Too tired for words after HBOS...

And now to write two blog entries on the events of this past weekend, despite the fact that I am absolutely shattered now that I've finally slowed down to a stop. If things don't quite make sense, or there are any spelling mistakes which go unnoticed, I apologise in advance, and ask you to have some pity.
I shall begin with the first duty I covered with the Red Cross; a large cross country mountain bike event known as HBOS.

Setting off on the Friday evening, we travelled through to Aviemore for our briefing. Firstly we left from Elgin in one of our fellow first aider's car, and scooted through to Inverness where the Red Cross depot is for all of our various vehicles. There, we picked up Red Tango One, an old Ford transit mini bus, and continued on through to Avimore. But before I go on, I'm firstly going to explain about the interior design of this particular transit. It has three seats in the front - one driver (obviously) and two passenger. In the back there are a further four seats, all placed in seemingly random positions around the bus, with enough room to squeeze in a trolly bed. Upon this trolly bed we shoved our luggage, and because there was five of us in total, there was a lot of luggage. Therefore, it was a particularly interesting journey, because everytime we went round a tight bend in the road, or round a roundabout, everything tended to fall from this trolly bed and roll across the floor of the vehicle. This meant that myself and my pal had to lean across from our seats and hold everything in place before it went tumbling through the far side of the transit. I imagine it must've looked quite amusing to a driver in the car behind who could see us through the rear windows, with the two of us stretching to save ourselves from being crushed beneath the weight of everybody's personal gear.
Anyhoo, we eventually arrived in Aviemore at the MacDonald Highland Resort Hotel, which brough on many memories of the MacDonald Hotel at the Manchester National Assembly, but that's a previous tale we won't delve into again.
After a quick trip down to a local chippie to buy some supper, we arrived back at the hotel just in the nick of time for our briefing.
The resort was equally as fancy - and the food equally as, well, crap - and we got through our briefing before anyone fell asleep, amazingly.

The next day was event day. An early start (5 bloody o'clock in the morning) should've meant people falling asleep in their breakfasts (I know I nearly was, after only five hours of sleep) however I suppose people were kept awake by the excitement and anticipation of that day's forthcoming challenge. The previous night for myself and four fellow members had been spent in a total stranger's house, thanks to the Field Hospital nurse finding us accomodation there (obviously the nurse knew the woman, but to us she was a stranger). It had been an interesting sleeping arrangement (hence the five hours sleep) and I think we'll just leave it at that!
Anyway, I digress. That morning, after breakfast, at 7.30, myself and another Elgin Red Cross loon were abandoned in the middle of Rothiemurchus woods, at a watering station, waiting for the casualties to roll in - literally. We were there for a good few hours before we finally saw any action, and even then it was short lived. I'm not complaining; we never hope for any casualties, and it's a good sign that we become bored because it means that everyone is either fit and healthy and not needing our help, or some other First Aid patrol has picked them up further up or down the line.
Our first casualty was a young man who had knocked the scab off a previous biking wound and just wanted something to cover it up and clot the bleeding. It was quite a nasty wee leakage actually, but an alcohol-free wipe and a swab stuck down with some Micropore tape soon put a stop to that!
A wee while later, we received another casualty, this time asking if we had any heat pads or such that he could put on sore joints. We didn't have heat pads, but heat spray had the same effect. It's clever stuff actually, I'm not sure how it works, but the fact that it helps relieve pain is god enough for me.
Following this we had another bloke who'd already received first aid treatment from a previous stop, but the swab and Micropore tape combination wasn't working for him. So he removed it (he gave himself a thorough leg-waxing in doing so) and I bandaged it up instead, which seemed to do the trick.
Finally, another man wanted a heat pad, or the equivalent, for aching joints. Out came the heat spray yet again, and that was another happy customer.
In between all this, the rain thundered down, the wind blew a gale, it became ice-cold, and my colleague and I froze our high-visibility-uniform-covered asses off.
Finally, the two fellow first aiders who had originally dropped us off came back to collect us in Red Echo 2 (Elgin's very own Emergency Response Vehicle) and after helping a guy change his punctured bike tyre using our tough-cuts (101 things to do with tough-cuts; they're not just for first aid!) we found a chance to leave and drive down to Loch Morlich where the Field Hospital (Red Hotel) was located. After our first six or so hours out in the freezing cold weather conditions of water station 4, we were allowed to regain warmth in the hospital and do a spot of first aid there too.
Of course, on the way there, the four of us decided that we really deserved a decent hot beverage after all of our work out in the cold (especially myself and my colleague). So we had a very quick pit stop to grab a warm cuppa. That's as much as I'm going to say about that; if you want to know the full story, and you're not my Service Manager, then please ask and I'll tell you. Until then...

...The Field Hospital was a lot warmer than the great outdoors, and dryer too, so personally I was very happy to remain there for the rest of my duty. A few casualties came and went, but as the day wore on, they became less frequent.
The rest, as they say, is history. Some of us finished at around seven o'clock (myself included) and a part from Raffia, those of us who arrived in Red Tango One, left in Red Tango One.
We dropped the transit back at the Depot, along with Red Echo 2 oddly enough, and picked up our driver's original car. Then it was the long drive back to Elgin, and the warm comfy bed which I knew was waiting for me back home, coupled with the dry, cosy pyjamas that would replace my wet, dirty, and now ripped, Red Cross boiler suit.