A Mere Exam

Sorry for the bad pun, but I just couldn’t resist.
And oh dear; 8 days without a blog. Tut tut.

Some background info for you first, which might add some sense to all this. I’m a Hoff wannabe, so I’m doing a load of lifesaving exams, with my training being done at Oswestry Leisure Centre once a week, and the examination board being the RLSS (Royal Life Saving Society). Three out of the five awards they do are pool-based, which is fine. However, two of the awards, the bronze and silver crosses, need to be done in open water, and so ours take place at Ellesmere, in the Mere.

The Mere (hence the ‘punny’ title- oh I’m on a roll) is the main Mere out of the many Meres around Ellesmere, and probably is oficially called Ellesmere too, like the town. A Mere, for you non-locals, is a lake. Anyway, on Tuesday, Thursday and today, I was in it. That’s right. So the RLSS (Royal Life Saving Society) must have decided that as well as doing very tiring pool-based examinations, they would subject teenagers to the freezing cold British water in their awards too.
“Now what’s he on about?” you might ask yourself, “it’s June, it’ll be lovely and warm.” And usually, you’d be right. But not this year…

Tuesday’s training session was overcast and windy. It was also the first time I’d been in some cold open water since The Red Sea at new year, but then there was WARM SUN, which Britain doesn’t have an awful lot of. To say the least it was something beginning with F and cold. We did a few excercises to prepare us for out bronze cross award on Thursday, as well as some theory. Lovely. Bring it on.

Or maybe not. Along came Thursday. In typical British ”summer” fashion, it was blowing a gale and pouring with rain all day, and didn’t let up for 6.30. Oh dear. Once you were used to the very cold water temperature, being in the Mere wasn’t so bad, it was just the standing on the bank being a bystander or waiting that was absolutely freezing, causing you to shake like a [insert simile here]. On top of this, any swimming and towing of casualities that had to be done was hard work, due to both the cold and the fact that we had to wear shoes, socks, trousers and two tops, with the same going for the silver cross examination. Bring on Sunday.

And I wasn’t a happy bunny to begin with, as I’d had to wake up at 7 to get to Ellesmere for 9. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, I was told that I was in the group that wouldn’t be doing its examination until midday. That meant 3 hours of waiting. Plus, when I finally did get started, my whole family were watching. What’s more, it was windy and had started to rain on and off.
There were a variety of tests, a couple of which involved rescuing two caualties, and another two that involved towing a casualty from 30 metres out, which there and back makes the length of 1.2 Olympic sized swimming pools. Without all the clothes, the casualties and the cold, that would be fine, but I had all those. By the time I was finished I was absolutely knackered, to the extent where I just felt like collapsing on the bank.
Thankfully, it was all worth it, as I passed. Woo!

So all that’re left to do now are my award of merit (silver medallion) and distinction (gold), both of which are pool based. YES! After those, once 16, I can take lifeguard exams and get a job as a lifeguard and then a teacher at the leisure centre, both of which pay quite well, with sociable hours.

In other news, my work experience starts tomorrow. *Groans*. It means getting a bus at 8.08 and working until 5. Also, I have to wear a shirt (of which I now have a few, thanks to a Matalan special offer). I hate wearing shirts, but I guess I’ll have to live with it. On top of that, school make us fill out a diary of what we did each day and our feelings before and after.

So if you phone Tanner’s of Shrewsbury and hear “Hello Heathrow Customs and Excise” , then chances are its me.