Rhine in flames and sneaking in to bake a cake…

If I remember correctly, then I did want to write about the Red Cross assignment at the Rhine in flames, didn’t I?

It’s been time to write about it, so here you go.

It was Saturday the 5th of May, Ronny’s birthday and I totally abused the keys to his apartment he gave me. 😉

Well, I tried.

I had planned to bake a cake for him but the moment I gathered everything I came up with the idea to bake at his place. Maybe he would still be sleeping and wake up from the smell of freshly baked apple cake.

So I packed everything in a used supermarket bag and drove over to his place. Unfortunately, he woke up the moment I had entered his flat. Usually I can get inside and he just keeps on sleeping. So the surprise cake was done for.

Since it was his birthday, I went into the living room while he was getting ready to get up, starting emptying and refilling his dish washer, cooked us some coffee with his Senseo and gave him a great old hug, once he entered the living room, smiling.

We played cards, listened to music and started the day quite comfortably. It was 8:30 am by the way. Eventually after acting all mean while playing Rommé, trying to use psychological tricks on each other to wear us out, I started baking the apple cake.

The recipe though didn’t work out the way I was used to. I had found it on the net, searching for my usual recipe. I ended up making a new recipe all together, added 2 eggs instead of 1, a cup of milk instead of no milk at all and cinnamon, which was also not in the recipe. 😉

So it’s clear that I was wondering whether the cake would work out according to my plans and taste buds. I prepared the dough for a big cake but had brought my small baking dish. So I used the rest of the dough for some banana-crumble muffins since Ronny had some bananas that were quite ripe.

I will post the recipe another time, if you guys are interested.

Apple crumble cake

The smell was delicious.

The rest of the dough was used for 6 muffins

After finishing the baking and while the cake was in the oven, I handed Ronny his Birthday card that I had made in the office during my lunch break on the day before.

The card is made entirely from stuff I found in the office. The cover is actually part of an audit report. 😉

I had made a card last year and thought it will be nice to make it a habit and make his birthday cards myself from now on. We continued playing cards, until it was almost 1:30 pm, when I had to leave again. We had a Red Cross assignment that day and I wanted to take a shower and eat something before having to leave again.

So I rushed home, had a sandwich, took a shower, got into my uniform and was gone again.

We met at our vehicle hall at 3:30 pm. and were on the road by 4 pm. That is when we encountered two cars, one from the Red Cross and one from the Maltese volunteer organisation. They were on their way to the Salafi demonstration at the King-Fahd Academy.

Kevin in the front of the picture and Hassan our RC unit boss in the other car.

If you have been around for some time, you will remember that I was on Red Cross assignment for the Rhine in flames last year. Last year my group was positioned at the Rhein hotel Dreesen, this was also the case this year.

The weather stayed foggy the entire day and it was way cold…

The weather was terrible but also beautiful. The clouds had gather around the hilly area on the other side of the Rhine and mostly covered the tops of the hills and the Petersberg.

Everything was quite the entire day. Actually the only thing that happened, happened when Kevin and Manuel, two younger colleagues went to take a walk down stream.

The boat in question to the right and the bright orange ambulance to the left

They walked by a boat that had come to an emergency stop because a passenger had obviously fallen down some stair. Kevin and Manuel had to call the ambulance, stabilize the ankle and assist the doctor who arrived a few minutes later. Meanwhile Ronny and I were basically bored, looking at the flowing water of the Rhine. We didn’t even know something had happened because we never use the radio for Rhine in flames. not the mobile ones anyway.

That was it, nothing more happened. Basically the only action we got, was when Hassan brought food around 8 pm. 😉

Hassan and his wife Michaela serving us some food. 😉

Two hours later it slowly got dark and the people from the Federal Agency of Technical Relief arrived to distribute the flares next to the Rhine for the bengal fire.

Eventually even some people arrived

Here some picture of the rest of the night…

A colleague from the fire department ignited one flare right in front of our position.

Spooky, Manuel and me… 😉

1:00 am, exhausted and happy that things were over, the final gathering of volunteers.

I transported Ronny’s medic bag to his flat and waited for him, since he had to walk over. I didn’t bring a second helmet, so he had to walk. Actually I had wanted to rush home right away but Ronny suggested to have a piece of his birthday cake before ending the day.

Since I was really interested in the taste, I agreed and we went upstairs. Yes it’s true, it was almost 2 am on Sunday May 6th, and I had a piece of apple crumble cake…

And it was delicious… 😉

All is well…

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One year of blogging!!

OMG!!

How embarrassing is that?? How can I forget my own 1 year anniversary?? Yes, it’s true, I actually forgot it. Well, if I have to be totally honest, then I would have to say, that I actually started blogging in February 2011 on a different platform but moved my posts over here in March.

So this post has been overdue for some time.

Now, I wanted to blog about the things that I have achieved in this one year and perhaps highlight a few posts that are still vivid in my mind.

Weight-loss in Kg for 2011

In 2011 my highest weight was 143.2 kg, that’s 315 lbs. That was in February 2011. I had fallen off the wagon in September 2010 and had been off course until February. As you can see, my weight-loss progress was steady, but basically happening in tiny steps. Those results were normal for me, I wasn’t consuming enough calories back then. By September of last year, I was down 11,3 kg or 24.8 lbs from when I had restarted in February 2011. As you can see there is a giant drop of almost 5 kg, or 11 lbs, that is due to being sick with a very high fever in February 2011. Just what I needed to get started again.

Weight-loss in Kg for 2012

Now, this picture has a totally different flow to it, hasn’t it? It shows what happened after September 2011 up until today. My weight by the end of September 2011 was 131,9 kg, that is 290.1 lbs. Things changed because I was physically quite busy, helping with the renovation in a friends flat. I basically spend a week of vacation working hard every day.

It was in December that I encountered a serious emotional low. I got some great tips from all of you, which helped me to change my diet one more time, which resulted in suddenly shedding the pounds at an  – at least to me – unknown speed.

So, from September 2011 up until today I lost another 11,5 kg or 25.3 lbs. So the entire weight-loss I managed within the last year amounts to  22,8 kg, that’s an astonishing 50.1 lbs!!!

Finally some comparison picture from the beginning of my journey and now. 😉

Somewhere between 330-340 lbs in Dec. 2010…

This picture was taken around December 2010. After falling off the wagon in September 2010, I had regained about 7-10 lbs, I think, so I was somewhere close to my original weight, which was 341 lbs in May 2010.

This picture was taken on May 5th after returning from the Rhine in Flames assignment.

This should cover the weight part of the one year of blogging. Now to what happened the past year apart from losing weight.

Something rather scary was the Red Cross assignment for Rheinkultur in July 2011. Read about it in the Escalation at Rheinkultur I and II.

Then thinking about wanting to walk some long distance in Spain, check out the Long time target, yes I have one… post.

A fun post to write was the one on Carnival, read about it in the What a weekend – Carnival, alcohol and unexpected ending PART I and PART II.

If you haven’t been around by that time, feel free to have a look.

And last but not least, I want to thank you all. I am positively sure that, had I been on this road alone all the way, I think I might have given up somewhere along the way, or pulled out all my hair by now.

So thanks you guys, you rock and make thing so much more fun and enjoyable.

All is well…

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Escalation during a salafi demonstration in Bonn – May 5th 2012

I am so glad, that I was at Rhine in Flames this Saturday and not anywhere near the district Mehlem, in the south-east of Bonn. The times when Bonn used to the capital of Germany have long since past, but obviously Bonn is still good for an escalation when it comes to demonstrations.

This Saturday there was an announced demonstration of the radical right-wing citizen movement called pro-NRW. It was founded in 2007 and is a regional movement, which is politically active only in North Rhine-Westphalia. This movement has been deemed unconstitutional in 2011.

Obviously pro-NRW had planned an anti Islamists demonstration (consisting of 30 people) in front of the King-Fahd-Academy (a mosque) in Mehlem. In turn, several hundred Muslims (and some of them were Islamic fundamentalists called Salafi) had gathered to demonstrate against the pro-NRW demonstration. Needless to say that I am not particularly fond of either of them.

Anyway, while we (my Red Cross colleagues and myself) were on our way to the Rheinaue, we encountered two vehicles, one from the Red Cross and the other from the Maltese volunteer organisation, rushing by with their blue lights turned on. We had the radio on and soon found out that they were on their way to the mosque, were obviously things had started heating up.

The Muslims cooperated some prayers into their demonstration SOURCE: DERWESTEN.DE

As long as everybody stays peaceful, I think demonstrations are good. Freedom of speech and everything. Well, obviously the demonstration didn’t stay as peaceful as the picture might suggest. 29 people were injured, when mostly Salafi started throwing stones and attack the police. This all was caused by the pro-NRW people though, since they started showing a cartoon of Mohammad in order to provoke the islamic party…

The result of this incident??

Two police officers (one of them female) were seriously injured, after being stabbed. They had to be transported to a local hospital. Both are no longer in danger. 27 other police officers were also slightly injured.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypDLgKU9Rd0

I am so happy, that I was not called there!! knowing my luck sometimes, I guess I would have ended up catching one of those stones with my head!!!

Here some more German reports on it, source WDR.de

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLQR76wxwgg] 

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmvocL6d8Zo]

All is well…

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Weigh-in no. 63…

Oh my, I am so tired. The last few days many things happened but I didn’t manage to blog about it, I think I seriously need to make space to blog every day or else I end up not blogging about it at all.

Let’s start my blogging spree with Saturday’s weigh-in.

My weight has remained the same. It was 264 lbs the previous week and this Saturday. No loss, no gain and I am fine with it. To be honest, sometimes I am actually scared about the recent rush when it comes to my weight-loss. Don’t get me wrong, if there were fairies around, who could make the weight disappear in an instant, I wouldn’t hesitate to utter the wish. 😉

Still, I consider this a journey and whenever you are on a journey your mind changes due to the different experiences and influences and upon returning home you are changed mentally. The change might not be as visible but every experience leaves tiny imprints on your mind.

Now, to get back to my point. I would be worried if I were to basically fly through my weight-loss, that at my goal weight, my mind wouldn’t have changed enough for me to actually have learned how to keep the weight off.

So I am fine with the no gain, no loss situation, as long as it doesn’t last 4 month!!!! OMG – that would seriously wear me down…uh, let’s knock on wood, so that I will be spared that experience another few more month. I would like to get to yonderland before having to deal with a no serious loss period.

Anyway, within the last few days quite a few things happened, there was the Red Cross board meeting on Wednesday last week, then there was Ronny’s birthday on Saturday, followed by the Red Cross assignment for Rhein in Flammen, meaning “Rhine in flames”. Then I realized in awe, that I have been blogging for more than a year and OMG, I didn’t even create a celebration post on that issue.

Oh, I am sorry, I am such a bad blogger!!! I think I don’t have a clue, really – yeah, I am absolutely clueless. Damn!! Be patient, I will try to improve. So my next post will be about all the things I have achieved within the last year, since I started blogging.

I need to be off for now, since I am alone at the office. Olga seems to be sick,..oh… no, there she is. *phew* I feel lucky today. 😉

All is well…

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Rhine in flames, fun and also draining …

I am really drained from yesterday but let me go through the entire day before the draining becomes self-explanatory.

Yesterday I was on RC duty for the Rhine in flames assignment and had to be at the vehicle hall at 4:30 p.m. I arrived a little early and talked a to Kevin who was already there. Hassan, our boss arrived shortly after us and we moved all the needed cars out of the hall.

The small ambulance you see there had some meaning for me later in the night

I was assigned to be in a group with Ronny and Anett (who was supposed to meet up with us later in the evening but she didn’t show) and we were send to be stationed at the Rheinhotel Dreesen. 

We got to drive the 16-85-12 (that is the usual number of the car but, we had to use Rot-Kreuz-Bonn 16-89-1 when using the radio). It’s an old vehicle but it drives just fine and our RC unit really likes it. On the picture you can also see Ronny who is giving a tour to some kids. They always want to see the emergency lights on, seems to be the thing for kids.

After we were done with the kids, a grandmother of one of the kids brought us two pieces of strawberry cake and I compelled Ronny to eat both pieces. I tried one strawberry though.

Nothing happened while we were positioned at the hotel and I took a lot of pictures because the scenery was just beautiful.

It was around 7:30 p.m. when Hassan called us on the Radio and told us to leave our position in order to have some food. I thought we would be called to him and be given food there but we were told to drive to a certain address and when we got there we saw it was actually a Greek stall. Ronny went for a Schnitzel with fries while I ordered a salad with tomatoes and cucumber.

We had 30 minutes to eat and we had only just returned to the car, when Hassan called us again and ordered us to another position. This time we were positioned at the Rosengarten, furthest from where we had been before.

The highlight of Rhine in flames are some fireworks at around 10:30 p.m. The timing actually depends on the ships, that start coming in from east and when they come in sight the banyan torches are lid and shortly afterwards the fireworks start.

Here the ships started coming in.

You can see a red shimmer on the left side of the picture, that’s where one of the banyan torches was placed and lid.

This is the banyan torch next to our ambulance and you can also see part of the reason why I wasn’t able to see any of the fireworks later on and why the rest of the night also became rather draining for me.

While I was standing next to the car in order to get any message on the radio, Ronny discovered a man who seemed to be sleeping on the bench that is visible on the picture above. He spoke with him shortly and then came back to the car, his phone in his hands. He asked me to get the emergency bag and check the vitals of that man.

I went over, check the oxygen level in his blood with the pulse oximeter, took his blood pressure and while I was at it, the man told me that he was thinking about committing suicide.

BANG – at that point I had to change gears!! I have been trained as a psychosocial attendant and the moment a “patient” shows signs that make said attendant necessary, I am no longer a paramedic but become responsible for the mental well-being of such a patient. I sat down next to him and ignored Ronnys bewildered look when he tried to hand me the material for measuring the blood sugar levels and I handed it right back to him.

I think I told Ronny that I had to talk to that man now and since he didn’t speak up, I shifted my focus to the man. I can’t really write anything much about the circumstances since I am obliged to medical confidentiality. I can only say that the things he had to experience in his life are really a lot to bear.

While I was talking to the man, Ronny had gone back to the car and called the emergency number to order another ambulance from the town because we were only a PTA and weren’t allowed to leave the assigned position. It took more than 30 minutes for the other ambulance (technically they were also a PTA, but allowed to move) to eventually arrive but I was not surprised to find Harun and Torsten as the car crew. 

I was a little drained by the time they arrived. Try talking to someone who is contemplating suicide for 30 minutes, it’s really exhausting. Anyway, when Harun arrived I basically wanted to hand them the patient and be out of there but the man wanted me to accompany him in the ambulance and before I could refuse Torsten had agreed and off we were.

As you can see there is no chair of any kind next to the stretcher but in order to still look after him, I had to kneel down on the floor, steady myself by holding on to the stretcher and wall and endure. Seriously after 10 minutes in that position my legs really hurt and Torsten was actually driving really fast.

Eventually I was able to sit down next to Harun since the man wanted to close his eyes a little. We arrived at the clinic and dropped the man off. He was obviously known at that clinic. Oh man, it seems illusive to hope that I might actually have changed that mans thinking even one tiny bit. Perhaps some sank in…perhaps.

When we boarded the PTA we were ordered to return the vehicle hall and drop me off there. It took another 20 minutes to get back to the hall. Harun and Torsten were needed at the main event area and left shortly after dropping me off. When I entered to vehicle hall, there seemed to be some kind of whisper in the air, some weird atmosphere. Some of my colleagues came over, having solemn looks on their faces, as if the mood had been brought down a few notches and asked me whether I was okay.

As soon as I approached a groups of people, the smiles on their faces seemed to disappear, leaving them looking touched. That was weird, obviously the news of it all had spread and people were concerned about the severity of the what I had dealt with. I don’t know what news had reached them but it wasn’t like the man was standing on a roof top, or holding a knife against his throat.

Had that been the case things would have been different.

Anyhow, I left the hall at around 1 a.m. and dropped into my bed some 15 minutes later. I wished some things could be changed and that I could really help people like that man…

I am well though…

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Weight in no. 13 and birthday…*err* tattoo party in the evening

Okay, I can now write about what I did yesterday in the evening. Yesterday I couldn’t in order to keep the secret from being found out. Ronny’s birthday was on Wednesday and since he advised us strongly against doing a party or anything of that kind for him, I had to keep silent about it.

Actually it wasn’t a birthday party, it was a party for Sebastian’s new/first tattoo. That what I kept repeating over and over during last nights event. Ronny had warned us, that he might walk out on any party, so we had to find another reason.

Ronny is somebody who basically has everything, so finding a suitable gift is almost impossible. A few weeks ago I found out that his Senseo cafe machine had broken down, so we decided to get the best there is when it comes to Senseo. I am not sure he was really happy about the present, I think he said something like “Yeah, it’s like, err, really handy!” We will find out later whether he really liked the present.

Harun came over right after his class (he is doing his EMT or paramedic course at the moment, the German equivalent is Rettungsassistent). Shortly after Harun had arrived another friend, Kevin called and asked whether he could go with us, since he didn’t know where we were supposed to meet. The Bar is called Shakers. So we went together. When we had just left the main station Ronny tried to call Harun, then myself and finally he tried Kevins phone. We went all “Oh my, what are we going to do, he can’t find out…!”

Harun, Ronny, for whom we made all the fuss and Anett

But he believed our fabricated stories and all went well. The secretive bunch consisted of Onur, Jost, Anett, Geiser, Kevin, Harun and myself. When we got to the bar I ordered a Pina Colada and Harun went for the Mai Tai, oh man, bad choice!! When Harun gets drunk he gets outright embarrassing and that’s what he did last night.

This is my first Pina Colada

Haruns Mai Tai (seriously lots of alcohol in it)

When I didn’t look, Harun cornered a waiter and ordered a second Mai Tai, seriously, he will be my downfall one day… 😉

My food choices yesterday were not bad…but still something to be concerned about. I had one vanilla shake in the morning, no carrots because I forgot them at home and that was it…well I had a milk cafe around mid day. I wanted to have a salad when I got home but Harun arrived so early that there was just no time and I basically forgot it all together. It was only after I felt the first side effect of the alcohol that I realized that I had gone to a party without having any solid food in my stomach.

Since my calorie intake had been so low during the day, I decided that I could afford a second Pina Colada, which I regretted later in the night due to a disturbing stomach ache.

Everybody also ordered some food but I felt stingy upon checking their price list and also didn’t want to ruin the fact that I had stayed so focused in the recent weeks, with a pizza or something. Harun didn’t mind as much though and ordered a pizza as soon as the alcohol induced hunger set in.

Alcohol caused Harun to crave fatty foods

Harun actually also started losing weight, he is not on the journey yet but he started to change his eating habits a little. I am sure though, he will always be a recovering fast food junkie, he just loooooves MacDonald and fast food of any kind. He jumped on my scale yesterday and was all excited when he found out that he had lost almost 4 pounds within the last two weeks, which is good for him. Keep it up Harun.

We stayed until 11 p.m. I think. Jost walked to the main station and Anett took Onur home. Kevin, Ronny, Harun and myself squeezed into Geisers car and took a tour around town in order to drop everyone off at their homes. I was allowed to sit in the front since the car was rather small. Loud music in the front, the boys (Harun, Ronny, Kevin) laughing and squeezing and tickling in the back and dangerously high-speed in street curves made this ride unforgettable. I was seriously scared that we would end up as a Saturday morning report in the news paper. “Young drivers – crowded car and alcohol taking another toll”

I asked Geiser (who was sober by the way) to seriously bring down the speed when approaching curves and I was quite relieved when he actually did. So I got home safe and apart from my stomach ache that had set in at this point I considered the secret birthday…err tattoo party a great success. It won’t work next year though. *lol*

That’s if for now, I need to get ready soon, I am on Red Cross duty today. As mentioned in Thuerday’s post Rhine in flames is coming up this afternoon and I am looking forward to it and I will try to take a lot of pictures again.

OH-OH, I almost forgot my weigh in. My current weight is 295.6 lbs, a loss of 2.9 lbs, which makes me totally happy, but then again, I didn’t really eat yesterday, so guess it will even out eventually.

All is well…

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Feeling better and gym tomorrow…?

TOM went on his way and I am really feeling better. It’s like the moodiness was lifted and not only the mood. YAY, I checked my weight this morning and it seems as if I will eventually move on. It seems as if I was jumping within 298-299 lbs forever.  EVENTUALLY!! Weigh-in is saturday, so no weird food choices for me in the meantime.

Work is also okay at the moment, I got another pile of letters that need to be taken care of and I hardly seem to keep up with new stuff dropping on my desk but the atmosphere is okay at the moment.

My food choices within the past two weeks have been good as well. I am becoming very friendly with salad and carrots – who would have guessed, at the moment I am snacking on carrots every day. I eat one or two before even having my first shake in the morning. I have not been a vegetable loving person in my live, not even when I started last year but it seems that, just like many things in life, some things just need a little time to sink in.

Tomorrow I am planning on going to the gym to sign the contract and alike. I think I need to take an appointment to be shown around but since I didn’t want a fixed date for going there, I didn’t call them first. I really didn’t feel good (physically) the last week so it was better not to force myself to go there. So tomorrow after work it will be.

The good thing about this gym is, it is a 24/7 gym, yay, open all night. I am looking forward to my first evening or night training there. 😉

For now, I want to mainly explore the cardio section and after talking to a trainer I will start on my upper arms.

Tomorrow evening I will be going to an American bar…*uhhh* need to be careful with the cocktails…I need to think about my calorie intake, I guess I will leave out one shake. I can’t write about the reasons for going there, not yet anyway. I guess I will write about it on Saturday before going to my RC assignment that day. Saturday is Rhein in Flammen, meaning Rhine in flames. It’s an annual event and I am planning on taking plenty of pictures. I write more about it on Sunday I guess.

Okay, that’s it for now. Stay strong!!!

All is well…

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