s part of my job in health & safety, i need to be a qualified first aider. And so, my company sent me off to the St John's two day first aid course.

Today's lesson was the very important - DR ABCD - recovery position, and CPR. Whilst I have always learnt first aid on those special annie dummies, today I had to do my recovery position work with real life people.

Being small and the shortest person in the entire group of mining giants, I was naturally paired up with a super duper tall guy, who wasnt too skinny but not too fat (just... right.. + a little pudge).

Anyways, for the recovery position, you need to constantly check if that person is breathing by putting your head close to the nose/mouth area, whilst your hand is on their forehead and abdomen. And so there I was hand and head in the right area, when "poooo-ieeeeeeeeeee", i caught a whiff of the guy's really awful breath :S At first I thought, maybe it was just a whiff of something else, so i kept my head there, and again, i was mortified by the smells coming out...

And then i noticed the hand on his abdomen was getting a bit clammy - was i so nervous that I was sweating?? nope, it was his sweat purging through his polo... and again, when i had to turn him over to the side - besides the fact it took a little effort (but that's natural given most people are bigger than me), I had to put my hand under his neck to support it.. and ooooooph, it was sweating... EWWWWW

Poor me had to endure a day of this , plus when i attempted to avoid putting my head close to him, my instructor kept telling me otherwise..

so PLEASE PLeASE PLEASE - if you do a first aid course, please DON't RUN to the centre, drink water and eat mints...!!