TinnerStreet

According to the calendar, yesterday was Thursday 5th November, but to my mind, it was that most important day of the year, Bonfire Night.   Bonfire Night sticks in my mind because a few years ago, when I was between the ages of, say, six to 14, it was that special night when we kids had carefully scrounged any fallen branches, some of which had had to be persuaded to fall with a few hefty swipes of an axe, and any other odd pieces of wood which were not tied down, or otherwise marked clearly as possibly belonging to someone from the neigbouring streets and terraces around OUR field.  Usually we had been scrounging that wood for at least four weeks before the great day, carefully hiding our stash in any available allotment shed.  You see, the kids near us were not what you would call ‘law abiding’ when it came to pinching some other kids’ stash of  bonfire wood, and if we were not very careful, they would pinch our stash, forcing us, I mean, other kids, to steal it back in a raid after dark.

There was one year when we had to manage without an effigy of Guy Faulkes, which normally sat on the very top of the fire, which would normally be about 12 feet in the air.   In that particular year, we had been unable to find an effigy for the top of the tree – you know, something like the fairy which sits on top of your Christmas Tree, but she did not get burnt to a cinder.  Now in that year, our Jimmy was the proud owner of a toy rabbit made out of wool, and he had had it for quite some years.  I had spent quite some time before the great day trying to persuade him that he was by then too old to bother about a bloody toy rabbit made out of wool, and eventually, they day before Bonfire Night, he had promised that we could stick his rabbit on top of the tree.   Mind you I had told him that if he made this supreme sacrifice, he would get a super duper Christmas Present from Mam and Dad.  All went well on the day with the rabbit sitting on top of the tree, and Jimmy putting a brave face on the proceedings.  It came to put a light to the fire, and just after it had been lit, a small but fast streak of lightning hurtled across about 20 yards of field, ran up one side of the tree, grabbed the rabbit and disappeared down the opposite side.  I think that it was my little brother, Jimmy, but as I could never find that damn rabbit after that I could not be sure.

Anyway, all this as nothing whatsoever to do with yesterday, yesterday.

As I should have pointed out at the head of this small article, or blog, yesterday was the day when 14 of we Radio Operators at Volunteer Marine Rescue Southport were called by the Powers That Be to attend at the Base to take a First Aid Course conducted by the Queensland Ambulance Service.

We started the course at 8.30 in the morning, and worked steadily until 4.00pm, when we were all absolutely knackered worn out.  I mean, we had only had a morning ‘smoko’ break, a lunch break, at which I had only managed to eat two large sausage rolls and a sticky piece of cheesecake , and then an afternoon ‘smoko’.  So you can imagine that I was very tired and hungry by the time I got home.    And it was tiring, as there were 198 pages in the First Aid Manual we worked from.  I wonder if those books in Spain are called ‘Manuels’?

Anyway, we learned how to administer CPR, mouth to mouth, though we only used models – no, plastic ones, dummy! – tying our colleagues up in bandages, stopping bleeding, managing fractures, and all sorts of other first aidie things.   At the conclusion we had to answer a bunch of questions based on the day, with the pass mark being 90%.  I think that we all passed, though we shall not get our certificates for two weeks.  Why do I think that we passed?  Well, we all completed a page of the manual which told the examiners just how good the instructor was, just for a little safety net, if you like.  I will let you know how I went.

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