Congrats Mr B - One Down, One to Go

Well, it's been a couple of weeks so there's a few things to update you on. Firstly, and most importantly, Ian has passed the practical element of his firefighter exams. So he's half way through his assessments with just the written exam to go on the 26th. His practical involved six different stations, each with a different test. These were: changing a burst hose and nozzle operation, water into a building via sprinkler unit and closing individual sprinkler head (whilst trying to avoid getting completely drenched!!), overhaul and salvage - protecting items of furniture getting too wet and damaged, self-contained breathing apparatus assessments, large, heavy ladder drill and building ventilation, and HazMat tanker rollover. He was one of a handful that passed every test first time, so he's now officially a girlie swot, just like Annalie Well done Ian!

He's been revising hard for the written part as well though. He and a bunch of the other guys have been meeting up in a study group to prepare themselves for the test. He's got this Tuesday at the Academy and then the Tuesday after for the test and that's his training over. He just has to do a couple of bits at the fire house and then he can be a fully-fledged firefighter, and able to take the "Probationer" badge off Although Annalie's not sure if she's pleased about this or not

Ian's Ground School is also over and he has successfully passed that too This means he can now go to the FAA department at the local airport and take his written test for that - although it's probably a little harder than the firefighter test! There are plenty of mock tests online so he's had his head buried in those for the past couple of weeks. There's a pretty high pass mark needed so he's making sure he's consistently getting past that before forking out $100 on a test! But to start flying, he needs to apply to the TSA to get clearance because he's an "alien"! This is an extra security measure that has been put in place since 9/11 as all the terrorists learnt to fly in the States before they committed the hijackings.

Annalie is also well on her way to completing university and finishing her dissertation with well over 12,000 words written already. Unfortunately this means that, yet again, she's going to blast through a word limit, but who's counting right now? What matters is that she gets it written and handed in. The deadline is June 1st, but because of her unusual circumstances, i.e. being in another continent, let alone country, Leeds Met Uni are being very flexible about the hand in date.

So Annalie thought she'd make the most of the fact that she's flying to Europe for the Paris Air Show and has negotiated a hand in date of June 11th or 12th, depending on when it will be available to pick up from the binders. She'd like to get it emailed on June 1st to prove that she can meet the deadline, and that will enable her to get the cheapest binding option done (10 days' notice). But we shall see. There's still two weeks to go, but she thinks that will be enough time. She's been sending sections to her tutor already and has been given the thumbs up for most.

This trip will make up for the recent one Annalie missed to Europe thanks to Rolls-Royce On May 1st, Annalie was due to pick a hire car up at about 3.30pm to travel to the UK that night, spending the weekend at home before flying to Germany for an event and some meetings. Only that morning, Rolls-Royce decided to issue a travel restriction based on "pig flu." But rather than restricting travel just to Mexico, they restricted all international travel. So the IAE Leadership Team had an emergency meeting to see if the trip to Germany would still be on. Eventually they called it off. So just as Annalie should have been preparing to pick her hire car up, she was ringing the travel agent and cancelling everything. So she missed out on Lucy's birthday party But on the positive side it did give her a bit more dedicated time to her dissertation instead of travelling so she's probably closer to finishing now than she would have been had she been in Europe for a week. She's no good at working and travelling together!!

Elsewhere Ian has had a steady stream of driving work that has taken up his Friday's. Annalie managed to get him a good job for IAE so he drove a few of the guys he knows down to New York for a lunch and then brought them back. They were very impressed with his professionalism and actually feeling safe in a car for once (for those of you that have experienced American driving, you know what we mean!!). Once he's got the written exam out of the way for the fire department, he'll be able to do a few more days' work if he wants, but Annalie thinks he quite likes it the way things are

Annalie has also been getting closer to one of the girls that was working for Pratt & Whitney Communications but has recently transferred to the corporate headquarters, which is in downtown Hartford. She wants to meet Jennifer's two hounds because she's amazed how a single girl can cope with them - a Great Dane and a Lab x Great Dane!! But they sound like fab dogs and we're sure Jennifer must feel very secure having those two around!

But other than that Annalie has been working hard. Neither of us have been to the IAE golf league yet. Ian has been at the fire academy every Tuesday so far and Annalie has made the most of the quiet time that affords her and cracked on with her assignment. But with only two weeks left for both of us now, we know there will be other opportunities soon enough.