Just Joined

Hi Valerie,

I was somewhat pensive about volunteering as well but it was the best thing I have done. I am 68 years old and I am one of the younger volunteers in our little group at Harlow and it is thoroughly invigorating, believe me - try it!!

The response from people being vaccinated is wonderful and you really feel like you are putting something back. I have developed a huge respect for the NHS staff I work with - they are so kind and patient, it's a lesson to all of us in how to interface with people. Some of the things you see are a bit upsetting, particularly where young children are being vaccinated but generally it is really life enhancing.

I work through a volunteering agency called Communities 1st (Based in Hertfordshire) and they are really well organised. You book your volunteer shifts on-line and they refund travelling expenses. They also arrange occasional social events for volunteers. I'm sure there will be an equivalent organisation in your area.

Sorry for the delay in responding but I am still trying to find my way around this website.

Wulfrunian

Hi there,

Thanks for your reply. It certainly made me think differently about the concept of volunteering.

I have just had my COVID booster today, with no ill effects as yet.
If I was younger and had more faith in my ability to concentrate I would certainly consider giving it a go myself. My only experience of volunteering was when I worked in the Samaritans bookshop one day a week for about a year, which I initially enjoyed. Then things all changed and we were expected to stop thinking for ourselves, which was very boring. So I left. I was told that volunteers aren’t expected to have any say in what happens, they just have to do what they’re told, which didn’t go down very well.
I didn’t always do that in my working life, let alone when I wasn’t getting paid!

It would be nice to hear a few more things about yourself, particularly your real name, as Wulfrunian takes a bit of typing.

I’ve been quite busy this week with the dreaded birthday on Thursday, when I got taken out for a Turkish meal, and also was honoured by my two offspring with presents and cards. I went to a Christmas fair (refuse to spell it Fayre) with a friend on Saturday, and we had lunch there, then I went fridge/freezer shopping yesterday. And booster jab today! What delights. It is actually a very full week for me. I suppose it’s because Christmas is coming up.

Look forward to hearing from you again.

Valerie

Hi Valerie,

Sorry about the delay in replying. My name is Paul which is, I agree, easier to type than Wulfrunian.

A "Wulfrunian" is anyone born in Wolverhampton, my old home town where I was born characteristically prematurely 68 years ago (although why anyone would be in a hurry to live in Wolverhampton has always eluded me!).

That is unfair - Wolverhampton is a fine old town that has always had an unfairly bad press.

I came from a family that on my late father's side up to my grandfather were East Anglian railway people and I inherited the railway bug from them as I joined BR as an Engineering Management Trainee after university in Birmingham in 1976, and worked my way up to a senior position which took me to consultancy work in Hongkong and Prague whilst working for BR. After the railways were privatised I accepted redundancy in 2000 and left the UK for 9 years working in Taiwan, Dubai and Brisbane before coming back to the UK and working as a contractor in the UK railway industry.

Many people are somewhat surprised to hear that BR had international consultants but the reason behind this is that BR was very unfairly pilloried by the UK media (curly sandwiches, every train is late and dirty, all staff are surly jobsworths etc etc) and we were rubbish compared to the continentals, weren't we? The truth of the matter is that the SNCF and others visited BR because they wanted to see how it was possible to run a national railway of 11,000 miles with the level of service BR provided on less subsidy per year than the Paris Metro!! I met former BR engineers working all over the world and they were widely respected - we simply never had the money needed to do the job properly here.

As I accepted redundancy after 24 years I retained my Silver Rail Pass (for leisure travel only - I had to pay for a full season ticket when I was working but that's fair enough) I do enjoy travelling the UK rail network and the reduced tickets I get for many of the UK heritage railways. Rail staff and retirees still get some travel concessions in Europe but this is limited now compared to how it used to be 45 years ago when I first qualified for international travel. Then, myself and a colleague decided to see how far we could get on free rail travel and found that the limit was Wau-wau on the equator in the Sudan. This used trains and boats (including a Nile steamer!) operated by the European, Egyptian and Sudan railways but sadly took 14 days each way due to bad connections so we settled for a three day each way trip to Istanbul instead which cost us £1-60 each for port taxes at the English Channel. Happy days!

I now live in Saffron Walden and am a volunteer at the Vaccination Centre in Harlow. I did a 4 hour shift yesterday an the place was heaving. A typical busy day up to recently would include about 150 "walk-ins" in addition to the bookings - yesterday there were 380 "walk-ins" in 8 hours. The NHS staff are truly fantastic (dedicated, patient, caring and really hard working) and they were going flat out all day putting needles in arms but even so some people were having to wait for a long time and we didn't have room inside for them all so they were queueing outside for long periods - ok until it starts to get really cold and rainy!! The trouble is that the centres at Epping, Bishops Stortford, Loughton and Ware have all shut and Harlow is now the only (I think! This may be incorrect) mass vaccination centre in the area.

The public have responded with typical British stoicism and have been excellent really. A very small minority have been a bit rude and aggressive but that doesn't detract from the satisfaction of the volunteering role and the excellent spirit de corps of the volunteers and NHS staff.

I really would recommend volunteering to anyone.

Paul

Hi Paul, I seem to have logged in in a different way to previously, and realise that I didn’t reply to your very interesting comment over a month ago!

I must apologise for this, but I had so much to do and think about that time has just gone. Not that it was that interesting or pleasant to anyone else - family problems and concerns about my husband. Christmas was a low-key but enjoyable time, and I can now get back to my normal routine (or lack of it).

It sounds thar you have had a very interesting life and I do envy ypu

Thank you, Sally. Let's hope I can find my way around the site successfully from now on.