In the last week (more specifically, two days in a row), I’ve found myself using my best emergency situation skills. Both incidents were fairly minor in the end, but I like to think of myself as a (super) hero, so I channelled some calm and rational thoughts to help avoid too much drama.  

On Wednesday, Giggles Magoo and I were in an appointment with a health professional when what seemed out of nowhere, the health professional started seizing/fitting, collapsing to the ground, hitting her head quite badly in the process. Pretty random and unexpected and my first aid skills definitely came into practice. I was holding a fearful Giggles Magoo whilst somehow managing to turn the poor professional into the recovery position. When I yelled for help, I did my almighty best to sound urgent, but not panicked. Turns out, I scared everybody else in the building (including a whole heap of new mummas clutching at their newborns) while yelling out for assistance. Oops – when others arrived and the time was right to leave, I quietly took Giggles Magoo out of the room and we sat for a while, him snuggled in very closely stating “I want to stay out here with you forever”. His snuggles soothed my shaky nerves and gave me the courage to talk with him about what we saw. I won’t cover the discussion, but I’m pleased to say that the conversation we had proves be is turning into a sensitive, thoughtful and caring young fella. Proud much?!
(UPDATE: Turns out the health professional is ok and has returned to work)

The very next day, I was tapping away on the keyboard at work and audible gasps were being thrown out all through my office…someone had spotted in the apartment building across from us a full clothes-horse on fire. I could see quite clearly that it was an unattended fire, so I placed a 000 call. On closer inspection, the occupier of the apartment had set up a heater underneath the clothes horse and in the epic winds that swirl the wind-tunnel street, said heater had overheated and blown flames onto the clothes. Needless to say, the firies arrived, did their thing and chaos was averted  (well, the apartment occupier came home to a clothes-horse free of clothes and a ruined heater…DISASTER!).

While having training in both experiences (I’m first aid trained and a fire warden at work), it was the first time I’ve found myself responding to a completely random situation whereby I had no direct connection to any of the parties requiring assistance…and I have to tell you, it was both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. I’ve had plenty of talks with my loved ones about both situations, and it is truly amazing the topics you can cover! Think stranger danger/tricky people; what to do when you’re unwell/lost; what to do when someone you don’t know is unwell/lost; personal information; being brave; how to ring for help; where an ambulance is parked; what a uniform is etc etc.

The weekend was spent discussing a lot of these concepts with Giggles Magoo; it is just lovely to spend time discussing life from a four year old’s perspective – we spent some “spesh mum/Giggles Magoo time” riding our bikes covering all of the above:

Grimace had been away in Melbourne doing some worky-things for the back end of the week, so the three of us pounced on him the minute he touched down at the airport. Off the back of one of our discussions, he was greeted with;

“Daddy! Daddy! Did you know mum saw fireman sam?!”. Love a four year old’s thought process.

Just to finish off, thought I’d let you know the Music that has soundtracked my introduction to the week: Camp Cope . An excellent all-female band from Melbourne that Grimace took me to see a few months back; I’m not usually captivated by all-female bands, but the vox of Georgia Maq has really grabbed me – her topics are raw and beautifully backed by some strong rock/acoustic sounds. Check em out to get you through the week!