Thankfully my hubby did not and so I woke up this morning with a bunch of red roses on my bed and a trail of little love notes all over the place - in the shower, in the fridge etc.
How cute is that???
Monday, 15 February 2016
Valentines Day Love
I must admit - I did forget Valentines Day.
Thankfully my hubby did not and so I woke up this morning with a bunch of red roses on my bed and a trail of little love notes all over the place - in the shower, in the fridge etc.
How cute is that???
Thankfully my hubby did not and so I woke up this morning with a bunch of red roses on my bed and a trail of little love notes all over the place - in the shower, in the fridge etc.
How cute is that???
Malta
Well Malta has not changed ! Still its bureaucratic permit preoccupied self!
First bit of "welcome to malta" - the airport trolley dispenser. Everywhere in the world you get your money back when you return the trolley. Not here my friend. You paid 2 Euro's, but you only get back 1 :-)
First bit of "welcome to malta" - the airport trolley dispenser. Everywhere in the world you get your money back when you return the trolley. Not here my friend. You paid 2 Euro's, but you only get back 1 :-)
I managed to do the required test for becoming a "Range Conducting Officer" so we can run shooting training here if needs be in future.
We have run some courses in Malta and though frustrating given the Maltese penchant for moving the goal posts on anything they can make a quick buck on - we can run courses here.
We also like that it has the best weather in the world and that's no lie given that we left snow and sleet and arrived here to 20-degree mild T- Shirt bliss mid-European Winter!
The view from the flat sucked big time!
The public transport is great though driving is scary, in a bus you are in the biggest vehicle on the road so it is all good.
It is a peaceful and boring safe little corner of Europe close enough to go and ski or visit the cultural centers of Europe.
The fact that they drive on the left and speak English in Malta - although both of those are said with a pinch of salt - makes it a bit like SA.
I have researched the kids education costs here especially University and it is not too bad.
We are also looking at renting a flat to have a place to stay when in Europe and also for the kids to stay if they attend University here.
Wednesday, 3 February 2016
Whirlwind of the UK
Hotels: All around London!
Jeepers what a whirlwind 72 hours. The last 3 days we had meetings all around London and so we spent every night at a new hotel, lugging our baggage in and out. What an exhausting process.
We had a meeting with a Graduate of ours who is now the Clinical Director of a 400 vehicle strong Ambulance Service - they have been providing quite a bit of employment for other Graduates and so it was interesting to have a look at their operations and finally put some faces to people we've only been communicating with via email.
Mini Response Car used for Beach Events
Monday was also the day we met with QualSafe Awards, a new kid on the block, who have developed new pre-hospital care qualifications to take over from the ones which have now been discontinued by another organisation.
Good news is that QualSafe seems to be more open and relevant so we're going to give it a go and see how their programs work out. Translated: Mel will be spending the next few weeks stuck behind her computer working these awards into our current Courses!
Tuesday was reserved for another Paramedic Graduate. He is the interim COO of a General Hospital (that's what he does, he fixes poor performing Hospitals) and they are keen to bring us in to upskill their current Emergency Staff. Exciting project and one I hope comes off the ground!
Last day we spent visiting David Halliwell. Now Dave is equally as crazy as Timm and his passion is EMS Education. We've known Dave for over 10 years now, he's come to SA a few times and every time we come together, sparks and ideas seem to fly.
His latest project is the building of a dedicated EMS training centre west of London and we went to see the start of it.
One big part of this will be "Immersive Training" i.e. training candidates in surroundings which resemble their future working environment - alongside a busy road at a car crash etc. The way they do is with high tech laser and beaming technology as well as sound and smell. You can smell the patients vomit! Yuck.
So we've had a few busy days and I'm looking forward to Malta
Jeepers what a whirlwind 72 hours. The last 3 days we had meetings all around London and so we spent every night at a new hotel, lugging our baggage in and out. What an exhausting process.
We had a meeting with a Graduate of ours who is now the Clinical Director of a 400 vehicle strong Ambulance Service - they have been providing quite a bit of employment for other Graduates and so it was interesting to have a look at their operations and finally put some faces to people we've only been communicating with via email.
Mini Response Car used for Beach Events
Monday was also the day we met with QualSafe Awards, a new kid on the block, who have developed new pre-hospital care qualifications to take over from the ones which have now been discontinued by another organisation.
Good news is that QualSafe seems to be more open and relevant so we're going to give it a go and see how their programs work out. Translated: Mel will be spending the next few weeks stuck behind her computer working these awards into our current Courses!
Tuesday was reserved for another Paramedic Graduate. He is the interim COO of a General Hospital (that's what he does, he fixes poor performing Hospitals) and they are keen to bring us in to upskill their current Emergency Staff. Exciting project and one I hope comes off the ground!
Last day we spent visiting David Halliwell. Now Dave is equally as crazy as Timm and his passion is EMS Education. We've known Dave for over 10 years now, he's come to SA a few times and every time we come together, sparks and ideas seem to fly.
His latest project is the building of a dedicated EMS training centre west of London and we went to see the start of it.
One big part of this will be "Immersive Training" i.e. training candidates in surroundings which resemble their future working environment - alongside a busy road at a car crash etc. The way they do is with high tech laser and beaming technology as well as sound and smell. You can smell the patients vomit! Yuck.
So we've had a few busy days and I'm looking forward to Malta