Thursday – Ambulances don’t break down do they??

How I was looking forward to today. It was going to be a driving course, but with a difference. It promised to be a very relaxed day, driving around Perth, looking at sights, and visiting various locations. There wasn't going to be any pressure. How great is it going to be and then we had arranged a little end of the course get together in the early evening.

Off I went to the Training school, to pick an ambulance up, and take it to the company that were doing our driver training. The instructor and I had a little disagreement about what we were expected to do if we came across an accident while out and about (highly like I think). For the record – I thought we should stop and render assistance, and he said we wouldn't because we were there to learn about driving.

That didn't really get me started in the right mood, but I tried to release the tension, and throughout the day it was never mentioned again. We did come across an accident, and as I was driving, we did stop. That was the end of that. (Me Right/Other People Wrong Again – Why does it always seem to be that way)

Anyway, after we stopped at one of the hospitals – Royal Perth Hospital, which is the main hospital in the city and is one of the main Accident and Emergency Department. It was to see where we needed to drop people off who have had the misfortune of riding in my Ambulance.

"Let's go get lunch!" was the request from the instructor. Rudi – his turn to drive – go in, and tried to start the ambulance. I have seen more life in a fossil than in the ambulance. We tried everything (yes, including looking in the manual – I learned my lesson about that a couple of weeks ago), but nothing.
Rudi looked at the engine. I asked him if he knew what was wrong, and he said "I know as much about an engine, as you know about being a paramedic" (as you can tell, we have built up a good rapport). Eventually the RAC came out and gave us a jumpstart, and we took the ambulance to the workshops so that they could look at it.

To make a short story very short, our ambulance was proper broken, and we had to swap it for another, but there wasn't one available for a while. (More waiting around, but you didn't hear us complain.) By the time we got the replacement, guess what...

Yes, it was home time. Can't complain about not seeing much, and really didn't have my heart in it anyway after the little difference of opinion first thing in the morning.

I went off to the beach after having a little get together in a local restaurant and sat and watched the sun set, and did really miss home for the first time for a week or so. It does get easier, but not much. Another day that started with so much promise, didn't end on such an upbeat note. Tomorrow will be better, because it is the last day of the course.