…after punishing myself for dealing with a personal problem in a rather poor manner, I thought I'd get back on track and talk about uniforms.
The LAS has got some new uniforms – these include “combat trousers” and a fleece – which is nice seeing as it an get a bit nippy around here. The only problem is that we use Alexandra, who do not have the best reputation for our uniforms. We'll forget that they can't measure you up correctly – I am not a 38″ waist no matter how many kebabs I eat. Instead lets consider that the buttons on their shirts tend to fall off at the worse possible moment. Having a button drop in a dead mans mouth when you are trying to resuscitate them is not something that inspires awe in the relatives watching. I was supposed to have 8 shirts – two of them have been cannibalised so that I have 6 shirts with the right number of buttons.

Still the uniform (that was actually trialled by road and office crew) seems quite nice. We have a little “NHS” logo in case the big motor with “Ambulance” written on the side wasn't enough of a clue to our identity, and the shirts have a mesh in the armpits so we can let our sweat out. The combat trousers have “permagard” (their spelling not mine) which are designed to kill bacteria – which is nice considering the state of some of the houses we visit. The high visibility jackets are…well, visible. And we now have a green “beanie hat” – I think it's green so that people won't wear them anywhere except at work.

There is a rumour that we will be getting new boots soon…Magnums. We are a bit like the army in that we buy our own boots because the ones supplied are a bit shoddy.

Anyway the uniform “goes live” on the 12th but those who have uniform that actually fits them have been wearing them early. The bosses are moaning a bit but haven't actually told anyone off about it.

Now I'm off to the Isle of Wight for three days for a drink or two.

Then the wonders of Night Shifts…