19th - 21st September 2011

I thought I'd cover the last 3 days in this update. Monday my usual No. 2 assistant for the session, Carolyn, was back at the Centre after a holiday - it was good to see her again. Our session went well, and included the new starter from last week, who had her first 24 ft dive. She did fine. The rest of the usual Members were present and accounted for and the session went off without any problems.

Tuesday my regular partner Josie was away and so I was joined by Blanca, a Spanish lady who has volunteered on reception for a couple of years at the Centre, but has now decided to also train as an Oxygen Operator. I think she will make a good No. 2 operator, she must just relax though and stop worrying about every little thing. :) We had a few problems with the New Starter on this session, who experienced pain in her ears, and so the pressurization ended up slowing to a crawl and we took nearly 20 minutes to reach 24 ft. It does happen sometimes though, and there was no next session following, so it didn't matter that we were running late.

Then to today - I had a session with Jean, good to see her again, and another session with Blanca, who is doing fine. The 2 dives went very well. It was quite busy at the centre, with lots of people coming and going, and the phones ringing frequently. I think there is now a 4 month backlog of people waiting for O2 Treatment now. I must remember to have a word with Nicki because I am sure there must be a way to speed things along... I do have an idea, but we'll see what she thinks... I missed Margaret today, who normally sits with me on the second dive, and we have a nice chat - I will catch up with her in a fortnight.

Time goes so quickly - I could hardly believe it when I got an e-mail on Monday evening about this year's Staff & Volunteers X-Mas Meal... Time to get it book, it turns out, already..! So Mandy and I will be going and look forward to it. It falls on my birthday this year, so it will be my birthday dinner as well as the Centre's Xmas dinner! :))

Best wishes to all, I'll come back and write some more soon -

Rod

Another New Starter

So another Tuesday comes around, and this week we had the next New Starter begin her O2 Treatment with us. We had a few minor problems but nothing to worry about. Firstly the session began about 10 minutes later than the time it should have started - we are now thinking of asking new starters to arrive even earlier, so that this won't happen in future. There are a lot of things to go over and explain, which Paul M very expertly does, before a newcomer's first session. Then the new lady had a few ear problems caused by the pressurization of the chamber on our descent - this is very common of course, but it did mean that we took almost 20 minutes to arrive at 16.5 feet. Finally, on trying to breathe through her brand new mask she found it was impossible. The oxygen was turned on, and I had checked the pipes beforehand. Paul examined the mask and found that one of the holes (which the O2 inlet pipe connects to) had not been made properly, the hole had not been pressed out when the mask was made (we assume) We do have a spare mask in the chamber at all times, but luckily Paul was able to fix the new mask. This will be investigated with the fairly new supplier we have.

All in all though, despite the little hiccups, our new starter had a good experience of her first 'dive' and is looking forward to continuing the treatment. I will see her again on Saturday morning for the 10:30 session. The other session today, though running quite late as a knock-on effect from the 11am dive, went well. I'm not back in till Saturday (think I just said that) when I will look forward to a doughnut and a cup of altogether nicer coffee :)

Off to feed the cats. Take care all -

Rod

Monday 12 September

What a windy day today! Most inconvenient for wearers of hats as I found out on the way in to the Centre today! I did something I haven't done for quite some time today - I covered an extra session as a No. 2 Operator. I sat in covering for Carolyn who is off on her holidays in warmer climes on the session immediately before my usual Monday dive. I sat with Arthur which was nice because I originally started as a volunteer at the Centre as his No. 2... so it was a bit like a flashback to 3 years ago!! We had a good chat whilst running the session.

Both sessions went very well. I was assisted by Ian as my No. 2 on the second dive, who is also great to chat with. Tomorrow I will go in also for two sessions, as there is a new starter beginning her initial 15 sessions. It is always nice to meet someone new and see how they get on with the Oxygen Treatment. Always we hope it will be of benefit to them. Nicki also took a long-ish phone call from someone asking about having O2 treatment with us at the Centre, and I couldn't help overhear that we have a 3 month waiting list... This is good news (well, not if you're on the waiting list I suppose!) as it shows people are finding out / hearing about us and our services!

The building work upstairs is now almost all finished, and so it should be a lot quieter at the Centre again from now on... The mental health charity 'Headway' will shortly be moving in upstairs and renting an office from HMSTC so that is good news. They will have to find somewhere to put their sign up outside the building - a simple enough thing in theory, however we have the Heritage Foundation in Letchworth who can potentially be very picky and stubborn about such things if they do not conform precisely to their criteria! :)

On that exciting note I shall bid you... bye for now! Back soon -

Rod

Into September...

Well, here we all are, now in September. Don't mean to be stating the obvious... just thinking how really quickly the year is passing by. Good news though at the Centre because the work on the upper level has been progressing well. I was upstairs today helping to move a few things about and I must say they have done a very good job. I am sure Nicki will like her new office once it's all finally carpeted and set up for her, and the new storage room up there is great. Nicki has been away all this week, but will return next week.

This was my last Friday at the Centre, possibly for some time, as Mike finally returns next week to take back his Friday dives from me. He has been away a long time off in a tropical paradise!! Hawaii for 4 months, no less... So unless I cover sessions, I won't be doing Fridays any more. I first took over Fridays from Eric, who had been at the centre for many years before I arrived there. Then after a while I handed the Friday over to Robert, but he only stayed around 10 months or so, so I ended up taking them back again. Then Mike took over for a few months before his extended break...

Well any way, the sessions today went well. I was with a relatively new no. 2 who had trained up over the past 4 or 5 weeks. The last day for many children of their Summer holidays today, there were 2 or 3 of them at the Centre who'd accompanied parents in and who seemed decidedly downbeat about the prospect of returning to school after I asked them. I know, I know... I shouldn't have even mentioned the dreaded 'S' word, the poor little ones... :)) (ha ha!)

Well, that's it for this installment. I am hoping to find out soon about taking over updating the website. I have some ideas I need to discuss with Charlene about it, so watch this space.

Take care all, my best wishes -

Rod