WILD AND TAMED

HOUSE SEARCH

Flew up to Inverness,hired a rental & began my search.

First a beautiful log house in Sutherland, near a loch, in a forest... I really wanted it but the bank was not interested as it was wooden. Crazy as there is so much wood in Brit houses.

Then a variety of homes in the Highlands,Caithness,Moray & Aberdeenshire.

Finally we settled on a lovely home in Aberchirder, a small village about 40 miles north of Aberdeen, 8 miles south from Banff on the coast.

It was a split level, 2 large bed,huge lounge & diner plus kitchen,2 bathrooms & a sun room,a laid garden on all 4 sides plus a garage.

BIG MOVE

I hired a large truck & drove all the way up to Foggie as the village was known from the English south coast full with the household.

Arrived in a blizzard & nearly lost the truck as it slipped from a laybye.

Spent the day off loading,slept & then made the drive back south overnight.

Charmaine continued her work but I took the car & drove back up & began sorting out the house...It was an exciting time

PEPPER

We picked up our beautiful boy from Cats Protection & he bonded wonderfully with us.

There were scraps with the other neigbourhood toms but he was a home boy & Mum would feed him all the most expensive food.

The vet had thought at first he was a girl.

He was about 18 months when we got him.

We loved him dearly...he was our first child

DORIC DALEKS

CHRIS

The locals had a most extraordinary dialect & language...influenced by Gaelic,English,Dutch,German & French.

My local mechanic was very broad but Char picked it up early doors & would tell me what Chris said about the car...though she had no idea what the mechanics of it were.🙃

SPORTS & LEISURE

Got some temporary work setting up gym machines,sunbeds & bouncy castles...good money but really hard graft.

SAS

And so my decision to change direction in my life. I had been teaching & working in the media for many yrs & the landscape of politics & dynamics of these mediums had changed so much...I joined the Scottish Ambulance Service.

The work was intense & I was well trained. I met with some awful situations & did wonder if I could handle it. I did; & grew in experience in a field I never thought I would enter.

I began based in the town of Huntly,later to be transferred to Banff.

Some of the incidents that stand out were...

TRUCK CRASH

It was a Fri....with the eve rush in December & I was headed back up the highway to my base in Huntly. I was single manned with 2 patients (not ideal)...when I came up behind an impatient truck...I backed off, sensing there was going to be problems.

He tried to pass blindly, hitting 3 vehicles...one which skidded into the ambulance. I pulled over , checked on my patients, who were fine, although shook up. I called in the situ & being 1st on scene began a triage after clearing this acceptance with control as I had patients who were simply being transported.

I took my kit checking on the occupants of all 3 vehicles & the truck driver. No serious injuries but all in shock. The police soon set up a perimeter & colleagues arrived in 2 ambos...I briefed  them & completed my journey

...no one ever asked how I was😥

WHERE'S ME TEETH

I was working with my colleague when our patient decided to be sick.

I pulled over & we took her out of the vehicle...we were in the countryside. She was sick & when it was all done we settled her back in to the ambo & were ready to roll again when sunddenly she declared...WES ME TEEF...Colleague & I looked at each other in horror...donned our gloves & prepared for the disgusting seach, at which point she piped up...FOUN EM🤪

VARIOUS TRAGEDYS

What really  staggered my mind was the the moronic kids that used the roads as a race track especially over the week ends. Because in the North East of Scotland there is a relatively small population, leaving the roads quite empty at times.

Empty roads & empty minds make for tragic RTC...road traffic crashes...through speed & stupidity...stupidity also by the others jumping into the vehicles about to be driven by a moron.

The SAS obviously had to clean up these tragic scenes of wrecked vehicles & bodies...often ending up in fields.

These images never leave me & I always say to the dummies about those idiots who are buried in cemeteries,if they could,might have some sage advice to give the future potential morons...or then again maybe not!

LUNCH

A bunch of us would go to the psychiatric hospital Cornhill to their canteen for lunch...It was a nice canteen & managers from SAS were scarce.

HALEYS COMET

Yep she actualy landed at the the SAS HQ..all 2 tons of her...so much for the physical & common sense. In today's riduculous world's any thing goes including obese flight attendants who virtually sit in your lap whilst panting down the aisle, or the migit policewomen who couldn't swat a fly let alone an oversized, tatooed thug

As Katie Hopkins says...they ate the fridge

BUSH PATIENT

Had occassion to pick up a patient that was right out in the country bush...no roads...not even on the sat nav.

We had to park on the highway & wheel the stretcher to unkempt property, load up the patient & wheel him back to the ambo.

NEIGHBOUR

Sadly, one of my neighbours who had exclaimed on my truck when I brought it home ended up being a patient We were to bring him to his home.

He had cancer & died a few weeks later at home.

RESUS

It is never nice being face to face with death. We were called out on emergency to a collapsed 52 yo woman. Whilst I did CPR, doc & I set up the defib which soon informed us to stop...we declared end of life.

The harrowing scene of the husband & then arriving family is one of the worst parts of the job. 

As it was an unexpected death, the police had to be involved so we had to wait to give them the report.😥

ROLLING PATIENT

One of my colleagues had not secured a stretcher & door on his ambo & as he was single manned was not double checked.

Well you can see it now...he moves into 1st gear & the patient reverses out the back door. Fortunately he was facing down hill, so geurney slipped out back then headed down his hill in his direction behind him...he only noticed in his wing mirror when he saw a guerney tailgaiting, wanting to pass😲...All ended safe & well but there was an enquiry...we laughed about it but it could have been tragic.

STABBING

We had an incident where a stabbing took place outside a chippie...when we got there...no patient,no people. On enquiring,turns out he had walked home. On examination we had him to casualty swiftly...in fact a little to the right & it would have punctured his heart.

TEDDY TO BLAIRGOWRIE

Although it does not happen now...in fact crews will seldom take a psych case without psych nurses as attendants now...I was, then, given a patient, whilst single manned to take from Elgin in Moray to Blairgowrie in Perthshire down a very snowy A9.

She unbuckled 3 times & attempted to exit the ambo...I was a nervous wreck by the time (2 hrs) we pulled into the Blairgowrie Psych Hosp.

Even Teddy who had been shown & described all the sights on the journey was probably exhausted...🤪It looked as though she had Teddy since she was a child.

BIRKENHILLS TRAGEDY

One of the worst tragedies was when a teenage schoolgirl left the school bus & whilst concentrating on her phone crossed a highway...in front of the bus...mistake after mistake. 

She was knocked down by a speeding car. We were unable to revive her.

The car's driver was indicted on dangerous driving & manslaughter but her remorse would bear a terrible consequences as she, some months later, walked out into a busy highway only to get pummeled by several vehicles...her way of flagulating herself.

We should adopt the American school bus system of road regs.

CINQUECENTO

The little Fiat which I bought for Char in Inverness...It was tiny & I could nearly stick my head out of the sun roof.

Sold it on privately.

GEORGIA PEACH

This beautiful young girl came to us in the winter.

We believe she was dumped...shame on them...but God brought her to us.

She took to us quickly & then with Pepper...they became inseperable.

She would often spin him on the wicker chair but mostly they would sleep holding each other.

She had the most gentle & caring personality plus she was a clever girl.

A most precious creation.