Day from hell!!

Sitting at home last night, dinner eaten, watching some tv, in uniform, waiting for the pager to go off ...

... Bill gets up to go into the kitchen ...

... BANG!!

... thinking he's dropped something or ... I don't know what ... I call out "Bill??!! ... Bill!!?? Hello??? Bill, what's happened??" .... nothing ... no reply ...

.. I go into the kitchen, expecting to see him jump out from behind the wall to give me a fright. In the darkness I see a figure lying on the ground!! Switched on the light to see Bill lying on the ground, motionless!!!!

"Bill!! Bill!!" I shout to him, shaking him, slapping his face, pulling his eyelids open! A few seconds later (what seemed like forever!!) He starts to stur. "what's going on??" By this stage I'm dialing 111.

"Hi, I'm on WaihiBeach1, I'm on duty for waihi beach and my husband has collapsed"
" Ohhh wow, ok so is he breathing?" came the reply.
"Yes, he's coming too now... ok he's now GCS of 11 or 12 (normal is 15, unconsious is 3).
Bill ... "what's happening?"
Lyn ... "I'm calling the ambulance"
Bill ... "What???!!!, NO!!! I just need to go to bed!! Let me go to bed!!"
Lyn ..."No way!!! With what you just did I'm calling the ambulance and you can't tell me otherwise!!!"
Bill ... "Comon!! Hang up, don't call the ambulance!! I just need bed"

Then next minute he goes unconsious again. Still on the phone to 111 I tell them what's happening. Take his pulse, give them the reading ... normal. Bill comes to again and we go over the same conversation again, him telling me I'm crazy, that no ambulance is coming here.

I choose to ignore him, still on the phone to 111. The guy I was speaking to was awesome. I think he could hear the panic in my voice and chatted to me, making me totally calm and offering to stay on the line with me till the ambulance arrived.

"Hang on! I better tell my partner that she is responding to my house!"

Bill gets up and starts walking to the couch, picking up things along the way, cleaning up, mumbling to himself about having to tidy the house if we have people coming. I tell him off, to lie down on the couch, to which he didn't react very well. He was clearly not impressed that I'd called an ambulance!! Next minute he's unconsious again on the couch! I tell 111. Then he stops breathing!!!! This is when I started to panic. Thoughts running through my head that I may be doing CPR on my husband real soon!!!!!!

Training kicked in and I rolled him on his side (he's not a small boy!!!) and he took a big breath of air! That was the biggest relief I've felt in a very long time!!!!!

The 'other crew' (not my ambulance) turned up and unbeknown to me my 'normal' ambulance partner was on there too. Ohh the relief when I saw her!!! She told me that she threw her uniform on and jumped on board when she heard it was Bill. Hmmm ... that's made me cry right now, didn't effect me till now! Knowing my ambo mates are there for me is a really cool feeling!!!

So in all we had 5 of us in uniform in our tiny lounge and just as well because Bill was very uncooperative, refusing to go to hospital!!! I tell ya! If that had happened to a bloke in the street I would have treated them the same as I did my husband.

My normal partner stepped into bossy, 'don't fuck with me' mode and I love her to bits for that!! Given his antiness at going to hospital and blazay attitude they got him in the ambulance!!! Thank God!!!

This happened 3mths ago and he refused trasport! He's had 2 other episodes this week of near faints in which I've rushed him up to the doctors. He's had two lots of blood tests to try and work out what's going on.

With him on his way to hospital I then sat down to think about the logistics of how I was going to deal with this. I had 4 kids sleeping ... ambulance duty to do tomorrow ... a shop to get open in the morning ... and a sick husband on his way to hospital ... with no one ... I suddenly felt very alone ... no one to call to help!!!

Rang the one friend I could call on here to help with the kids and her phone went to answerphone. 10.55pm was it too late to turn up on her doorstep???

Too bad!! I grabbed the kids in the car and drove to her house. Knocking on the door, her partner answered the knock. "Yes?" "Bill's been taken to hospital, can I get you to look after the kids so I can drive down there??"

silence ....

"Is Sandy there???"
"She's asleep right now!"
(I was getting pissed of about now)
"Can you get her up?? I need someone to look after the kids. I don't know where else to turn!!"
"Well I suppose you could leave them here"
"Great!!" I didn't need a second offer!!!

Tucking four kids in one double bed I explained I'll be back in the morning to pick them up and off I went to Tauranga hospital ... 45mins drive away.

Was trying so hard not to speed. I travel and 'normal' speed plenty of times with very sick patients in the back. Why did I need to speed so much now ... was a very bizarre feeling!!

Got to the hospital and for 4hrs we wait to be seen!!!!!!

Then by 3am I'm thinking I need to be home in bed, I have to open the shop in a few hours so I make the decision to drive home at 3.30am with no sleep. I had to concentrate so hard on the way home. Arrived there ... finally and flopped into bed after setting my alarm for 6.30am ... 2hrs!!

5.30am my mobile rings ... it's Bill ... they're not going to admit him, I have to drive down to Tauranga ... again!!! and pick him up!!!

Get there ... drive home ... arriving 7.03am, open the shop, pick up the kids, get them ready for school, off to school, sleep for 2hrs (in between calls on the mobile by concerned parties), awake at 11am, get ready for ambo (my ambo partner covered me for the first 6hrs after a 24hr shift!!), shower, give Bill a break (yep he's back in the shop after docs say nothing wrong with him!!!! grrr another matter), drive to the station, shift for 6hrs meeting the big CEO of St Johns for a 'chat!' not that I was in the mood for chatting!!! Home at 6pm ...


now I'm buggered!!!! Sometimes life is shit!!! Today is one of those days!!! Don't need anything else in my day!!

100g of boogers up there??

Well dag namit!! You wouldn't believe it would ya???

Soooooooooo close ... hmmm ... but no cigar!!

The scale flickered onto 102.6kgs, stayed for a few seconds and last minute jumped to 102.7kgs. I reweighed myself, sat on the loo (again), breathed in, blew my nose, even considered cutting some hair off!!! 100g loss this week ... 0.1kg off my goal of 20kgs in one year ... 19.9kgs lost (hmmm, doesn't quite have the same ring to it)

That's ok I guess, I'll still get to my 20kg loss mark, but it will have to be next week now!!

One celebration to have this week is that I did survive one whole year on weight watchers and still going strong!!

Just a little loss ... pleeeease???

I managed to resist all the temptations yesterday. But was disappointed to see my weight was up this morning. It's been up all week so I'm hoping for a miracle tomorrow morning at weigh in. I'm not greedy ... just a insy winsy little 200g loss is all I want. Is that too much to ask? At this stage I have no idea if I'll have a loss or a gain. I've been spot on points all week so if the scales do decide to show me a gain I know it was undeserved and I'm saying now I won't let it get to me. Of course that attitude may change when I actually see the figure! Haha!

Umm ... not sure what else there is to blog about. Not much else has been happening. Same old, same old ... working in the shop, working on ambulance, working, working, working. Not much time for anything else.

Bill and I are off to a wedding in Rotorua in March. I've managed to rearrange my ambulance shift for the weekend, get staff in the shop and get babysitters!! Yay!! Talk about organisation though!! We don't get many weekends away on our own so that will be lovely to finally get away. Infact now that I think about it, it's the first weekend away alone together in maybe a year?? Wow that long? Think we need it then!! :)

I'll be back tomorrow with results ... ohhhhh and if it's a 200g loss or more (here's hoping!!!) ... photos!!! Yep! My 20kg loss photos!!! Oooooooh!! Exciting! Then I can start shopping for my next charm! So hope I make it!!!

They're calling .. "eat me! eat me!"

Having a real down day today. I'm fortunate not to have too many of these (and no it's not TOM for me). Having to force myself not to emotionally eat.

I bought a Toblerone chocolate bar from the snack box at the station today. I spent a good few minutes going through each thing working out the best value for points, made my decision, put my money in the slot and then decided to have my lite yoghurt first. And just in the nick of time a friend offered me half of her sub sandwich thingy that she couldn't finish. At first I said no (don't like taking food from others) and she persuaded me to have it saying she was going to throw it away otherwise. So I reluctantly agreed. Lucky tho, because after that and the yoghurt I didn't need the chocolate anymore.

Now just have to get through the rest of the day ... ohh and tomorrow, oohh and the next day!! hahah!

Keep running ... you're nearly there!!

The scales were very nice to me this morning and kept my lowest weight from yesterday at 102.8kgs! A victory of 1.1kg loss this week .... yeeeeehaww!!!

I started the Wendie Plan around 6wks ago now and it's certainly working for me, giving me some nice losses.

So I just now have to lose 200g this next week to make my mini challenge of 20kgs lost in one year.

Just don't blow it Lyn!!!

The weighting game ...

Spent the day getting a warrant of fitness and service for my ambulance today. It took 11hrs!!! I ended up doing a milk run on the way back dropping off this and that, picking up this and that ... 7.30pm tonight I finally got home!!

Had a cool little moment at Ambulance Head Quarters ... the Paramedic that helped me on the spinal job I did last week walked in (without me noticing) and said in a loud voice to everyone "Ahhh, here's the best ambulance officer in Waihi Beach!!!" I smiled and chuckled quietly. Very 'feel cool moment'

Had an all time low weight on the scales this morning ... who knows what tomorrows weighin will bring. I've been OP all week but yesterday the scales were up 1.5kgs and today all time low. Hopefully they will stay low, but really don't know.

The Regional Support Officer came to the station the other day (my station managers boss) and said he'd heard about my job application and said I needed another patch on my arm before I could be considered for any job. He asked me if I was still enrolled to do 'nat cert' (next qualification) to which I replied yes. And he said "well wait until you've done that and then you can look at getting a paid position". At first I was pissed off but after thinking a bit about his response, took it as a compliment. Basically he said in short ... it's nothing against me 'when' I don't get the job, but it's purely that I don't have enough qualifications. I've since been told that St John has signed a contract with the DHB (district health board) that they will have an AO (ambulance officer qualification - 1 level above me) on every ambulance. Hence why they asked for that level in the job vacancy advert.

So at the end of the day I would love to prove him wrong and get the job, but won't take it personally if I don't get it. Simple case of wait and see what happens ... much like the scale results tomorrow ...

You'll be sadly missed - R.I.P

When I got my ambulance uniform over a year ago I was ashamed to admit that the largest belt they had did not fit me and I had to go home and drill another hole in the leather to get it around my waist. I hated that belt because it reminded me everytime I wore it, that I was fat!!

As the months went by my hated belt began stretching. But no, infact it wasn't the belt, but my waist shrinking. The day I could move the buckle to a 'real' hole and not my homemade one was celebrated. Then gradually as I moved the buckle in one hole at a time, I actually started to grow an attachment to this piece of leather. Where once it reminded me of my fatness, now it was pointing out my slimness. I would have a quiet smile to myself everytime I visited the restroom and did up my belt ... yep I am getting slimmer!! One year later I was finally on the smallest hole. A full movement of the buckle of 16cm!!

Yesterday some new uniform stocks came in along with belts. And in a moment of sadness I surrendered in my weightloss belt for a new smaller one. Yet it was also a proud, happy, excited moment of knowing what goals I could achieve this year and a wonder of how many more holes I could move it in.

So now the next step has started. I am back out to the biggest hole on a much smaller belt.

RIP fat belt ... you will be sadly missed

Can ya see me? can ya? can ya??

I THINK I HAVE IT WORKING!! Please tell me I have the animations working now??? please??

But be honest if they're not.

I worked out the problem is that for gifs to work in blogger they need to be uploaded to a webspace first and then uploaded to blogger. Wow talk about searching for a needle in a haystack trying to work out why it wouldn't work.

So can you see them? Can ya??

More exams and maybe an ambo job ...

I have been sending my brain in knots (is that actually a saying?? lol think not) the past 24hrs trying to get these animations showing up for you all. I just simply could not understand it! It was showing up perfectly on my screen yet not on others screens. I tried 50 odd ways of uploading it with no solution.

In the end this morning I tried on my computer downstairs and it showed up fine, but on the computers in the shop (paid internet) it didn't show. So for some reason it shows on some people's screens and not on others ... so ....

I did a google search and think I have the answer ... it's dependant on your browser security settings on every individual computer. Hmm, not sure that I can fix that one! lol ...

So ... if you can see the animation can you let me know ... if you can't (and want to) change your internet browser setting to 'allow animations'. As to where that is on each of your browsers I'm not totally sure, somewhere around the 'tools/internet settings' type area.

Ok onto other news ...

I had my next set of exams last night. That last lot I did (around 4wks ago) was the theory part of a new set of analgesias (pain relief medications) and last night was the practical assessment which I always find a little daunting... but I passed so all good!

And the other news ...

I'm applying for a job in Tauranga. Not sure if I've mentioned this before on here but basically our shop building is being demolished and rebuilt starting Feb 2009 and taking anywhere up to a year to complete. We we get a new shop in the new building which will be much better than this one that leaks and is falling to bits. The landlord has talked about compensation but we have to be wise and think of other work as we have 6 mouths to feed and a mortgage to pay...

so ... hence why I'm starting to apply for jobs. I know it's very early but of course I want an ambo job and they are few and far between. And I've been told you need to have your name come up often for them to notice you.

Originally I considered Auckland but is a little too far to commute (ambo is 2 day shifts/2 night shifts/4 days off). But will do what I need to do to get that elusive job. Then this one has come up in Tauranga... but ...

They require someone at AO level (one level higher than me and once I finished my Nat Cert this year I will be at AO level). It's a bit cheeky applying at a lower level but got to give it a try.

Spent yesterday doing up my CV and cover letter. My station manager has happily said she'll be a referee for me so that's nice.

I always hate doing cover letters, making yourself out to be the amazing perfect person, but I've gotta do it if I'm to get this job ...

It's a huge long shot but we'll see! I'll keep ya posted!

A loss? Wooo Hoo!!

Weigh in results ...

400g loss ... 103.9kg.

I'm very proud of this weighin given TOTM turned up this morning along with the bloating that comes with it. Now just 1.3kg to go till my 20kg lost mark and 2 weighins to do it ... 650 grams each week ... can I do it?? heheh I'll certainly try my darned best!!

Do ya love my cute puddy tat on this post? I shouted myself a pressie ... a year's subscription to an animation site so I can put cute animations on my posts again. I used to use smiley central (which was free but came with alot of spam) and when I switched over to Apple Mac I couldn't use it anymore. I missed not being able to use my smileys. I came across this one today and while it's a bugger it's not free I don't mind too much having to pay for it, means I won't get spam (I checked that I won't) and it's about the same price as a new top so I figure I don't buy myself much and this makes my website a bit of fun.

So watch out for the new animations ... can't wait to show you more!!

Sometimes we gotta just jump into the big black hole

Thankyou for all the kind words of encouragement. I'm feeling so much better about the job. It's all about confidence which can only come with time and experience. I think it stems from the fact that I'm entering a new stage in my ambulance work where I've gone from being a newbie learning from others, to being a senior officer training others. On every single job I do I still learn and have got truckloads still to learn but there is a security in letting the buck stop with someone else and when something goes wrong being able to blame it on not knowing and the senior officer is in charge.

Now that I have my basics down to a refined art I can't blame it on anyone else. Now the buck stops with me. And that can be scary but not bad for me. It can only make me stronger.

I have weighin tomorrow. I'll be happy with a little loss. I've been a good girl all week and on points, but I can't be expecting 2kg losses every week like last week. Wait and see what happens. It will be sooo good getting over the 20kg loss mark. Feels like I've been saying for so long that I've lost just under 20kgs when people ask.

I've started getting quite a few comments on my weightloss lately which is nice. I don't tell people that I'm trying to lose weight but if they ask I'm not scared of saying what I'm doing. Oooooh! And I get to take another update photo for you guys when I reach my 20kg lost mark too. 1.7kgs to go ...

This one was hard to take ...

They say kids effect you the most. That once you've done an ambulance job involving a child you'll never look at ambo work the same. And while I understood the theory in this I never truly realised the full effect ... I'm now starting to.

I've done plenty of pretty full on ambo jobs, some very intense. And none of them have really bothered me afterwards. I've never lost any sleep, even with the cardiac arrest situations.

This has all changed. My past two nights have been filled with vivid wild dreams replaying the job I did on Saturday... over and over and over again. Saturday night I only slept until 3am and could not get back to sleep. Infact I cried a few tears until the sun came up. It has really effected me this one and even as I type I can feel my eyes well up.

I wasn't going to post about it, but felt myself slip into "I don't care about what I eat" mode yesterday and so in therapy for myself I want to blog this. I need to get it out and talk about it.

I'm actually confused as to why it has my mind in a spin. There is quite possibly going to be a very positive outcome for the patient so I should be overjoyed. I did everything right, so I should be proud, for some reason I'm not ... but he was a young, fit 18yr old with a zest for life. He wasn't a drunk driver, he wasn't speeding, he wasn't been a hoon or getting into a fight ...

... he was competing in the National Surf Lifesaving Championships ... he saved lives like us. And seeing the look on the faces of the other Surf Lifesavers helping one of their own will stick with me. And their looks of plead of wanting to know 'what next', wanting someone to fix him, to take back time and make it all better...

... and I couldn't ... I couldn't make him better.

On Thursday my station manager had asked me if I could cover the National Surf Lifesaving Championships at the beach on Saturday but meant I would be single crewed for it. "Sure" I said. I didn't anticipate much more than a few bumps and bruises. And if I did happen to have anything more serious Waihi Ambulance was only minutes away.

I'd been given instructions to be at the event in time for the official races at 12pm, but was ready early so decided to head down at 11am because I knew the practice runs had been going since 8am and I wanted to get my area set up beforehand.

I hadn't even gotten out of the ambulance when someone came up to my window. "There's someone in the first aid room who's hurt themselves". As I walked with my gear to help him I glanced at the sea ... it was huge!!! Ten foot waves!! I hadn't long finished helping this gentleman and getting him sent off on an ambulance when another came in, and with him a friend who asked if I could tape up his wrist. An old injury but it was giving him a bit of grief trying to row his boat. We had a chat about his surf lifesaving, I taped up his wrist and wished him goodluck for his races as he smiled and waved thanks.

The next hour or so was quiet so I ate my lunch and watched a few races. Then my surf lifesaving radio went off "Lyn! Lyn! We have someone injured coming in on an IRB up the northend of the beach!"

"Ok, I'm on my way"

I headed down the beach with my gear. "Hi I'm Lyn. What's been happening?" I started my usual introduction. "I can't move my legs!!! I can't move anything!!!!" He was panicking! I started assessing his injuries and called on my portable radio for Paramedic Backup, Second Ambulance and Westpac Rescue Helicopter and Fire Brigade! I'd never requested a chopper before, didn't really know how I was supposed to do it but hey who cares I'm sure COMMS can understand english. I gave them a quick description of what I had and then continued treating the patient. It was fantastic that I had so many helpers around me. After the initial assessment and set of vitals I deligated a lot of it ... you, can you continue to take a pulse every couple of minutes and yell it out to me. You, continue holding his head/neck. Can I get a full set of collars brought from the first aid room, and take someone else with you, I need a scoop stretcher. Just then an off duty ambo came out of the crowd. "Thank God!" I told her. Can you grab me the scoop straps out of the ambulance. You, I'd like you to just keep talking to him and make sure he's alert, tell me at any stage if he become drowsy. You, can you take his resps for me every few minutes and yell them out to me... and so it went on. Everyone worked like a team and took their job seriously. We got him collared, scooped, wrapped in thermal blanket and transported into the back of a ute (for warmth and privacy, and eventually transport to the chopper) I had someone else cordon off part of the beach, get everyone out of the water there in preparation for the chopper.

An intensive care nurse came out of the crowd to ask if I needed help. I told her "Great! Thanks! This is what we have and this is what I've done, can you see anything I've missed?" She made the suggestion of getting the bagmask out in preparation of respiratory arrest (which we didn't need) and that was it. "Thankyou so much" I told her.

When the Paramedic and Second crew turned up (what seemed like an eternity later) the look on my face must have totally shown them how I felt. It was a look of "THANK GOD YOU'RE HERE!!" I gave my hand over to the Paramedic, he put his hand on my shoulder, looked me in the eye and said in a calm quiet voice "It's okay, you've done everything right". That was just what I needed to keep myself going. I helped the Paramedic getting fluids set up and started on the paperwork. I noticed the Paramedic cutting off some tape off his wrist and that's when I clicked ... it's the same guy!! My heart sank!

It was at that moment that I actually looked up and noticed the hundreds and hundreds of people all standing round us and tv cameras (was on TV1 news and apparently will be in Piha Rescue later). I chose to ignore that fact and kept going. Someone came up to me and said "we have another back injury coming in on that IRB and a lady with a fractured ankle in the first aid room". It was at that moment that I nearly lost it. "you have got to be kidding me!!!" Nup! Then I looked up and saw the guy step out of the IRB and start walking up the sand. What a site for a sore ambulance officers eyes!! Yes! He's walking! So I sent off the off duty officer to check them out while we continued with our patient.

We got him loaded onto the chopper along with his mum and off they went and we turned around and walked away. The walk back to the surfclub rooms was really, really weird, like something out of a movie. The Paramedic and I silently walking side by side almost as if in slow motion and the crowd parted ahead of us, with the chopper lifting behind us. There was complete silence from the crowd ... really weird.

I left that day on a complete high but sad not knowing what happened to him and knowing the potential risk he had of never walking again let alone being a lifeguard.

As I am typing this the Bay of Plenty Times has just arrived and it's on the front page! He's ok!! OHHH MY GOD HE'S OK!!! That is the best news!!! He's been released from hospital. He had a neck/upper back injury that caused the spinal cord to swell and be bruised, causing the paralysis and as the swelling went down so did his ability to move.

This is the article here ... for those who want to read it.

As I started typing this post this morning it was a sad one, so sad I had to stop and refinish it the afternoon ... and now look how it's turned hey? lol

Life! you just never know what's round the corner!

This could have been me ...

20kgs lost in 52weeks makes an average of just under 400g a week. The weeks I've had a 400g loss sometimes I've been disappointed. Yet if I look at the wider picture ...

Having a small loss is only half of the celebration. Over 15mths I put on 50kgs!! That's an average of just under 800g gain each week ... every week for 64 weeks. Very possible to do if you don't care about your body.

So ... a 400g loss is not just a 400g loss but a potential saving of 1.2kg if I hadn't been watching what I ate!

I think sometimes we focus too little on the huge achievement of what NOT putting weight on is. That's a victory in itself and a very commendable one!! I hear people getting down on themselves because they have gone up and down over a year and maybe only lost a couple of kilos for that year ... but it's not just a couple of kilos that they lost ... it's a potential saving of putting on 40 odd kilos PLUS losing a few on top!!

And to think in the future ... if only we could do this (yet sometimes I think not). 20kgs gone this year (well I'm talking positive here that I'll make my mini goal in 3wks) then another 20kgs gone next year ... that will make me only 82.6kgs!! Ohh baby that figure looks fantastic!!

AND ... to think in a year if I hadn't restarted this journey I could quite possibly be (by going off the average weight I was putting on) by the end of next year ... scary figure ... 206kgs!!!! Hard to believe isn't it??? The picture above is a before photo of someone who was 206kgs.

OH MY GOD that is the biggest lightbulb moment I've had for a long time!!

Feels so good to be moving in the right direction no matter how slowly!!!

Focusing on the happy ...

I should be over the moon. My scales showed a weight of 104.3kgs ... a 2.1kg loss. But am I being silly for not being happy with that? I'm not sure what else I could have achieved.

Why the disapointment? ... I have gotten into a huge yoyo thing going on. I lost 2kgs two weeks ago, then put on 2.2kgs last week, now lost 2.1kgs this week. See the pattern? Is it a pattern? or is it just one week that I stuffed and now have gotten back on track again.

I know I'm probably overthinking this one and at the end of the day have to look at the fact that I've done the best I can this week and over the last 3 weeks have lost 1.9kgs.

Infact in the bigger picture I am coming up to my one year anniversary of rejoining weightwatchers. And in that one year I have lost nearly 20kgs. Infact that is my goal to achieve ... to have lost 20kgs in one year. I have until the 23 February to lose another 1.7kgs. That's 17 days or 2.5 weeks. To make it easier I'll take it out to the weighin for that week ... Wednesday 27 February I want to have lost 20kgs... you think I can do it??? 600g a week ... yep I'll do ... just watch me!!!!

And I've started bidding on a new pandora charm on trademe in anticipation of the event! :)

Almost 4hrs late!

The family and I went to a potluck bbq last night along with about 20 others. It started at 5pm so me and the kids went along first with Bill following after 7pm. I was still on duty till 7pm so had to go in uniform.

I'd only been there about 20mins when sure enough the pager went off. So I had to run out the door leaving my poor friend to babysit my kids till I got back or Bill arrived. I let them know I should be back in around an hour.

I got back from my job just after 7pm and was sitting in the ambulance filling about paperwork. Wrote the form out that says I'm taking the truck off the road and just about the make the phone call (now 7.20pm when my shift finished at 7pm) ... and couldn't believe it ... beep, beep, beep!! Bloody Sabastian (the COMMs operater for our area) had dropped another job on me! I was never gonna make it to the potluck dinner.

8.20pm I finished that job and the first thing to do when I got back in the ambulance ... ring that rascal Sabastian and tell him MY SHIFT IS OVER!! lol And what do I find?? No reception on my mobile ... unbelieveable! So no paperwork finishing off just yet, off I drove back home and as soon as I found mobile coverage I pulled the ambulance over on the side of the road to take me off. I told Sabastian he was cunning and dropped another job on me before I could take it off the road. He laughed an evil laugh in reply. Cheeky bugger!!

So I walked in the bbq at 8.45pm ... almost 4hrs late!! The good side was that by the time I got there people had stopped eating the nibbles (chips and dip, cheese and crackers) and made it easier for me to resist them. Not one eaten! Dinner I just had the salads, corn cob and grilled courgettes. No meat. A friend saw me writing something on my hand and I told her it was my points for dinner and one stroke for every bourben I have. She couldn't believe that even on a night out I still count points. Sure! I have a very bad habit of having a couple of drinks and forgetting what I eat or drink afterwards. This way I didn't forget.

And this morning on writing in my points on my tracker I was spot on ... with 0.5pt to spare even ... wahoo!!