and here's one I made earlier...

So this year I decided to make an advent calender for my parents. So I purchased 25 small envelopes, some mini toadstall pegs, and of course some choccys!

and here is the finished product:

 

In each envelope there is a piece of card with 'Merry Christmas' written on it in a different language.

and today's language? well, take a look for yourself...

 

 On the other side of the card is a message/picture/quote. And also the chosen language is revealed. Not forgetting the obligatory chocolate!

 

Today's message says: "Time for Hog Roast & Hot Tub!" as tonight is my Brother's birthday celebrations and, as the note says, he will be having a hog roast and a homemade hot tub.

Merry Christmas lovely people! :)

Holly

Strudel Success!

The latest news from the kitchen, is that I have made an Apple Strudel, and it was scrummy!
(infact I made two, but one got eaten before I could take the photo)
Photo below:

Suggested accompinment (from the recipe): Creme Fraiche- However I had Ice cream and it was heavenly! :)

I think the strudel was made partly to fill the 'Strudel Bar-sized' hole, left now that the Strudel Bar in Bath, that I visited last year with Lucy B, has shut down. Photo below:

This was a German Strudel Bar called Hansel and Gretel's that sold Apple Strudels and Spiced Coffees.

However, on the upside I have just booked tickets for another 3 day visit to Bath, to see Lucy B and the Christmas markets. :) I will use the two 4 hour train journeys to listen to one (or more) Jane Austen novels on Audiobook.

That's all really..... :)

Chucked in at the deep end...

Yesterday evening I had another duty at the Amex in which I was put in charge of a radio and a cadet. And as fate would have it, guess who had the only casualty the whole game! Yup, me.
Consequently, I very quickly learnt to deal with a casualty and the radio. Even if, at one point, I did have to radio Control and ask for 'a more experienced first aider'. Cue SECAmb (and a big sigh of relief from me!).

However the outcome of this incident was a very swift learning curve and confidence boost. So sometimes it's not so bad to be 'chucked in at the deep end'.

In other news, after having been to two SECAmb responder meetings, they then inform me that there is an application form that I need to fill out. So I am currently in the process of completing this.

In the culinary department, I was purusing a friend's blog who occasionaly posts a new recipe, and the latest addition was an 'Orange loaf cake'. (http://amy-babycake.blogspot.co.uk/) So, to the kitchen I went. and Voilà!

 

(Obviously it has been discovered and mostly eaten before I could get a photo!)

It is not the most exciting looking cake, but it is very tasty- lovely with a cuppa!

 

I think this is the next challenge:

 

Gingerbread cupcakes in time for christmas! :)

 

 

 

 

Until next time....

 

New job, ECGs and BMs

A little while ago I mentioned that I had some exciting news which I could not yet discuss on the interweb. Well, the time has come for me to elaborate...

I have a new job, and I am currently in the throws of induction training. My new title is Health Care Assistant in a hospital setting on a surgical ward.
I'm quite excited about the next couple of days of training when we shall be trained to monitor and record all obs (observations). i.e. blood pressure, pulse, temperature, resps, Sp02%, BMs and ECGs! I have already been taught how to do BP, pulse, temp, resps and Sp02% at other times. It's the ECGs i'm interested in. My first shift on the ward is in a weeks time! :)

Aside from employment news, I have now had two meetings with the community first responders team, and I am looking at booking on to the next traning sessions early next year. So no real news to report about CFRs now until my training begins.

I am still reading all the same books I wrote about on the last blog and in addition I am now reading Life of Pi- Yann Martel. I have also lined up a re-read of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe in time for the wintery time of year.

Since joining St John Ambulance I find I have become much more aware of other first aiders and first aid situations. One example of this is my visit to Tesco the other day. A child manganged to pull a pram down on top of his head, and then, as expected, proceeded to cry. One of the Tesco staff from that department went off to use the tanoy system to ask for a first aider "code 9". (Whatever that means!) 5 minutes later, no sign of the first aider, so another call was put out over the tanoy. 5 mintues after that, still no sign of said first aider. So they used the tanoy system for a third time and named a specific first aider and asked them to respond to the incident. After a further 5 mins he finally turned up. Now I don't know about you, but if was responding to a child head injury, I would have responded a lot quicker than that- even if the child was fine, with no lasting injury, that is not known until the first aider has arrived on scene.

In St John news, there is a possibilty that I may be doing Lewes Bonfires this year, which I've heard is a fun, challenging, and long (usually until about 3am) duty. And of course I shall continue on with the footie games at the Amex.


No other insights to talk of, so, until the next time...

Syphgmomanometers and Stethoscopes

 Daydreamer, sitting on the seat, soaking up the sun  .  .  .

So, summer has finally decided to make an appearence :) This makes me happy because it means lots of reading my book in the sunshine in the garden and getting sunburnt (not so good).
And at the moment I am doing lots of reading
I have just finished: The Catcher In The Rye - JD Salinger and Passion - Louise Bagshawe.

And I am currently reading: The Jungle Books - Rudyard Kipling, James and The Giant Peach - Roald Dahl, Scouting For Boys - Baden-Powell and Animal Farm - George Orwell.

And I have just ordered Life of Pi - Yann Martel.

If anyone has any books to reccomend, speak now :)

A couple more St John Ambo duties since the last post; one at Fontwell Racecourse and one at Shoreham Airshow. and another couple of footie games at the Amex coming up. Finally got a new small hi-viz jacket, so now It doesn't look like a dress on me!

I have recently purchased myself a Syphgmomanometer and stethoscope, and have been taught how to take blood pressure manually. Now just to practice  .  .  .  .  .  any volunteers? :P

over and out
Holly xxx






                                

Spejdernes Lejr 2012

(Translation of the blog title: "Scout Camp 2012")

On the 18th of July this year 14 explorer scouts, 1 scout and 5 leaders set sail for 'Jamboree Denmark 2012' (and I mean that quite literally as we travelled by ferry). 18 hours later we arrived in Esbjerg on the coast of Denmark. After a two hour drive we reached our destination; Holstebro EKU (scout hut).

We stayed in the EKU for the first 2 nights, then walked to the scout camp.
The camp was HUGE! Just to give you an idea of how big it was, it took us 1 1/2 hours to walk around half of the camp. There were 36,000 scouts/leaders on the camp. We had an on-site hospital with a surgical unit, and two helipads for the helicopter ambulances.

The Camp

On our pitch on the campsite which was allocated to Ellebæk scouts, we had 135 people staying (Our explorers, scout and leaders; the Danish beavers, cubs, scouts, explorers, network and leaders; and the FDF).

Due to fire regulations (3m gap between clusters of tents) we were unable to pitch Ben and Gordy's tent as there was limited space. So they shared with Jon and Steve and I shared with Cheese, Maria, Lotte Nichlas, Emil, Camilla, AM, Maja and Daniel.

There were some very impressive pioneering projects around the campsite, some pictures below:

The Eiffel Tower

 The Spiral Staircase

Some of the things we did were a flash mob in the centre of Holstebro town where we were given a radio and some heaphones and we just had to do what we were told- actions such as `mooing`whilst walking down the high street; building a human pyramid; dancing to music played to us on our personal radios; lying down in the middle of town to listen to a story read to us on our radios. etc.

There were lots of very late nights spent in `The Wild Rover` (the on-site pub) and in true scout camp tradition lots of ´burning the candle at both ends´ with wake-up calls as early as 5.45.

One of the major benefits of having the camp in the home town of all my Danish friends was the ability to completely avoid the camp showers. Instead I simply walked to one of my friend´s house for a shower.

One of my Danish Friends Niklas was in charge of an activity that translated as the `love trombone´ but ´love shack´ was the nickname given to it. He held sessions of speed dating there in the evening, and they had a stage with with lots of good music late into the night.

One evening we had an hawiian themed adult party which began with a picnic, with 9 Calves spit roasted (bearing in mind there were 6000 adults there) photos below:

 

After we had eaten there was another concert at the main stage.

On the wednesday night there was an International Campfire in which we were asked to perform a typically English scout song, so we chose the Bumblebee song. I´m sure there will be a video of us peforming it on youtube before long!

One of the last activites we did was a trip to the local beach for an activity called ´Baywatch´. To my dissapointment The Hoff was not there, instead it was just a chance swim in the sea, play volleyball and fall asleep on a beach (the latter of which there is a photo of me- thank you explorers!)

On the last night of camp we had the closing ceremony which was entirely in Danish but luckly a translation was being simultaniously broadcast on the radio. Once the first part of the opening ceremony was over, we were told that there would be a second half following shortly. About 15 mintues later, ALPHABEAT walked on stage and performed for us late into the night! See below:

Once the camp was over our scout/explorers and leaders were dispersed for home hospitality and I stayed with my friends Emil and Flavia. The following evening we had a BBQ/goodbye party at the FDF hut, and after one last sleep we departed for England.

Keep Smiling
Holly

 

So an update is needed I believe...

oh, what's occurin'?

Well, firstly there's been a few more St John duties to talk of. There was another footie game at the Amex, this time on a much smaller scale; the Fringe festival in Brighton; and another duty where we had two young identical twin girls who had a condition I have never heard of:
'Reflex Anoxic Seizures'.
This means that if one of them gets a shock eg. a loud noise, then they collapse and their heart stops. However, it occured to me whilst daydreaming at this duty, that if one of the girls had a shock and their heart stopped, would that be enough of a shock for the other twin that her heart would stop too? So we could have two casualties?... these are the kind of thoughts that fill my head whilst on duty. :P

So onto the next news I have just embarked on a level 3 qualification in 'Principles of End of Life Care' which is intriguing and very relevent to my current employment. So I have thrown myself into it and am almost halfway through. :)

I have always taken a interest in programmes on television that follow the emergency services (especially Ambos). More recently I have endevoured to catch 24 hours in A&E as it shows many emergency situations and the remedies - fascinating stuff!

In other news, Lucy and I have ticked another visit off our list today: Lewes town and castle. Coincidentally, it happenes to be the day that Lewes castle commemorate the Battle of Lewes with a family day and samba band at the castle. - so lots of people around, but still lovely. After the visit to the castle, Lucy and I had lunch in a riverside cafe and did some people watching. Photos of the visit below:

 

I have other, most exciting, news which I am unable to discuss on the interweb at present, until it (hopefully) becomes official. Watch this space...

Keep smiling all! :D

Ducks On The Pond and Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Just a short post while my first attempt at a 'Pineapple upside down cake' is baking in the oven....

We have a swimming pool in our garden, which remains filled but not chlorinated through-out the winter months. So the water turns green and nasty and resembles a pond.

This spring we are unable to fill the pool with clean water because of the 'Hosepipe ban'. So the pool remains a pond for the time being.

And to that end, we have resident ducks! We do not know where they come from, although having thought about it, probably the 'Swiss Cottage', a local pub with ducks in their garden.

Our ducks visit almost daily, and we have one female and four males. The female always comes to visit, the males take it in turns. Sometimes we have two males, sometimes three or four.

The other day I took a video of our little friends, but for some reason I am unable to upload it here.


On the bright side, the pineapple upside down cake was a SUCCESS!

Stay Cool

Holly :)

The Latest Visits:

So Lucy and I can tick another two visits off our list:

Arundel Castle

and

Singleton: Weald and Downland Open Air Museum

First, Arundel Castle.

Having set off in my little car we breezed along the A27 with Erasure-A Little Respect blaring. That is until we reached Arundel, where there was roadworks. Big roadworks. So we sat there for about 3/4 hour then eventually got through the bottleneck into Arundel.

We had a quick shop around the town centre then paid a visit to the Moathouse Cafe for a cream tea! :)

Then onwards to the castle...

This is a lovely photo of Lucy B

Here are a few photos of the gardens and Lucy and I standing by the beautiful tulips and blossoms:

 

This is Lucy sitting in the resturant where we sat and had a coffee and chatted about university, and ambulances.

After we had visited the castle, we decided to wander down to the duck pond. Here are a couple of photos:

Two days later, we headed to Signleton Weald and Downland Open Air Museum.

Having got mildly lost on the way there, we were relieved to see the signs for the 'open air museum'.

Lucy and I wandered round reminiscing of times when both visited Singleton with our schools.

'Lucy the Giant'

That's all for now!

Holly :)

First St John Ambulance duty

On Tuesday evening I completed my first duty as Trainee First Aider with St John Ambulance. The duty was the Brighton and Hove Albion Vs Derby football game at the Amex Stadium.

Being in full uniform has it's perks. It allows us to access all areas at the Amex, so we got to use the staff only lift, while Joe Public had to climb the 100 steps up to West Upper, where Aaron and I were based for the evening.

We had, in my opinion, the best seats in the house. At the very top of the stadium, above the highest seating block.

As well as being my First St John duty, it was also my first football game. what an atmosphere! There were definately some very passionate Seagulls fans there.

We only had one call out during the duty, and as it happens, just as we came off the stands and behind to the bar area to see to the man, Brighton Scored. However, we didn't miss out because Brighton scored again that evening.  

Rumour has it Fatboy Slim and Des lynam were there too.
All in all it was a brilliant night, hopefully to be repeated many times in the future.

And this blog would not be complete without a photo, unfortunatly I didn't take any, but I found this one online, and it is pretty much taken from where we were sitting, so you can see our perspective of the game.

In other news, after chatting to Aaron all evening about SECAmb and St John, I came home and emailed SECAmb's Community First Responder scheme, to see if I could get involved.
Watch this space...


Holly xxx

Days out with Lucy...

Lucy and I have aquired a 'Top 50 Sussex Attractions 2012' leafet. and we intend to visit almost every one. (and a few more besides).
The first activity on our list was to go see the lambing and calving at Coombes Farm. So we set out at 10.00am, on a not-so-sunny day, armed with our cameras. After walking around one of the lambing barns for a while, we had a mug of hot choc in the cafe to pass the time before the tractor ride at 11.30.

When we returned from the ride, we peeked in another of the lambing barns, and saw the cutest little lambs ever!

Next on to the calving barn.

And finally, after a short chat with a guy called Henry who we used to go to school with, we headed through the car park/field up to the church. We had a look around the small church, then called it a day.

The second activity on our list was to visit 'Pooh Corner'. The birth place of the 'Winnie the Pooh' stories.
So, on yet another not-so-sunny day, we set off for Hartfield. When we arrived we visited 'Pooh Corner' which is the gift shop/ information centre. After chatting to the girly behind the counter, we set off for 'Pooh Car Park'. Once there, we embarked on a so called "3/4 hour walk" - took us about 10 mins! to find Pooh sticks bridge:

We had a quick game of Poohsticks- which I won. However, my stick was a lot thicker and heavier!

Then onwards to Gill's Leap Car Park. So with guide in hand we begun the main walk to see the 'enchanted places'. We saw Galleon's Lap, 'Where the North Pole was', the heffalump trap, the enchanted places memorial plaque and 'the sandy pit where Roo played'.

The Sandy Pit where Roo played - which was decidedly un-sandy!

And of course, most importantly we visited Piglit's Tearoom. And no, I have not misspelt 'Piglit', as that is how it is spelt in this instance. Lucy and I pondered the reason for this. Perhaps, it was a deliberate mistake to avoid copyright laws, or perhaps they just got it wrong. Either way, the proper way to spell Piglit, according to the author himself (A.A. Milne), is P-I-G-L-E-T.

That's all for now folks!

Holly
xxx 

The last few birthday gifts to claim...

Perusing through my birthday gifts, I came across one or two cheques which prompted me into action.

The first was a cheque from my Auntie whose intention was that I use the money to get my ears pierced and buy a nice pair of earrings.

Job done!

The second was a cheque from my grandmother, with which I have decided to buy a sat-nav. However, having researched sat-navs a little, I feel no closer to making a descision. 

This is where you come in. Yes, you.

Anybody that has any opinions/ ideas on which sat nav to purchase please comment on this post, because I need some help choosing one.

Thanks!

Holly xx 

P.S. Add this to your 'must read' list:

Me Before You by JoJo Moyes

Celebrations of a birthday girl

Ahoy there scurvy mates!

So, 2012, the year of a particularly momentus birthday for me as those you who know me will know.

The celebrations kicked off with a super brilliant 'H' party. That is too say that all of the guests (bar a few humbugs) dressed up as someone or something beginning with H.

A few examples:
Happy (the dwarf)
Helen of Troy
the Hoff
Hippy
Hen-pecked husband
Hiker

At this point you may well be wondering what my chosen costume was. Well, I am happy to tell you that I pulled together a "Holly Golightly" outfit. For those of you who are unsure who that is, Holly Golightly is Audrey Hepburn's character from the film adaptation of Truman Capote's brilliant novel, "Breakfast at Tiffany's". (a book I would recommend to anyone).

I had decided that, to make my outfit all the more complete, I would get my hairstyle done professionally at a local salon which shall remain nameless. As an added bonus at this point, a friend of the family decided that for my birthday gift she would fund a professional make-up session. So "Beauty Box" came up trumps!

So on the big day I had my hair and make-up done and compiled my outfit. The finished outcome can be seen below:

 
So having read about the first part of my birthday gift from my parents (the party!) onto the latter part...

A day trip to central London with my mother, finishing at the Lyceum theatre where The Lion King is being shown.

So the day began with an hour train trip to London Vic, then from there a quick ride on the Tube to South Ken. Our first taste of London life was "Steve" and "Frank" two very friendly guitar and violin players sharing our coach on the Tube. After a quick introduction and an invitation to dance or just to "sit and stare at us, not really knowing what is going on" they began with what I can only describe as an Irish Jig. They followed this jolly ditty with a slower waltz, and unfortunatly by that time we had reached South Ken and our time had come to depart from the underground. So with smiles on our faces we bounced off the Tube and walked through the tunnel until we reached the V+A museum.
At this point I would love to tell you that we spent hours walking around the V+A marvelling at the wonderous art works. However, in reality we headed straight for the V+A cafe and had a well earned cuppa from a very friendly cafe worker.

The proof of the pudding:

Following this we swung by the gift shop at purchased a couple of postcards.

Next stop, Harrods!
Had a little look around, didn't buy anything but saw some pretty unbelievable sights. Such as the "Canine cookie bar" which is a cookie company making sweet treats souly for the canine population. (show below) One of the delights sold there that caught my eye was the 'pupcorn' stand.

Having laughed at the insanity of such a business venture, we then rounded the corner to find a display featuring the definition of pampered pooch! A dog in what looked like a beauty salon, being fussed of by not one, but three "beautitions" (or whatever the doggy equivalent is). As if this wasn't hilarious enough, having walked a little futher on, we found a treadmill especially designed for dogs with a television screen at one end showing the film "Beethoven"!!

Having trailed around the gift shop and seeing nothing that grabbed our eye, we came across three Harrods bears. So of course a photo had to be taken! NB pay special attention to the price tag to which I am pointing which quotes, for the Beefeater Harrods bear, a wholesome £1900!!

Moving on, next stop on the London trip, Fortnum and Mason (which I later found out, if we had been there a day later, we would have 'bumped into' Her Maj and Kate Middleton, as they had a tea date planned there for the following day). Following this a quick refreshment stop at a small cafe on Hyde Park Corner.

Once all the obvious shops had been visited I put a request in to go slightly off the beaten track and pay a visit to the "Anything left-handed" suppliers of tools that have proved to be infinately more useful to me than their Right-handed brothers. However, having found the correct street where the shop should have been, we were greeted with this sight:

A sweet shop! A good sweet shop, yes, but unlikely to provided me with the left-handed tools needed!

Next, onto Covent Garden where we saw a variety of street performers including an opera singer and juggling unicylist (on a VERY tall unicycle). However, I took a dislike to the unicyclist as he was pushy and insistant that we should not walk away and that we should give him some money, using the "this is my job" line. -Get a real job like the rest of us!

By this time in the day we were flagging slightly, so popped into a tea shop to recouperate. After a good old bucket of tea and half a cinamon pastry (that we couldn't decide if it was meant to be stodgy or if it was a few days past it's best before date).

On to Trafalgar Square to see the lions and the Olympic countdown clock. With a new statue of a boy on a rocking horse thrown into the mix. Photos below:

As an added source of interest, scattered throughout London during the 'Lent' period are 200 eggs of all different colours and designs like the one shown below. So thoughout our trip to London we kept an eye out for said eggs, I believe we saw about 14 eggs.

After a short walk along the Embankment we found Chopstix, an all-you-can-eat chinese resturant. So after a quick scoff, we headed back over the river Thames towards the Lyceum theatre.

The Lion King was Super! I found myself getting lost in the imaginairy world of Pride Rock, despite the mildly irritating 4 year old in the row behind us who insisted on talking throughout the entire show. Not the poor boy's fault- why would you bring a kid that young to the theatre?!

Exiting the theatre we were met with the tuneful sound of a row of rickshaw drivers all trying to gain our custom. However, after a brief debate, we decided it would be cruel to expect the rickshaw driver to do all the work while we sat back and enjoyed the ride (despite it being their job), so we chose to walk. 

Once we had arrived outside Buckingham Palace we had a brief period of confusion as to the direction that we needed to be heading in. After watching a car driving in to the palace grounds, (and coming to the conclusion that it was Harry returning after a late night pub crawl) we asked the Policemen at the gates the way to Victoria train station. And a very helpful bobby he turned out to be, we arrived at the station in no time.

All that was left was the tedious train journey home!

Holly xx

P.S. phew! that was a large first post, I had lots to say!