St John Ambulance
I originally applied to join St John Ambulance a year ago, but, after completing all the paperwork, I managed to miss the training. It took me until a few months ago to finally get sorted out.
The training was at Edmonton, which was slightly awkward to get to from work: cycling, it meant adding 50% to my daily ride. There’s a two-day course covering basic first aid (CPR, severe bleeding, etc.) and also radio usage, hygiene, and so on. On top of that, there’s eight or nine weeks of two-hour sessions covering slightly more advanced topics: strokes, heart attacks, seizures.
After that finished, we transferred to various units, so I’m now at Walthamstow. I’ve still got to do a final test before I can go on duty, which is currently scheduled for the 11th of July. I also have to have my ID issued, for which I’m just waiting on HR to sort out the paperwork.
In other news, I moved out of Hackney a little early, and I’ve now got a studio flat in Leytonstone. It’s slightly further from central London (and work) as the crow flies, but more convenient for public transport, so travel time is about the same.