Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Doing it....Northern Ireland style

I finally hit the days I was scheduled to be at a station. I was scheduled to work the Red Watch at the Westland station (pronounced wes-lun) in downtown Belfast. Their day shifts are 9am-6pm (9 hours) and their night shift 6pm-9am. (15 hours) They'll work 2 day shifts in a row and then two night shifts followed by two days off. I discovered the daily schedule looks something like this.... morning tea - followed by "elevenzies" (scones with tea) at 11am, lunch is 1pm (with tea) and afternoon snack (cake and custard with tea) I haven't told anyone but I don't really like tea...

My station has a single "pump" (fire engine) with 5 guys. After our first round of tea another crew showed up with a "vema" (ladder truck) and offered to take me up to look around. Not a bad view from 33 meters up (I have no idea how high that is - I just smile and nod)
They also host a type of training camp for kids who have gotten in trouble with the police. They said I looked "important," I said "I am" ( I just wanted to quote scripture to them - right?)
The guys also took me through a drive around the city and tried to explain the history... The city has a "peace wall" which helps keep the sides out of trouble...
They also had me go through some confined space training. Let's just say I got "confined"
We didn't have any scheduled activities in the evening so we headed back to the cottages to get to bed early - yippee! But we did get a treat after a storm passed through


4 comments:

  1. At last we get to see pictures of you, Brian. Love your smile and nod! Praise be to God for His never-ending promises! Jane

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  2. So glad you had fun being confined and seeing from high up in the sky. What is the Lord doing in all your hearts and minds?

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  3. 33m = 108.3ft. Nice butt shot btw.

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  4. A few observations: Your head looks really small from a ground shot, you succeeded at getting a "butt shot" on here, and WOW! What a beautiful double rainbow!!! =)

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