Two Days In Yeovil

I've just returned home after the second day spent in the Morrisons store in Yeovil. Yeovil for those not in the know, is a town about 26 miles from Taunton where I live. It is mainly known as the site of Westland, a company whose factories take up a good deal of space on one side of the town, and who manufacture helicopters. In particular, military helicopters such as the EH101 and the Apache.

I was sent there along with two other employees of the store: Kath West, and Jane (I honestly cannot for the life of me remember her last name!), to learn the basics of First Aid. I had been volunteered for this duty by our stores Personnel dept, who needed someone to make up the numbers. The course started at 9am, so to be sure of getting there in plenty of time, we left the Taunton store in Kath's shaky little car at 7:30am on both days. We got there 45 mins early yesterday and today, and so got to relax in their canteen before hand. We didn't get to warm up though, as the Yeovil store canteen is bloody freezing!

The course was attended by another 8 Morrisons employees, from the Bridport and Glastonbury stores, for a total of 11 students. Our tutor was... dammit his name eludes me as well, but he did look strikingly similar to an actor by the name of Joshua Malina, which was a bit odd. The course was good, with a variety of presentation styles ranging from demonstrations on volunteers to some truly gruesome video clips and photos (the short clip of the skateboarder breaking his leg is gonna take a while to forget that's for sure!). I did find myself almost nodding off at a couple points yesterday, but that was due to the utter lack of sleep I'd gotten on Tuesday night. Thankfully Pepsi Max and willpower kept me awake!

I have enjoyed the couple days training, and I passed my evaluation at the end of it, demonstrating my skills at CPR, Bandaging and the Recovery Position. So I've got my little green badge and the green pouch with its belt to wear from Saturday when I am back in work. Still, while I have the knowledge now to help someone who has been injured, I truly hope I never actually have cause to need it.