![]() ![]() We had a lovely walk along the river while we talked non-stop. One of those people was my sister, who I met at Runnymede. So instead of building on my wildlife rehab skills, I spent the next week and a half clearing up yet more loose ends - which seemed to have a habit of multiplying going off and doing some touristy animal based things and catching up with a couple of people. I had hoped to talk to the volunteer co-ordinator but she wasn’t on-site, so I sent an email the next day explaining why I wasn’t going back. I spent 4 hours in total on the M25 on that second day, for about 2 hours work cleaning out hedgehog cages. The second day I took my laptop with me so that at least when there was nothing for me to do – which was most of the day – I could study for the CWR exam. It was only through the kindness of one regular volunteer that I was snuck into the squirrel nursery and allowed to assist with feeding squirrel babies right at the end of the day. It went from bad to worse – as a workplace experience volunteer I was not allowed to feed, medicate or otherwise do anything hands on with animals. The first day consisted of cleaning out a few bird cages and holding perhaps one or two pigeons while someone else tube fed them – very odd for someone who besides being Queen of the Magic Roundabout, is also Queen of Unassisted Tube Feeding. I was agog to learn lots of new stuff at Wildlife Aid and got there ridiculously early on my first day. After absorbing that, it seemed so much easier and I became ridiculously pleased with myself, getting on and off and going in both directions (but not all at once) with impunity. ![]() I’m not sure which was more nerve-racking – getting onto the roundabout or changing lanes on the M25! Sally told me to think of it as just a big ring road with lots of roundabouts feeding onto it. To conquer the Magic Roundabout required the assistance of a local, so the day after I picked up the car, Sally and I – well, sallied forth – tackling both the roundabout and the M25 all in one fell swoop. Combine it with peak hour traffic and you end up with something truly terrifying! Add to that, that traffic flows around it in both directions. This filled me with dread – I was even scared of it when someone else was driving! It is, essentially, a big roundabout but there are seven (yes, seven!) smaller roundabouts which feed onto it. The next challenge was to master the intricacies of the Magic Roundabout in Hemel Hempstead. Top speed up a hill was only about 30 miles an hour but as long as it got me from A to B, I really didn’t care. I loved my little car the minute I saw it – a yellow Fiat 500, which I promptly named the Beast. However, this turned out to be MUCH cheaper than trying to find accommodation in the village near my next placement, Wildlife Aid in Leatherhead. This involved my rabies booster shot – vitally important travel to and from Scotland for a future placement – where I managed to snag a busfare from one side of Scotland to the other for the princely sum of GBP1.50 flights for the long and winding road home yet more study to try to pass the CWR exam the acquisition of the most important technological advancement since the invention of the wheel – the luggage trolley and picking up a hire car. In the meantime I caught up on some much needed sleep, but it wasn’t long before I was full steam ahead tying up the loose ends of future plans. I had a week or so back in the UK before starting a placement of which I hoped great things. The very odd thing is that the Brits and Scots are all in t-shirts. But it doesn’t much look like it through the window, and it sure as hell doesn’t feel like it. So… the sunny climes of Britain, hey? Well – the birds are all having babies and so are things like moles and foxes. Please note any opinions expressed in the document are solely those of the author and are therefore independent from ACS Distance Education, its employees or affiliates. The following text is an extract from a newsletter written by: What do students do after a Wildlfife course? Recognition for Prior Learning application. ![]()
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