Day 5 - Checking in and fire crew

Today I had to wake up at 8 AM. I chose the same breakfast as the other days, although I still have to try the bacon once. Mark picked me up with his taxi at 8:45. Stuart also had to get a lift, as his car was at the garage to get tested.

This morning I had to be at the checking in section. They showed me how they weighed the luggage, when luggage was considered as hand luggage and which labels they put on the luggage. They dropped the luggage on the conveyor belt and the firemen dropped it on trailers, which they drove to the airplane when the luggage was complete. Unfortunately, I did not really get to do something, but I completely understand it, as this kind of work must not go wrong.

At 11:45 I had lunch and I chose some Orangina and a sausage roll, again. I had lunch till 12:45, as they did not really have to do something for me. After having lunch, I went to the fire crew. We first talked a bit about football and why I am here, which was nice. After that, one of the firemen showed me how the fire engine works. He also drove me to the end of the runway in the fire engine, as the engine needs to be warmed up multiple times a day in case an emergency happens. Then he explained me how the oxygen bottle works, which was interesting. He later showed me the lectures they have to study once a month. Some where about different kinds of water sources, some about the different grades of fires, etc.

Then, another guy of the fire crew showed me how they practice fire fighting. They use a sort of imitated airplane, which is obviously made of non-flammable materials. They also use dummies to practice rescuing casualties. The guy of the fire crew also let me try out the fire extinguisher, which was good fun.

Later on he showed me how they scare the birds. Birds are a big problem at an airport, as they must not hit the airplanes. They use a tennis ball, which is attached to a cord and is wrapped in a sort of handkerchief. They swing these in the air and the birds will fly away, because they will think that it is a crow or another bird they dislike. The fire crew also uses a sort of big megaphone with a variety of angry birds' sounds.

After that the guy of the fire crew showed me the rooms where the engineers work on different parts of the plane, like the radar.

At the end of the day, another guy of the fire crew taught me how to resuscitate a person, which was really interesting and which is a useful skill to have. The fire crew gave me compliments about my English, which was really nice to hear.

At 16:40, Mark dropped me off at the B&B. We had dinner at 18:30 and ate rice with french beans, pepper, mango, carrot, other vegetables and chili and mango marinated chicken. It was really really nice. After dinner, Stuart looked up the schedule of the train rides from Penzance to St. Ives for me, as I will visit St. Ives tomorrow, as I have a day off.

At five to eight in the evening, Chris Pearson picked me up to go to the football field. Every week they play a 5-aside football match with some members of staff of the Airport and some friends. It was a lot of fun: instead of an hour, we played football for about one and a half hour. Unfortunately, Chris hurt his ankle really bad at the end and therefore we stopped. Chris dropped me off at the B&B after the football match, at about 15 minutes to ten in the evening. After that I took a shower and right now I am writing this blog. After writing this blog, I will go to bed.

Tomorrow I will wake up at about 8:45 to have breakfast. I hope to get the train of 10 o'clock to go to St. Ives, which I am really looking forward to. See you tomorrow!