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.

Almost up to date.

Dissertation:

Recently (ish) I completed my dissertation. Due to the fact that I’m lazy with blog up-dates and the fact that hand in date was the 1st of May I use to term ish at it’s furthest extend. The reason it makes it into my blog it two fold. 1) it’s an important part of the final year of my course. 2) it sums up the ‘difficulty’ I’ve had through out my final year. Namely that I have not felt the “panic” at all for the last year. Although I admit it is not the best tactic it has often come down that I’ll get uncomfortably close to the deadline for a piece of work and thus feel the “panic” and suddenly focus whole-heartedly on the subject at hand thus completing it. Throughout my final year I have not felt this “panic”, part of this may be due to the general lack of course work but either way it’s felt strange to me all the way through.

The panic even failed to raise it’s head during my work on the dissertation. Whilst I did still manage to find focus on it, it wasn’t in the same category as the “panic”. This may be good after all but it’s unusual for me so I don’t entirely trust it as yet. Only time will tell really at this point…

QOTD:

GLaDOS: There was even going to be a party for you. A big party, that all your friends were invited to. I invited your best friend, the Companion Cube. Of course, he couldn't come because you murdered him. All your other friends couldn't come either, because you don't have any other friends, because of how unlikable you are. It says so right here in your personnel file: "Unlikable. Liked by no one. A bitter, unlikable loner, whose passing shall not be mourned." Shall NOT be mourned. That's exactly what it says. Very formal. Very official. It also says you were adopted, so that's funny, too.

LINKS National Conference:

In April (getting closer to the present) I went to my first national LINKS conference, with the noble goal of maintaining our unit tradition of being the father jack of LINKS (and I was generally amoungst the last to leave the bar).

Very enjoyable time where I got to make further contact with other units (namely UEA again and a member of Surrey LINKS I had met before at the Southend Airshow in Essex two years ago) as well as some interesting talks and workshops (namely the talk from the Harry Dymond [Chief Commissioner Operations] on the new uniform and operations strategy and the workshop on Triage).

Unfortunately I’m not going to have another opportunity to go which I regret and wish I’d taken the two previous chances when they were available

~more back log yet to come~

QOTD:

Hancock: [after seeing a video of himself throwing Walter, the beached whale, back into the ocean, knocking over a sailboat] I don't even remember that.
Ray Embrey: Hmmm... Greenpeace does.
[pause]
Ray Embrey: Walter does.

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.

Democracy re-born at Essex

I saw this (a bit late by the wording of it but I don't remember spotting it before) and thought I was going to be sick. Though that could just be the bottle of wine...

---EDIT--- it turns out it was posted yesterday (10th Feb) although at one point it says 'Last night proved this'. Petty complaint but if you're busy and can't post it when you intend I personally find (having missed many blog deadlines) that editing the text slightly doesn't cost too much.

QOTD:

Robin: Yeah, it's the end of the world. But so what? We're still here, still fighting, still friends.
Young Raven: Look at me, Robin! There's nothing I can do! There isn't any hope!
Robin: Then I guess... I'll just have to have enough hope for the both of us.

Last Thursday (5th) I went to my first ever General Meeting in my time here at Essex University. I then proceeded to interrupt two people as they enjoyed themselves at Alternative night with one question. "Is it normally like that or was that uniquely horrible?". As I expected (as would anyone else who was also there for the first time) the answer was the latter.

It's too much like hard work (and somewhat sickening) to try to recount the events of the general meeting so I'm going to try and describe in single words my thought at various points during the meeting and why:

Boredom - not the first one you'd expect but yes. For portions of it I was just bored out of my skull. This was mainly around the Gaza issues where it was just the same speeches they'd given over two weeks ago. You'd have thought in that time they'd have at least been smart enough to reword things, if not come up with new arguments and concessions for the 'opposition' group.

Amusement - yes, some of the arguments just seemed ridiculous and left me feeling amused. For example the claim that putting up the Union Jack is a reminder of colonialism. Personally I didn't realise you could colonise your own country but now that I've been informed I will have to work it into my plans for world domination. Another example was when it was suggested that instead of the Union Jack flag we should put up flags of all nations. I was so very tempted to comment on that asking if they'd be happy to have the national flags of Zimbabwe, the Peoples' Republic and the Republic of China, and most importantly Israel. It wouldn't have helped the situation at all but it amused me greatly. A final example of the amusement was when someone tried to argue that the SU wasn't trying to support one side or the other in the Gaza conflict just oppose the killings (or something to that effect). This may be what the and protesters wish. However, the motion being debated had as it's first point under resolutions "To call for an immediate end lifting of the siege, and to support the broadly-based demonstrations demanding an end to the attacks and the lifting of the siege". Seems there's some confusion somewhere (may just be me).

Disgust - indeed. Most would assume this was over the results of the various votes and I'll admit that I'm not pleased with most of them. However, my disgust if precious and saved only for special occasions. This occasion is when a argument broke out towards the end of the meeting resulting in one voter threatening to punch another. The fact that someone is stupid enough to think that this is an appropriate response during a democratic meeting is bad enough but my disgust is more over the fact that the aggressor wasn't thrown out on his arse immediately after this. It has been pointed out to me that there probably wasn't anyone legally able to remove someone from the room but the alternative was at least a dozen people pilling in from both sides to 'settle' the dispute.

However, credit where it's due. The VP Education is a very good orator and nearly talked me round to voting yes for the new constitution. But only nearly as I still stuck up my hand for no and make sure to stare straight into the eyes of any Saab who appeared to look back at me (petty as that is).

I'm too tired to continue ranting right now so I'm just going to post this (as it's already pushing it's relevance being 3 days late). I'll be randomly tagging anyone I spotted at the GM I'm friends with on the facebook version of this. I just leave one final thought (hopefully you can read it):

For those no longer at university who might read this there's a list of motions discussed at the latest GM (whilst it lasts, will need to remember to update the link): http://www.essexstudent.com/your_union/gm/

QOTD:

John Crichton: If he masters wormhole technology, what will he use it for?
Scorpius: Faster delivery of pizzas.

I had planned on doing a lengthy piece getting all my views down on the protests and such like on campus. However, due to waiting to think things through and order things in my mind everything died down thus rendering the post unless and possibly even counter-productive (why dig up dead issues?).

However, with the conflict beginning again in Gaza and the next issue of the |Rabbit comes out Friday which is including coverage of the events at least in the comments section (which is likely to upset some people again).

Not all bad news. I've been introduced to two new distractions, the Evil Overlord list and Servants of the Imperium both of which I'm finding highly entertaining.

And to answer the question on some peoples minds' of the purpose of this post. None at all beyond keeping my blog alive again.

QOTD:

O'Neill, opening a door only to find it blocked by a wall: "Damn cost cutting."

Still not posting properly as I'm interested in watching some developments so instead I thought I'd lighten the mood slightly and avoid offending anyone with this video.

(sorry to anyone who has recent been hit in the head with a boot)

QOTD:

Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

I am not going to comment myself on today's events as once again I wasn't part of them (though I could actually see it this time). Instead I'm going to link to a selection of other comments and allow you to digest the information yourselves (apologises for the lack of the 'other view' but I don't know many/any of them so don't have access to their comments).

The one thing I will say is that whilst watching the protest today from the St John stall at refreshers (newyears) fair I did become concern by the appearance of the crowd at one point. Thankfully my suspicious mind was proven wrong and I didn't have to help clean anything up.

Adam

Nik

Mat (I personally consider this to be the most important for people to read and is largely why I'm not saying anything yet as I wish to hear what develops)

QOTD:

[an alien bug is crawling inside Block's leg]
Dr. Allison Reed: What are you gonna do?
Dr. Paulson: We might have to amputate.
Harry Block: Whoa, Doc! Don't take the leg! Ira, don't let them take my leg.
Ira Kane: Isn't there anything else you can do? He thinks he's an athlete.
Nurse Tate: Doctor, look!
Dr. Paulson: It's headed for his testicles.
Harry Block: Take it! Take it! Take the leg!

First off can I quickly hold up my hand and apologise for my mistakes in my previous blog. Namely talking about the 'commies' This was just me ranting and not really thinking about what I was writing. Anyway, the more I read around current issues on campus and look into things the more I pause and have to wonder what on earth is going on over certain aspects of it.

First up lets look at their demands (I hadn't initially seen this but the letter has now been published on facebook for people to see). I'm directly copy and pasted it as there may be some who haven't seen it yet and deserve to make up their own minds and I don't want to be accused of misquoting (though I doubt my rants are important enough to earn that sort of attention).

Dear Vice-Chancellor Colin-Riordan
In the past 2 and half weeks the world has watched in horror as Israel has bombarded Gaza city, killing over 1000 people including 284 children. These atrocities cannot go unchallenged. We have decided to show our support to the people of Gaza and we have a list of demands which we would like the University to sign up to. There are as follows:
1. The University of Essex should release a statement condemning the Israeli attack on Gaza which has killed 100 people in the last 2 and a half weeks. In a recent article ,world renowned journalist John Pilger said " Then there are the academics, the deans and the researchers. Why are they silent as they waych a university bombed and hear the association of University teachers in Gaza plea for help?"This shows the role we can play at a University in stopping conflict and providing help for those in war situations.
2. The University of Essex must provide 5 full scholarships to students from Palestine, beginning next academic year.At a University with such a diverse student body, Palestinian students are hugely unrepresented when compared with other groups.
3. The University of Essex should facilitate a "fundraising day" where buckets willl be in every lecture and seminar to collect money for the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians.
4. The University of Essex should help rebuild the University of Gaza , which was bombed 6 times on the 28th of December 2008.It should send any surplus books , computesr or other resources as a way of helping the suffering students and staff in Gaza.,
5. The Vice-Chancellor , or nominated representative, should meet the signatories of thisa petition by 4.30 pm on Friday 16th January 2009 to adress these demands.
6. Finally , any and every student involved in this campaign will not face victimisation or reprisals as a result of their work. Students have a right to protest and voice their opinions trough peaceful means. A University should in fact encourage freedom of expression.
Yours Sincerly,

Lets ignore points 1, 2 and 4 for now other than to say that I disagree. This rant isn't about their demands but aspects of recent events I've found confusing and am looking for clarification on. In fact the entire argument against them has nothing to do with their politics just how they tried to achieve things. I can fully support point 3 (their one sensible 'request' in my opinion). However, points 5 and 6 and just ridiculous. For a start I don't see why they were making demands at all, it's not like the university has been withholding anything from them that they wish in this nor is the matter really anything to do with the university. And as for point 6 that leads nicely onto the next aspect of curiosity.

http://www.essex.ac.uk/academic/docs/regs/disreg.shtm This is the universities rules regarding what isn't acceptable to the university of essex. Just flicking through I believe the activities on Friday the 16th can be viewed under sections:

• 3.2 f 1 i - violent, threatening or intimidating behaviour,
• 13.2 f 3 - conduct amounting to harassment. (The University will take harassment to include any behaviour that appears or feels offensive, intimidating or hostile, which interferes with individuals’ academic, working or social environment; or which induces stress, anxiety, fear or sickness on the part of the harassed person. The defining features are that the behaviour appears or feels offensive or intimidating to the recipient and would be so regarded by any reasonable person), [being stuck in the library and my assumptions on the feelings of Israeli students, possibly they feel unaffected by the protesters but I can't imagine that]
• 13.2 f 4 i, iii - publishing of any matter (including expressed orally or in any writing, sign or visible representation, including electronically) which is threatening, abusive or insulting or constitutes harassment or makes others fear violence, including: (i) by printing or displaying within the University and (iii) by using in any form of instruction, meeting or gathering (including social and sporting activities), [as I'm mentioned I wasn't present but I add this due to talk of an anti Semitism during the decoration of the wall]
• 13.2 f 5 i, ii, iii - conduct which obstructs, frustrates or disrupts: (i) any lecture, class or other instruction, or any laboratory work, or any examinations, authorised to be held, given or undertaken within the University, (ii) any meeting or other function (including social or sporting activities) authorised to take place within the University and (iii) the satisfactory conduct of the administrative work of the University or its public or official functions, activities or legal duties, [I know of at least one lecture moving rooms due to the noise (which would have cut class time and probably been difficult given the limited teaching space available on campus) and then there's the library]
• 13.2 f 6 - interfering with or impeding any officer, member or employee of the University in carrying out his/her duty or proper function as such, [this is one I'm more than happy to be told to shut up about as I just added this in over library staff having to keep people out of the library (rather than help with the books and library service) and having members of the university dragged down to negotiate].

No wonder they asked not to be 'victimised' over it. I'm not saying they knew they were going to be breaching so many regulations but still. I really hope that point wasn't agreed to or the decision is over-ruled.

Now several of the points above I'm sure can be waved off and technicalities and given that I'm not a lawyer or anything I suspect several may be explainable but just simply looking at it it doesn't look too good does it?

---update between starting this blog and finishing. Apparently the university agreed to demands 3, 4 and disgustingly 6---

Final thought. Just how peaceful does this look as they charge back at the library? It's like watching Braveheart with less beards and ginger.

QOTD:

[Colt and Luger's car blows up]
Colt: Good thing we took valet.
Wes Luger: Taxi!
[the taxi blows up]
Colt: I guess we're making somebody nervous. But I'll tell you this: It's gonna take a helluva lot more than a couple of car bombs to get us off of this case.
Wes Luger: Not a helluva lot more.

I still feel slightly bad to be resurrecting my blog just because of this post (seems much to stereotypical, 'I don't like that... to the Internet to complaint!') but it's happening anyway as it seems a fairly drastic event on campus and I suspect will have a long series of after affects (never know, might keep me blogging this time).

To start with I'll try and set the scene. At the last student elections on campus a group called 'viva essex' (basically a bunch of commies in my opinion but I only gave a quick glance over the elections before making my decisions) achieved a clean victory with all 5 of their members winning their positions. I voted against them all the way but fair do's to them they gained the popular support and won. They started the job some time over the summer 2008 but for me weren't noticed until the start of this academic year which is when things started going wrong. The current sabbs seem highly politically motivated (but not overly politically savvy as it's been put) which you might argue is good but they're following their own personal interests seemingly exclusively.

Before I go further I'm going to draw attention to 'seemingly'. Given that very few people will read this and I know them I won't waste their time with a definition of the word. I say seemingly as for the most part I have no interest in what they're up to unless it effects me, unfortunately I feel this year most things they seem to have done have effected me in some way or another. Possibly I'm just growing up and generally showing an interest or they are interacting (interfering, whichever you prefer) with the average student life. Equally, to my opinion they seem to be wasting a lot of time on international issues of little or no concern to the majority of the student body which is what current events are concerning.

I could go on and go but 3 months is a bit of a pain to cover and detracts from current events. I didn't witness these events myself so advise these notes by Mat specifically for a view of what happened and a good read (The SU: How did it come to this? and Kavakeb: What he said vs What he meant). In short they've brought the university to the brink of a civil war (for lack of a better term) and I still haven't worked out the most defensible position on campus once the fighting breaks out.

Now the protesters are perfectly free to have their opinions and protest though I really would prefer it if they didn't or at least thought through what they were doing and picked a better strategy rather interfere with lessons and piss off a lot of people (though it gives me hope that we're finally going to witness the counter-attack against the commies/socialists which seem to have taken over the majority of campus' across the country). However, just because they have a right to do this doesn't mean I'm going to happily stand aside and let them (despite how apathetic I generally am to causes on campus). I half hope they try something stupid like putting up a picket line in front of the lecture theatre building (which they're currently 'occupying'/'squatting' in over the weekend though never word really describes what they're doing as they booked it out) which I can then run and I have no problems with forcibly barging my way past these people even though I know it'll just make matters worse.

All this is once again encouraging me to consider running in the up coming elections. However, I fear that despite the best efforts of the SU they still haven't raised my selling point sufficiently high to have a chance of winning (equally there's still the risk of some of them winning and I might find myself winning and being required to work with 4 people I don't agree with).

As a parting question (for now) I'm still wondering whether those who are arguing against the SU and these recent protests count as revolutionaries or counter-revolutionaries due to the SU's own stance. The leaning seems to be towards the former in which case the SU should be dropping to their knees and worshiping us as we are what they appear to idealise most.

QOTD:

'I do the jokes,'  snapped Varl.

'Yeah, why is that?' asked Laydlly.

'Because... I'll shoot you,' said Varl.

I'll hopefully get my blog about the summerball (back almost a month ago) done shortly but in the mean time I wish to pose a question to my readers.

This is the sort of question that often splits people so drastically that it may even lead to genocide (so please prepare yourself prior to reading it and try to remain calm).

The question is as follows: given the hypothetical idea of aliens and the actions of men such as Captain James T Kirk, is having sex with an alien the same as bestiality or something different?

Thank you kindly (and in place of my usual QOTD)

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.

I suspect that relatively speaking this is nothing but it's a big enough number for me to make a filler blog before I've actually slept so I can write up about The End and the Summer Ball (returning home at 9am this morning and planning to continue until 10pm).

Regardless, some point yesterday (or I think that's when it was) I spotted this and it impressed me.

Wanted to get a blog done on last night and tonight (in fact I tried back on thursday but ran out of time) but I don't have the time. Having woken up 2 hours ago I now have 25 minutes before I have to set off for the second duty.

Will report it all eventually but for now...

(don't ask me why...)

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."