A most excellent day.

Beep, beep, beep...yep, there goes my alarm. 3am and time to get moving. Who'se great idea was it to get up this early and drive cross country for the day? Oh, that's right, mine!!!!

I threw some clothes on an downed a quick cup of coffee, all ready to go...and then spent 20 minutes trying to unlock and lock the front door of the house. Never mind. I eventually made my way out to the car and I was off.

Just kidding. First I had to google how to turn on the headlights. Sitting in a dark car in the wee hours of the morning, trying to work out all the features of a foreign car was probably not my brightest moment. Anyway, eventually I was on the road, with the Sat Nav telling me that unless Chris' car turned into the Ford Anglia from Harry Potter, there was no way I was going to make it to Bristol by 0700.

My journey:

Once I hit the road, I noticed one tiny little thing. It was cold this morning. I fiddled with the car heater but all I was getting was a nice cool breeze. I eventually pulled into a garage and asked the kindly attendant if she could help a lady a long way from home if I was just not hitting the right button or something. Alas, this car does not have any heat!

Oh well. I'm just grateful that I have use of this car whilst I'm here so I'll just have to pull up my big girl pants and get on with it...I told myself through chattering teeth.

I somehow managed to miss the first turnoff near Birmingham, just a little misunderstanding between myself and the treacly-voiced GPS lady. Well, scenic route it is...and with fairly regular thaw-out stops, I pulled into Bristol just after 8am.

Of course there were road diversions right where I needed to turn into the area where the Comms Centre is located. And of course I found myself standing outside the wrong Ambulance Service frantically pushing the buzzer in a desperate plea to get out of the cold! I eventually went back to Alex, the paramedic from Cairns who had set up this visit's, message with the correct name of the Service and with a little bit of persistence and plain old good luck, I was soon pushing the buzzer at the right place.

Due to privacy etc I didn't get any photos of inside but it was a very interesting visit. I sat with a lovely call taker named Lara, who told me about all things calltaking at Great Western. Here, the call takers and Dispatchers are 2 different positions, with Dispatch essentially a promotion that call takers can apply to be trained in. At the moment, they are using the same AMPDS program to process/triage calls but are about to move to a new system that will have cal takers able to refer lower acuity calls to other Health Care Providers such as clinics and GPs to free up acute ambulances without having to employ a room full of Clinically trained staff to call back flagged calls to further question them.

I did take a quick wander to the local cafe as the morning wore on for an obligatory bacon buttie. I then sat with Dispatch for a little while and found it quite easier than our dispatch in that they have full MDTs (Mobile Data Terminals) and GPS tracking on almost all vehicles. Very minimal radio traffic. There was also a dispatcher for the different areas, and a dedicated Helicopter/Critical Incident Dispatcher. I then went and sat with one of the Clinical Call Takers who showed me the program that is soon to be implemented by the regular Call takers. Still script based, but much more in depth questioning and the ability to upgrade and downgrade cases as required.

Whilst I was sitting, plugged in to a call with the Clinical calltaker, I glanced up at a news channel that was displaying I the wall and almost fell off my seat. I go offline for a few hours and Australia goes and changes Prime Ministers again!!!!

Early afternoon, when the room was in the full swing of a busy Monday, I said my farewells and made my way to a nearby shopping mall mainly for a bit of wifi connectivity. Just to check what else I had missed in my great internet moment of void.

My ticket to Banky's Dismaland wasn't for until 1900, so I decided I had plenty of time to go across to South Wales for an early dinner.

I headed over the bridge and was soon in some of the loveliest countryside I think I have ever seen. I had decided to give the big city a miss and find myself a little pub in a Welsh country town. I found myself winding through little lanes, gorgeously green with little cobblestone walls everywhere and was soon in the old Roman Village of Caerwent. With the roads so narrow and enclosed, I was unable to pull over to the side to take photos, but it was absolutely enchanting.

I found a little hotel called the Coach and Horses and made my way into the cosy little bar. 

I ordered a Guiness and went to make use of the facilities after my drive. I got back to the bar and suddenly had a thought. I said to the Barmaid as she placed my beer in front of me, without really thinking about what I was about to say, I exclaimed....'You don't have your own money here do you? I only have British Pounds' There were a number of locals there at the time and they suddenly found that the funniest thing they had heard in along time.

Yep, sometimes you get to enjoy the entertainment and other times you are the entertainment.

Anyway, I soon got chatting with Nicola and Stephen, village locals and had a marvellous old time waiting for the dinner service to begin.

I got speaking with a number of the locals there as I made my way into the dining room for a rather delicious Haddock, hand cut chips and mushy peas dish.

I was then back on the road, next stop Weston-Super-Mare for the much anticipated Banksy exhibition.

What can I say...it was dismal. I highly doubt I have ever been so cold in my entire life. It was freezing! And raining. And there was an hour long queue, which I'm sure is deliberately put there to add to the general non-amenity of the experience.

Walking down from the car to the queue:

The queue:

The people I was standing behind suggested that if I told them I had come all the way especially from Australia to visit this place, they'd probably let me skip the queue. I took one look at the surly looking staff and decided to opt for the full experience and wait in the line with all the freezing Brits who were 100 times better dressed for the weather than I would ever possibly be.

Eventually, I made it in to have the security guard start harassing me - to which I replied, in my broad Aussie accent, 'oh good, another bloody whinging pom'. I was quite happy to see he almost cracked an out-of character smile.

Inside:

My favourite exhibit:

Inside the castle:

Other bits and pieces:

Much of what is there have been covered in the media but I'm glad I made it to have a look.

I know that I did miss some of it but by this time I was like an iceberg through and through and I knew that I had a massive drive back to Peterborough ahead of me.

The rain was terrible and the drivers side windscreen wiper decided to play games and would sporadically get caught upright at the car door and I was having to lean to see out the windshield from towards the passenger side. I ended up pulling over for a while until the worst of the weather had passed and I eventually pulled back into Yaxley well after midnight. A hot coffee, hot shower and a cosy bed have never been so fabulous...