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Skipping ropes!
Apr. 18th, 2009 06:39 pmThank you very much for thirty skipping ropes, Julie Paradox! I am delighted by them :)
Apr. 18th, 2009
Ambulances for drunks
Apr. 18th, 2009 08:27 pmToday as the girls and I were walking to meet Rob at the bike shop - trike puncture - we passed a busker crumpled up on the pavement. He was sitting on the ground with his legs crossed and his guitar resting on his lap, which was fine, but then he was folded over on top of his guitar, which wasn't.
Beside him was a single NHS crutch and a can of beer. Or it might have been cider. I'm not good with alcohol brand names and I didn't taste it to check, either.
I walked past, and looked around, and went back, and told the girls to stay still, watched him closely to confirm that he was breathing, and shook his shoulder gently and roared loudly in his ear "HEY! HELLO! ARE YOU OK?" and when it was obvious that he wasn't waking up I took out my phone and called an ambulance.
The first thing the call taker said was "Where do you want the ambulance sent?"
... which surprised me, because I read http://www.neenaw.co.uk/ regularly.
So I told the call taker what I'd found and that the patient was definitely breathing, and then he asked if there was anyone who could lie the patient down in the recovery position, and I asked the gaggle of concerned onlookers who had assembled after I stopped, and one woman said "I think I know how to do that," and she started to move the patient, who woke up, and immediately started to play the guitar. So I crouched down and shouted at him - he wasn't answering the gaggle's polite tones, "Are you ok? do you want an ambulance?" and he said no.
I said to the call-handler, "Cancel everything, he's woken up, he's fine."
He checked; "Are you sure?"
"Yes," I said, "Less than five minutes ago he didn't respond to me at all even when I shook him and now you can hear him playing the guitar."
"Is that him?!" asked the call-handler, obviously laughing.
I had to give my name, and then I left, gathered my children - whom I'd been herding while on the phone, they were not model sitting-still-izens today - and went to find Rob.
Beside him was a single NHS crutch and a can of beer. Or it might have been cider. I'm not good with alcohol brand names and I didn't taste it to check, either.
I walked past, and looked around, and went back, and told the girls to stay still, watched him closely to confirm that he was breathing, and shook his shoulder gently and roared loudly in his ear "HEY! HELLO! ARE YOU OK?" and when it was obvious that he wasn't waking up I took out my phone and called an ambulance.
The first thing the call taker said was "Where do you want the ambulance sent?"
... which surprised me, because I read http://www.neenaw.co.uk/ regularly.
So I told the call taker what I'd found and that the patient was definitely breathing, and then he asked if there was anyone who could lie the patient down in the recovery position, and I asked the gaggle of concerned onlookers who had assembled after I stopped, and one woman said "I think I know how to do that," and she started to move the patient, who woke up, and immediately started to play the guitar. So I crouched down and shouted at him - he wasn't answering the gaggle's polite tones, "Are you ok? do you want an ambulance?" and he said no.
I said to the call-handler, "Cancel everything, he's woken up, he's fine."
He checked; "Are you sure?"
"Yes," I said, "Less than five minutes ago he didn't respond to me at all even when I shook him and now you can hear him playing the guitar."
"Is that him?!" asked the call-handler, obviously laughing.
I had to give my name, and then I left, gathered my children - whom I'd been herding while on the phone, they were not model sitting-still-izens today - and went to find Rob.