Living on a ... rush?

The conference is only a week away and I'm feeling very pressured now. I am not sure I will get this task finished in time. But I don't know who else can help me as everyone is as busy as I.

Anzac Day this week. A day to give thanks to our fallen for the sacrifice they made. Stan travelled out to Longreach for the ceremony. He was gone for a week. I arrived home from work to find a parcel on my bed. Stan had bought back gifts. I now have a FUSCHIA t-shirt. It's a tight fight but well good enough for home wear.

The sun has set and the night is getting dark. I'm minding my own business when Jerome starts to call. Yowl would be more like. Or yodelling. Uh oh. That tells me he's definitely not happy about a trespasser. I look out the bedroom window and I think I can see a shadow. Jerome continues to call. He's very loud! I unlock the front door and yes, there's a cat sitting at the top of the garden steps. I shoo it away. Or I try. It just stares at me. I shoo it again and it heads down the steps. I can see it silhouetted under the street lamp. They're sneaky but I am too. I stand there and sure enough, it comes back. I chase it again and it walks away. I stand out there like a fool for a few more minutes but it doesn't return.

It's a time for Police cars I think. I'm on the bus and there are three of them parked in a bus stop. There is blue and white checkered tape closing off the top of the stairs. Uh oh. What's going on here???

The Elder tells me it's Starlight week this week. Her employer works to raise funds for the Starlight Foundation, a children's charity. I think she even managed an extra day at work. She was totally chuffed. AND she got to wear her pyjamas to work. Why can't I do that? Oh wait, I had to retire my mad fave Jim Beam jammies. That just wouldn't work.

Starlight Foundation is also a favourite charity of the 501st Legion. I get off the bus and there they are! Brilliant! I am rushing to the next bus stop and I only have my bus fare in my pocket. I wish I could have taken photos! It turns out that I did have enough time after all. I had forgotten I had actually caught an earlier bus and now had twenty minutes for change over. The costuming this group wears is amazing. Not something tacky, but Lucasfilm's preferred Imperial costuming group.

This morning I go past the bus stop where the Police were parked. The steps are still roped off but today there is a sign advising a partial collapse of the bike path. I hope no one was hurt yesterday.

I'm not in the office today. I have training so I'm out of the office. I've not done this training before and it's usually two days. They've squeezed it into one. I'm expecting a loooong day. The course starts at 10.30am and I'm not certain of the location of the training room. I arrive at 10.00am. Early I know but the trainer is already there. I apologise for being early; he directs me to the coffee and continues to pack up from the previous class while we chat look at some of the pictures hanging on the walls.

Closer to 10.30am and others start arriving. It looks like I'm the only woman in the class... but no another turns up. This training is for my department at work and I know the other lady well. We fill out our forms and the training begins. Yes, people I am now a First Aid Officer. But goodness knows how I became that. CPR was up first. I can't even remember if I actually used the dummy. I think I did. Briefly. I DID get to use the defibrillator. *whoo!* That's easy because it tells you what to do.

CPR finished and .... everyone else left. That left just me for the Senior First Aid certificate. Ummmm. The trainer gave me a multiple choice questionnaire to complete. Take a guess he says and we'll go through it when you finish. The first ten questions had been included in the CPR training so I started from question eleven. There were thirty questions in all. When I finished, we went through them all. I got five wrong. He was impressed, considering I've not held a certificate before. He did a quick demo of bandaging a bite, use improvisation for a wrist splint. Showed me how to use an epipen, an asthma puffer with an improvised spacer. We ran through a couple of scenarios. Someone has fallen over and hit their head, split their lip and hurt their elbow; which one would you treat first?

So, somehow, I'm a qualified First Aider. And the whole process took ... two hours...