In Training

Hospital Hubby Part III

OR Kath's in depth experience with the NHS, followed by more parts that eventually lead up to Royal's thoughts on the two health care systems!!
I know it's been ages since I said I would post this 3rd part!  I do apologize, but for some reason it's been difficult for me to tackle.*  I'm not an expert on health care.  I wasn't before I dealt with the NHS and after dealing with them I'm still not!  I can only tell my story.  My husband can only tell his story.  Everybody else can think what they want of it all. 

I've never had difficulty with our U.S. health care system.  It has never let me down.  I've always been able to afford insurance - not always the insurance I would like to have, but insurance of some kind.  I've always been able to pay my medical bills - not always at one time, but they have always worked with me on payment plans when needed. I've had a job since I was 15 years old.  I've never been without work - I've worked 12 hour shifts at a snow cone stand, I've popped popcorn and cleaned the floors at a cinema, been an assistant to a director at a fancy hotel, membership director at a Chamber of Commerce, in internet sales at a gun store, wholesale admin at a soda manufacturing plant and as of right now I handle customer relations at a vehicle dealership.  Not all have been fun.  All have been hard work. 

In 2007 I married my Royal Marine Commando Sniper and moved to Britain.  We knew he was deploying in April so we hurried to get everything in order.  I applied, interviewed and received my National Insurance Numbercard.  I was working and paying my British taxes, including health. He left as planned. 

I missed him and I missed my family but everything was going okay.  Then I got a strange pain in my abdomen.  I have a history of ovarian cysts rupturing and putting me on my ass with 15-25 minutes of gasping for breath through the pain (those little bastards, excuse my French).  I've been told by my family doctor and my obgyn that many women have symptoms before a cyst bursts, but I've never experienced that.  So I thought, hmmm maybe something really terrible is about to happen. I don't have family around to rescue me like in the past.  Better get to the doc's. 

Just for fun: Photos from last weekend

Went with my Mom to Central Market (ooohh! ahhhh!) this weekend.  While she was bustling around picking up items I took some photographs*.  They make me hungry.  Enjoy!

We'll start with tomatoes:

Just look at those heirlooms.  I can still smell them.... yum!  We passed on these, but I was tempted!

Tiny grape tomatoes. So adorable.

18 Year Old British Mum Wants More Free Stuff

So her three kids ... won't turn out like her.  Too outrageous not to be true.  I would give you an excerpt, but it just wouldn't do the story justice! 

Sigh. 

What I've Been Reading - March

AKA the Book Challenge.

Yikes, March was not my best reading month ever.  I'm okay with that though, because some things happened in March (one of which you can read about here, the other is very personal, sorry!) that kept me from spending lots of time alone with a book.  That being said, here is March!

There are some books on one of our bookshelves that are not ours.  They belong to my parents.  Even being the book lover that I am, I rarely look over these books because I have so many to get through myself.  One day in March, by chance, I was looking and found this amazing gem:

We Thought We Heard the Angels Sing by James C. Whittaker.

"The complete epic story of the ordeal and rescue of those who were with Eddie Rickenbacker on the plane lost in the Pacific" gives you a quick rundown of the content.  But it is so much more amazing than that!  This Wikipedia section gives a bit more detail.  Frankly, if you read that and don't want to read the book... I just don't know what to do with you.  While you're there, you might as well read the whole Rickenbacker entry because DAMN, that guy lived a life.  I enjoyed reading Whittaker's description of him in Angels so much that I immediately got on Amazon and purchased this book:
Eddie Rickenbacker, An Autobiography (1967)
It came quickly and in mint condition.  Haven't opened it yet, but I'm excited! 

Now for the really cool part... The copy I read of Angels is signed by the author!  It says:

To my friend, ________ ________ with my every best wish. 
Sincerely,
Lt. James C. Whittaker
April 10 1947

AWESOME.

The Royal Marines YouTube Channel

Yup, you read that right.  The Royal Marines have their very own channel on YouTube. 

The new channel is targeted at potential Royal Marines recruits – young men with an interest in serving with the armed forces and who want to learn more about life in the Royal Marines.

.... features four sections – RMC Training, Extreme VS Marines, State of Mind, and Ambush and Assault. Each section showcases a host of rich video content, bringing to life the Royal Marines' state of mind – the ethos which sets the Royal Navy's amphibious forces apart from any other armed forces.

The videos will be reviewed monthly, with fresh new content and training videos added on a regular basis. An additional section featuring exclusive interviews with serving Royal Marines will be added to the channel in May.

I've watched several so far (like this one, a mud run!  Royal only had to go through this once during training.  It's super tough). There is some really interesting stuff, take a look when you get some time!

U.S. Immigration Interview : Part II

Part I here.

We are there.  We are in the building.  This is it.

It's a big building with lots of windows.  It's very tall and the second floor is open to the rest of it.  There weren't many people around.  We walked through security and were told by a very nice security guy that interviews are upstairs.  We walked by a big open room where several people were waiting in lines of chairs.  Everything was really neat and clean.  We went up the stairs and were immediately greeted by an extremely chipper lady.  I mean, really GREETED!  The building was so quiet, we didn't expect a big "Hi, how are you?!"  She took our name and in return gave us one of those light up vibrating pagers (the first photo) like you find in restaurants.  We laughed about it.  Why wouldn't they use them?