambulances across all duties. However we had to ensure all possible steps were taken to avoid this fluke happening again.

Thus we went to war with the Students Union pushing for certain things (additional space and resources mainly and enough money so the unit didn't go bankrupt at the same time). Resulting in an agreement for 12 first aiders, 2 ambulances and them providing a doctor. We also got given the Lecture Theatre Building foyer to convert as our medical centre. This turned out to be the perfect space being close to the main event but not within it (as the other option was), hard floors making cleaning the vomit off later easy, power/water and plenty of room for storing the many drunks we collected across the night (saving the NHS several trips that we had to call in last year).

Over all the night can be ticked off as a success from our side with around 30 casualties being dealt with and a few off to hospital but no calls to the East of England Ambulance Service being required (which they're reportedly very happy about) and no critical patients from overdoses or other ailments {I take full credit for this success due to the planning I put in and the fact that I was on a lucky streak during that time from winning the volunteer awards and then another prize draw the week after}.

Once again there were a few learning points as you find after every duty, primarily have entire oceans worth of bottled water and never trust the SU when they say they're providing a doctor (although extremely useful the doctor was in fact uninsured to do anything more than we could and had only grabbed a generic handful of supplies from the A&E before coming).

QOTD:

Mr. Incredible: No matter how many times you save the world, it always manages to get back in jeopardy again. Sometimes I just want it to stay saved! You know, for a little bit? I feel like the maid; I just cleaned up this mess! Can we keep it clean for... for ten minutes!

Plus a picture from last year and a picture from this year.

Through out most of the year every week on the term planner is listed as some fancy week or other (health and safety/charity/volunteering). Eventually I just blanked it out and stuck to knowing what week it was by the theme on Friday night and whether I was on duty or not.

However apparently this week it volunteering week (which I didn't realise until I saw this post) which means having the Student Volunteering Awards on campus last night makes a lot of sense (ironically the blog post was posted the same day). As with last year I attended again for the free drink on entry and free food plus this year it was being merged with the society guild awards so we had to be present due to running for Society of the Year (again) and best society in the political and activities federal group (baby society of the year).

Once again we walked away half victorious obtaining the best in federal group award (which again ironically has a sign saying 'best value') but failing to gain society of the year. Third times the charm I'm thinking. Then came the various volunteer of the year awards which I had decided to pester bounce (my new unit leader) to put me forwards for one of the 4 available. Oddly enough he decided against union volunteer of the year but I did manage to get societies and media volunteer of the year. This came with the added bonus of a gold award of 'leadership dedication achievement' from Student Volunteering England and £150 for myself and £350 for the group I volunteer for.

Over all a successful night for LINKS and myself, once again RnB swept the floor with everyone else but we seemed to hold our own at least.

QOTD:

Hayley Smith: My mother stole my boyfriend!
Stanley Smith: And your boyfriend stole my wife! Let's get back at them by dating each other!
[pause]
Stanley Smith: Wait a minute... Daddy didn't think that one through.

Quick update with regards to The End. We now have it confirmed that we're covering it which is good news for us (well, at least me and a couple of others who were looking forwards to the 'battle') so it's now just onto the booking of the resources, finding out about the doctor that has been hired (apparently an A&E one which is promising) and final planning of deployments and such like.

QOTD:

[Stan is about to shoot Roger; Francine, Hayley and Steve stand in the way]
Stanley Smith: Nobody threatens my family! Now get out of the way or I'll shoot you all!
Hayley Smith: Oh, God, it's my junior prom all over again.

Today was the LINKS committee training/handover day. A hell of a lot more useful than the up coming SU committee training day and guaranteed more fun. Basically it now provides me with more reason to claim freedom and let my successor take over as unit leader.

Not actually going to happen quite yet, still need to reorganise the big black box of doom and such like plus finish off some training on PRFs but it'll happen soon enough.

One particularly interesting point during the day though was when I went over resource assessments for duties and working out a quote for the SU/event organiser. For reasons I don't entirely recall now we did the resource assessment (based on the HSE Event Safety Guide used nationally) based upon providing cover for the battle of Helms Deep from Lord of the Rings. There were a few questions raised about the numbers attending the event (decided on <200,000 in the end), whether it would include over night camping, temporary outdoor structures or just be over a wide spread area. Another sticking point was whether there would in fact be a hospital at all and if so what class of hospital.

Eventually we settled on a score of 87 which is off the charts effectively as the top bracket is > 75. I then next went onto sorting out a price to quote the organiser for this event starting at county list prices for equipment (though in hind-sight I did miss out sustenance). This came out as costing around £16,690.88, suggesting to us that Essex offers a fairly good rate for battle field medical cover seeing as this was for 200 first aiders, 35 ambulance aiders, 24 nurses, 12 doctors, 15 ambulances and 3 support vehicles. As Cyborg said it wasn't so much providing cover as introducing a third faction to the battle.

QOTD:

Gimli: Oh come on, we can take 'em.
Aragorn: It's a long way.
Gimli: Toss me.
Aragorn: What?
Gimli: I cannot jump the distance, you'll have to toss me.
[pauses, looks up at Aragorn]
Gimli: Don't tell the elf.
Aragorn: Not a word.

When you take into consideration ASP's recent post on the Thunderdragon's blog it is somewhat risky and foolish to make this blog but equally its one I feel I need to talk about.

The End (as previously seen) is a fairly large event, the largest covered by my LINKS unit and potentially now rates amoungst the largest covered in the county (as all duties with over 5000 people in attendance are meant to be handed over to county command). Around two and a half weeks ago we delivered a letter to several people in the SU dictating what resources we needed and how much it'd cost them (as usual giving them a 60% discount off list prices). We also stated that we needed their response by last Friday.

Against all odds we heard nothing. On Friday me and my replacement stormed the SU corridor on two occasions finding it all be deserted and when I did find someone they didn't realise it was the deadline and had thought someone had contacted us already. Theoretically this meant that we were going to sent them another letter yesterday pointing out that we could no longer cover it or certainly now without increasing the price. This letter would also have been copied to several outside figures resulting it a M.A.D situation which could have seen the end of the unit (ironically enough).

We backed down from that idea in the end and decided to give them a final chance today where they directed us to someone not part of the original letter (and it seems they're not able to pass letters around) so we're now giving this guy until the end of the week before úber letter and trouble. Though still we're effectively currently not covering the event most probably meaning death.

Far too much hassle to be going through during exam period but by the end of the week the negotiation/hostage ransom will be over and its just a matter of booking ambulances/paramedics and general personal.

QOTD:

O'Neill: "Teal'c, look scary and take point."

Bit of an old news story but I wanted to talk about it anyway (and felt like doing another blog after so long), largely because I was there (so I can add to my list of famous people that I came close to meeting Prince Charles, definitely within throwing distance at one point).

BBC NEWS | England | Essex | Prince calls £6m hall 'a dustbin'

Duty was somewhat quiet other than watching the Prince's helicopter come in (and standing along his motorcade route). Dealt with a few injuries though from sports matches that were happening at the same time. But other than that it was an interesting change to the usual duties we cover. Just wish we'd been informed that the VIP they were expecting was Prince Charles, would have at least shaved, maybe even gone for the Black and White uniform.

QOTD:

O'Neill: I'd be happy to debrief you all after I've debriefed myself for a nice hot shower.
Hammond: Permission to shower granted. In fact, I insist on it, Colonel.
O'Neill: Bad?
Jackson: I wasn't going to say anything...

For the last few weeks I haven't been blogging (as will have been noticed and celebrated). I have had many ideas for blogs in this time such as rants about people stealing my compressed gas warning sign or how I managed to buy all the first aid books in Colchester last Friday afternoon. However I just haven't gotten round to it.

To explain this I've decided to share a discovery I made Sunday evening (and the problem has gotten worse since then). So far in this month alone I have done more hours of St John work (104 hours) that I will have of lectures this term. This is even more hours than the CSO of LINKS has done this month (though I'll never be able to match over-all hours with him and wouldn't really want to either).

On the upside it pretty much guarantees me getting the 500 hour certificate this year (just need to do another 49.5 hours in the next two months). On the other side I do sometimes wish I had that time back, true I'd only spend it sleeping but it is something is wish on occasion.

QOTD:

High Lord Vandire: "I haven't got time to die, I'm too busy!"

I have now returned to Colchester [again, was forced to put this blog on hold whilst I left the county on other business](which is my excuse for not blogging) and have rapidly fallen into the deep end with St John work. At the moment things have finally calmed down with a new first aid room just about sorted out, at least for the freshers fortnight and plenty of people volunteering for duties.

Still, tomorrow I'm on duty helping out Colchester unit with the football (which has apparently been becoming more interesting recently) followed by collecting certain supplies from their stores for freshers. Next week I'll then have a committee meeting to organise the freshers fair and our up coming induction weekend as well as being on duty several nights.

On the upside I'm fully moved in, maybe one or two pieces that could do with rearranging or putting away but nothing major. Just have to see how the second year of my course goes now. And because it's been a long time there's a comic as well (it brings dark tidings for a future soon to come):

QOTD:

Carter: You didn't think the Colonel had a telescope on his roof just to look at the neighbors, did you?
O'Neill: Not initially.

Cat: Something's showing up on the long-range scan which is *weird* with a capital 'we'.
Lister: Can you be a tad more scientific?
Cat: Come again?
Kryten: Er, is it a 'wibbly thing', or a 'swirly thing', sir?
Cat: At this early stage I'd hate to commit myself and wind up looking a fool! Come see for yourself.
Lister: 'Wibbly thing' or 'swirly thing', and he refuses to commit himself... He's losing it, he really is.

And another stolen comic:

QOTD:

Dr. Ray Stantz: I think we'd better split up.
Dr. Egon Spengler: Good idea.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Yeah... we can do more damage that way.