Well I'm just back from an absolute cracker of a weekend. Every year in St. John Ambulance we go down to the rebel county for a weekend in March and this year things were spiced up a little bit!
First of all the trip nearly didn't happen for a few reasons. The first being our cadet leadrs coudn't go and we were told we weren't going to be going, however, Clontarf's Cadet Leader who happens to be our very sound superintendent (and the guy who trained me as a CFR) said he would bring us. So naturally i was delighted.
Second thing to screw up our plans happened on the day we were supposed to be going! I headed into school that morning all excited and buzzing to go to get a phone call from my mam as i stood at the gates of the school to say that the lovely staff of Bus Éireann have decided to strike and that because of this, all trains to Kent Train Station, Cork were cancelled. For those of you who don't know me, i'm an extremely stressful person, and hearing this 6 hours before I was supposed to go is my worst nightmare. So naturally I panicked and called my Cadet Leaders, I emailed the Superintendent wondering what the hell we are going to do. Thankfully, our prayers were answered and a bus had been arranged for us instead. So, panic was over!
Friday:
We met at Heuston Station at 17:00 with our sister division Clontarf and our good mates Cabinteely to get the bus to Cork. Unfortunately getting the bus increased the journey time by a considerable amount of time. Although I hate travelling and in particular buses, I love road trips with my mates, so more time on the bus for me = more craic. We arrived at Cork at approx 21:30 to find that we would't be sleeping rough in any shape or form. We'd be staying in the Clayton which is a really fancy 4 star hotel in the city. When we arrive we were given our room keys and assigned our room mate. We then had a promotions ceremony where many members were promoted to Lance Corporal, Corporal and even Sergeant. That night we got dominos for dinner and chilled in my room which was like a penthouse apartment.
Saturday:
We were up at the crack of dawn as we had competitions on that day so we needed to get up and get showered and uniformed as early as possible. Breakfast was nice, everyone was tired but cheerful and there were a few nerves circulating for the comps. At 9 we all piled on to the bus to make it to Glanmire for the competitions. All teams were assigned a letter so we'd know what place everyone would be going. Lucan got F (which is great because you can be waiting for hours and hours to go which is awful). Everyone is in teams of 4 and Lucan would be competing for the Barrett Cup. After 3 hours of waiting anxiously in the waiting room our team letter was called to go. Our team scenario was easy enough but it's always a challenge. We had two casualties, two teenagers had been electrocuted while using power tools. One female had suffered a Partial burn to the hand and a full thickness burn to the leg. She also had shock. Our second casualty was a male with broken ribs, a sprained ankle and a fractured cheekbone. He was also suffering from shock. (I'd just like to make it clear that Clinical Shock is when your organs begin to fail due to loss of body fluids, usually more than a pint) We managed the scenario quite well with fantastic feedback from the judges and members of the public so we were happy out. Unfortunately we didn't place however we came 4th with one point away from 3rd so we were really happy with that.
That evening we went out for a cheeky Nandos with Clontarf and Cabinteely. From there we got the bus to a roller disco which was some craic. I had never been before and i'm awful at ice skating so I was dreading going. I turned out to be decent...ish. We spent the night there and I may have fallen a dozen times or so but it was a great night regardless. We then went back to the hotel and chilled in my room for the night. Unfortunately my room-mate broke his arm while we were there so we had to do a bit of swapping around with room mates.
Sunday: We had another early start on Sunday but the trip wasn't over yet! Our leaders arranged for us to do a day out. So we got the bus to Cobh, it was a beautiful day and the sun was splitting the rocks but we didn't know where we were going yet. We were congregated around the dock where suddenly we heard screaming from Military Soldiers, it was then that we realized they were shouting at us! A trip had been arranged for us to do military camp. But there was a twist. It was on an island. Spike Island. We did military fall in and were assigned names (using the phonetic alphabet; I was Bravo). We were then split into three groups as we had to get a navy speed boat to the island.Which was deadly!
The journey was about ten minutes but it was great craic and we didn't get wet at all.
When we got to the island we were given a task to transport a 150KG rope and 2 casualties on stretchers across the island. We worked as a team together and did it successfully. I also want to point out that anytime someone crossed their arms but their hands in pockets we all had to drop and do 5 push ups and if we didn't scream WE LOVE PUSH UPS, we'd have to d it again. The next task was even harder. We had to transport the rope and casualties up a very steep hill within two minutes and fall in, if we don't do it in time we had to bring it down the hill and try it again. Its easier said than done and by god it is very tiring. We failed the first time and had to do it again but were successful the second time .
Our final challenge of the day was an obstacle course that was a replica of one used to train world war I soldiers, we had to transport a casualty on a stretcher through this course without letting it touch the ground as fast as possible. It was great craic overall.
On the way back there was a slight issue... The sea had become very very choppy, in fact it was so choppy that we were told we would have to wear waterproof clothes and were given full body rain jackets. I sat on the middle right on the way back thinking it wouldn't get me too wet, well how wrong was I. It's safe to say I have never gotten so wet on a boat journey in my life. I was smashed full force by every single wave that came in contact with the boat and blown out of it by the wind. I got off the boat dripping wet and slightly traumatized haha.
We then got changed and got the bus back to Dublin.
Overall it was an absolutely fantastic trip and without a doubt one of the best Cork Trips I've ever been on. As usual I made loads of friends and it was sad to say goodbye to some people who would be leaving to move up to adult division soon. I can't wait for next year!
