Brothers Visit

20.11.01

ALVIN AND BEV’S UPDATE

I was sitting in my car outside the Medium Secure Unit in South London eating my lunch. The gym at the Bracton Centre was the venue for a four day training course on de-escalation and patient handling. I was contemplating two things. The first being the height of the sun at midday. I raise my biro up at arms length to measure the distance of sun and the horizon and was amazed to find the distance was less than the biro’s length. This revelation prompted me to investigate this further. My atlas was my source of reference. By placing England transposed to where New Zealand is in the southern hemisphere, on its correct latitude, my revelation was that I needed to place London where the Campbell Islands are in the Southern Ocean, South of Stewart Island about 200 miles. This then places Scotland way down near the Antarctica. This bit of research now helps me understand the difference in the daylight hours as it now is getting dark at 4.30 pm and not light till 8.00 am. We still have five weeks to the shortest day.

The second thing I was contemplating was my pain in the chest. SCIP Training involves working in teams of threes or more to manage patients when their minds are not able to function in a normal mode. The practices involve restraint, without using any holds which could cause pain or injury. The reason for this change in thinking is to endeavour to better maintain the therapeutic relationship which could be put in jeopardy if power and control is used inappropriately. One of the holds we had been training to extract ourselves form is a bear hug from the rear. Now this may take a bit of imagination but I’ll try to explain. Take a big Nigerian male about six foot six weighing 16 stone working as my training buddy. He approaches me from the rear and wraps his arms around me pinning my arms to my body. The first thing I should consider is he friendly or do I want him not to do this to me . if my request to, let go, fails then I move to my next stage which is to gain a good stance by spreading my legs thus lowering myself. Then I lean forward this taking my Nigerian giant off balance and placing pressure on his hold. I then puff up my chest to increase my leverage and endeavour to assist prising grip apart, by finding a weak link in his hand grip. All going well up until I try to wedge my fingers up his. I felt and heard and distinct pop under my right nipple. I call a halt to the cuddle. I don’t think I broke a rib but I have definitely moved the cartilage that joins the sternum to the rib. I have used pain killers to get off to sleep as it is tender when I roll on my right side.

My brother Garry and Christine Steel arrive here next week and I’m looking forward to spending time with them. I dialed up my niece Louise Bradley who is also over here in North London. Arranging a Rendezvous and get together. Garry and Christine had spent a couple of weeks catching up with our relatives in California and Florida. Departing Florida to New York about the same time as the most recent plane American Airline Crash there. This security alert put their travel plans into turmoil being diverted to Chicago before being allowed to fly back to JFK Airport at New York four hours later. Their visit to NY was very memorable as they were able to go up the Empire State and view across to where the twin towers used to be. They found they were not able to climb up the Statue of Liberty due to Osman Bin Ladin but able to walk all about New York city outside the exclusion zone from ground zero.

Once here we visited the sites of London again. Louise met us at Waterloo Station prior to our visit to the London Eye which helped them orientate to the City. Christine is an old hand at moving about in London and showed me some new places she had visited previously. Harrods is fully decked out with the Xmas stocks and kept us entertained for a while.

The next day the All Blacks were playing Ireland at Landsdown Park, Dublin. Louise arranged for us to meet up in Hendon North London at her local Irish Pub. We traveled North by the tube and to our surprise, Peter Teen of Hokitika Vintage spotted us outside the Tube Station. He seen Garry initially and was unsure about his perceptions, but when he spotted me there also he said “Christ Olson’s everywhere”. It was great catching up with him again. He was unaware we were coming up to watch the footy. We met about 20 Kiwis at the pub that afternoon, mostly from the Coast but several from Southland and few from the North Island.. Moynihan, Growcotts, Dee Monks. Angela Walls, Jack Stewart, Jimmie Teen, Louise Bradley, Peter Teen, Christine Steels and the Olson boys to name a few. The Irish gave us a challenge in the first half, keeping the anxiety levels up and the beers flowing. The second half was as we all expected and the desired result was achieved. The big screen is a great way to watch sport. The Aussies won league and Garry’ soccer Team Arsenal achieved a draw. I enjoyed my afternoon at the pub leaving with smelly clothing and sore red eyes from the cigarette smoke.

Just south of London about 50 miles is the famous Leeds Castle. Garry, Christine and I had a day down their poking about a bit of British history. Garry and Christine have now moved on to have a week in Ireland with the famous Wiscock, a suspected IRA criminal.

I wonder what will happen next.

Anton Oliver