Where has the time gone?

Just realised, 2 years ago today I came back from holiday got home and within 2 hours I was admitted to Hospital where I spent the next 5 - 6 weeks.

Must be a sign of age. It seems nowhere near as long as that....

I know what you mean! Sometimes I could close my eyes and it seems like my first day of boarding school was just the other day. Then I remember it was over 30 years ago! Time flies sometimes.

I know what you mean! Sometimes I could close my eyes and it seems like my first day of boarding school was just the other day. Then I remember it was over 30 years ago! Time flies sometimes.

I can relate to that

On September 15th, it will be 42 years ago to the day I joined the Police service.

Next month will be the 30th anniversay that I was at Hungerford when Michael Ryan went on the rampage http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/19/newsid_2534000/2534669.stm

Now that really makes me feel old

l've been off my feet for 11 weeks on Friday. I've pretty much written off 2017. Enjoy every day that you can, life is short.

Bloody Michael Ryan, responsible for buggering up gun ownership for other people. I was quite young at the time but I do remember it well. Also remember our cadet rifles in school being swapped out sharpish for the newer cadet GP (single shot 5.56) rather than the semi auto 7.62 we had been using) after that.

Bloody Michael Ryan, responsible for buggering up gun ownership for other people. I was quite young at the time but I do remember it well. Also remember our cadet rifles in school being swapped out sharpish for the newer cadet GP (single shot 5.56) rather than the semi auto 7.62 we had been using) after that.

It was the only incident that I ever attended in all my service that had a profound affect on me.

And it brought it closer to home as it was my buddy Roger Brereton (a fellow traffic cop) that was my opposite number out of the Newbury garage that was killed.

Even now, I can still remember the carnage that greeted aus as we arrived.

Was this before the days of offering counselling and whatnot? I had a disaster relief experience myself and even though I still get nightmares, I suspect that without the counselling later it would have been a whole lot worse.

Was this before the days of offering counselling and whatnot? I had a disaster relief experience myself and even though I still get nightmares, I suspect that without the counselling later it would have been a whole lot worse.

People seem to forget about this side of policing.

My mates neighbour when we were kids was a copper.

He was at the Bradford fire. Never worked again.

Was this before the days of offering counselling and whatnot? I had a disaster relief experience myself and even though I still get nightmares, I suspect that without the counselling later it would have been a whole lot worse.

Counselling for the emergency services was unheard of back then. It was available for the public, but not us....

You joined any of the 3 services knowing that part of the job involved seeing some very unpleasant sights and you just got on with it. This is how and why and one of the reasons the black humour developed.

It was 1989 I saw something like 85 dead bodies in one year. All fatal crashes. Some were particularly messy, some made you wonder how they died, but you just got on with it regardless.

Now, everyone and his dog gets counselling.

Sorry, long winded answer, but no, counselling was not available to us back then.

I remember Hungerford and a few years later delivering auto parts to businesses there and being told by people all about it. Just hard to believe it could happen. Hats off to all the emergency services who had to deal with it.