Hello from the other side...

I had to call my first blog 'Hello from the other side', I just had to.

So, what a blast! The past few weeks have been crazy, insane, fast-paced and now I'm paying the price with a lovely, London COLD! Runny nose, dry and tickly cough and the constant feeling that I'm about to sneeze.

I'll start at the beginning to get you all caught up. On the plane, both legs of the flight, we had two empty seats next to us in our line of four, so William lay down for the 13hr leg and slept, and I got to stretch out for the second half; how lucky was that?!! Landed on a Tuesday arvo, cold, grey and threatening to rain. That's typical weather here though. Back home it would be called 'threatening to rain' type of sky, but here it's called 'day time'. As soon as we got to William's Aunt's (Debbie) place we all set off to get a contract phone plan, all thanks to Debbie. We then went to Marks and Spencer to buy warm clothes. And did I need them! I bought 3 warm tops and a great coat, lined with fuzzy wool. William had to buy some jumpers too, and some trousers because his had a MASSIVE hole in the crotch area. They say trousers here instead of pants. Here, pants means underwear. We're getting taught at training a few local phrases or words and what they mean so that we can somewhat understand out patients, and if we say to someone 'pull your pants down' to look at their leg... well we'll be in for a great surprise. I also bought thermals, which I put in the wash at the end of that week, which I still haven't got back because we didn't wash them early enough and had to leave. And they're going into 'summer' here so all the stores and stopped stocking them.
The next day, Debbie's friend dropped us off in Oxford where I had to pick up my visa. It was freezing that day! Oxford is nice; small cobblestone streets, old buildings everywhere, then again I just described most places in the country. I think it was the Thursday where William, Debbie and I went to Welwyn (pronounced Wellen) to set up a bank account. Thanks to Debbie providing a Proof of Address letter for me and William already having an account, I managed to stick my name onto his and so now, no bank issues. We also had a look around the part of London I'll be working in. We popped into a real estate agents office and had a chat to see if there was anything going, turns out there was one small flat for rent, and agent was still there showing someone else and that we could go have a look. It was essentially a converted garage. A long, thin flat, connected to a big house, low roof, and they wanted too much for it. We left. I was on SpareRoom.com and RightMove.com all day every day.
Oh my goodness gracious! The water here is terrible! It's so heavy with calcium. I went to make a cup of tea, opened the top of the kettle and saw white deposits inside all over and a metal scourer was sitting there. I thought Debbie was cleaning it out and left it there but no, it's to help somewhat clean the water and keep the calcium in the kettle and not in the water coming out. My skin is dry every day, my hair is oily quicker (if that was even possible) and a little thicker and my face is just the same.
The stress William and I were in was constant. We had a lot of fun too, don't get me wrong, but we were busy all day, every day sorting everything out for me. Where I was going to live was the worst of it, the most unsettling thing. We had some really nice dinners, went on nice little trips, like out to Grantchester and Cambridge, and bought a car. With my shifts ending at odd hours, even late into the night like 2am, driving home with a massive bag that screams London Ambulance Service, it was the safest option. After talking about what I needed and what we could afford, we decided on a smart car. It's fantastic, compact, great for parking in these streets, second hand, good condition, fuel efficient plus it's diesel.
We moved into the Croydon Park Hotel the night before training... there's no fridge and the lighting was shocking and the bed was two singles pushed together. But it is comfortable and they change the towels every day so that's nice. William studies his biology everyday in either the room or library down the road. It's so, well, not so much unsafe, but there are so many homeless people sleeping and washing and just living in the toilets there and the quiet areas that we couldn't study and actually caught a cold, which he lovingly gave to me.
Training is fantastic. It's daunting, knowing that their graduate period here is only 300 hours and then I'll be the one calling the shots on every shift as I'll be working with a technician and not another paramedic. They're so understaffed here that LAS is hiring hundreds of Australian paramedics until their uni's can pump out most qualified professionals. Three other people from my class at uni are now in my training group, which is nice, it's helping me transition from being surrounded by friendly faces, to knowing just a few and then shortly to none at all. We're learning all about how they work here, what their protocols are, where they send their patients, what equipment they have and how they work. What I am not looking forward to is the manual handling. The lifting of patients up stairs if needed. Back home, paramedics have an almost no lift policy, but here, it's yeah you have to lift. They're so short staffed here that there's never a crew to come help you out if it's 'just a lift'. Not even Fire-ies.
I get up at 6.15 or 6.30am every day (depending if I need to wash my hair), shower, read all the messages I get from you all, then I get dressed, go down to break at 7. I come back and pack my bag and go downstairs to walk to the training centre by 7.35. It takes just over half an hour to walk there, we can tram but sometimes it's just nice to walk. And as we don't have a fridge in the hotel room we can't keep fresh food, so if we want to buy fresh lunch then we tram. We finish at 4-4.30 and then mostly walk back. William and I are normally hungry by now and knackered that we eat dinner either at the pub or order in or eat in the buffet in the hotel. We study a bit or watch a little tv and then we're asleep by 8 or 9 or 10. So I'm really sorry for not replying to you all at length, but I hope that when I settle into my working routine I'll have days off to write home and Skype you all and send you my love.
Last week William and I went to two places to look at a room to rent. The first was a couple who was renting out a room and ensuite bathroom in their house, they were friendly but didn't really like the idea of William coming and staying a few nights every month or so when he visits. So we said no. The second place was a woman who lives in an apartment complex. She's mid thirties, Irish, an accountant, loves shopping and going to pubs with live music and drinking. Natalie. She had no problem with William staying over. She seems amazing so I said yes. I move in the day after I finish my training. It's a great little home. My bedroom is quite large and I can't wait to put all my things in it.
We spent last weekend doing odd jobs that needed to be done and going to Portobello Road Market on Saturday. Now, the last time I went was in 2012 with Berni and Jade and that was on a Friday. There were a few food stalls then and a few cheap jewellery ones but that was about it. Saturdays are chockers! In the film Notting Hill, Hugh Grant's character says that some of the items they sell are genuine (they really are) and some not quite so genuine (completely agree, absolute crap). We had a ball! I bought some Harris Tweed gloves that I'm in love with and an old stamping box thing to put all my jewellery and nicknacks. I know exactly where to go to shop for William, and I'm gathering lovely little ideas for Berni as well (she's smiling now, I know it). The place is buzzing. There's hundreds of stalls, and they retreat into the buildings there as well. The whole street is set up for those Saturdays and the antiques part is the best. We spent 2 hours there easily, and we didn't even see half the stalls.
Last night William and I trained it up to Scotland for Easter, but it seems everyone in London had the same idea. We had paid for a ticket, but they don't stop selling tickets once the seats are all full, they just keep selling them. And you can book seats too so even though we booked the tickets last week we had to stand in the hallway outside of the first class toilet for over 1.5 hours before enough people got off that there was enough room to sit down... on the floor in the hallway outside the first class toilet. Thank god there was this group of 8 friends, most of them British, and gay, they drank all the way but made the 5hr trip bearable. They had champagne, wine, bear, cider and southern comfort. They played Heads Up game (charades app on a tablet) and were so happy and cheerful that even though I was coughing the entire time with loads of snot dripping out my nose, William and I had a great trip. We came up to spend Easter with William's Mum and brother, his sister was meant to be in Ireland with a friend but decided to stay back and surprise us as well walked in the door. He was so happy and it's really nice to see him with his siblings.
And that brings me to where I am now. Sitting on the couch watching The Vicar of Dibley which is on TV (it's fate, it's meant to be, they knew I'd be needing to watch something I love which I type out this massive thesis). I've had to pause a few times to get more tissues and pee but I think I'm finally done.

I hope you're all feeling a little better reading about my adventures here in Britain. I'll try to write once a month to keep you all posted and please let me know how you all are. Send me photos, I love them. And videos.

Love you all. Especially Berni. I miss you the most. Don't cry for me, Argentina, because I assure you I've shed more tears (and with all the fluid coming out of my nose at the moment, there're nothing left to come out of my eyes).

TTFN (ta ta for now)