Firefighting and Girls

The leaves are starting to fall, I guess autumn is finally arriving for sure. It was sunny one day and wet and windy the next for the past few days, but I think summer has finally moved on to greener pastures for now.

Yesterday we went to the Hertfordshire Fire & Rescue Service Training & Development Center in Stevenage for a one day fire fighting related training. One word, superfun! I always had this dream when I was very young that I want to be a fireman when I grow up. Who would've thought that working in a bank would lead me to be a fireman, even for a day. Yeap, I even got to ride in the fire engine, with the sirens blazing ladies and gents. Nothing feels sweeter than a childhood improbable dream coming true, eh? My team (Jim, Ricky, Indri and Nad) ended up 3rd out of 5 in total, so nothing much to shout about. Safe to say we all had fun and enjoyed it tremendously. Ohh, one of the activities include sitting in a metal container while a fire was lighted in front of us. That was to demonstrate the dangers of fire how to be safe in such a fire. Trust me, should a fire happen, don't ever get up. Crawl and get out. There is a reason to it, and I've seen it.

That was fun, though tough. Little did I know that what I'm supposed to do today is much much tougher. We had to teach. I have a family chokeful of teachers, including my parents and both grandads, yet I always felt that I'll be useless in the teaching role. So cue me anxiously wondering what the hell am I gonna do when I'm supposed to teach a class full of 17 year old girls at St Albans Girls School. Yes, they are 17!!! My class when I was 17 was like a warzone, so I dreaded the worse.

Turned out, it wasn't so bad. My group of 4 (Ricky, Gloria and Serena) did quite well I think. The kids were marvellous, they did not misbehave as badly as I thought they would. Of course there's some bad apples but the rest were very cooperative and smart enough for me to respect them as adults. Perhaps the fact that the school is one of the best schools in the area helped, but we all sighed a collective sigh of relief once that was done. The best part is, I did not get any negative feedback at all while amassing quite a list of positive ones. Perhaps I do have the teaching genes in me after all. A career change soon? Don't bank on it.

What's on the plate for tomorrow? Well, ever heard of a restaurant called Deep? It's in Chelsea and it was formerly the set for Gordon Ramsay's cooking show The F Word. Guess what, we're gonna be cooking a four course gourmet meal tomorrow, right in the hallowed kitchen (exaggeration, yeah) of Deep. Won't say much yet, will let you guys in on it when I'm throuhg with it, alright? So tomorrow's team will consist of me, Tara, Ricky (different one this time), Crystal, Kanika, Jim and Stephen. Let's hope we don't kill anyone with our food! Ohh, Gordon won't be there, so I guess we're all spared.

Alright then, gonna go and have a bit of a stroll around the place before berbuka. Selamat berbuka (or sahur if that's your next meal) everyone!