REAL First Aid

24/09/2026

We're only halfway into The TRIP Group Travel Risk Management Conference and so far it has been day rammed with insight and advice from those with the highest level acumen.

The unique feature of every TRIP Group event I have attended is the combined knowledge and experience in the room - not solely from those on stage:

At the TRIP Group events you may very well find yourself sat at a table with other delegates who also happen to be an SME, Government or Military representative, a Jungle survival expert, a data analyst, an expedition medic, a Counter Terrorism advisor, a virologist or former Ambassador. And they will be as willing to listen and learn from you as you are from them.

If you are serious about Travel safety and security I cannot recommend membership to the TRIP Group enough.

23/09/2026

If you find yourself at a loose end in the City, there are worse places to spend your time. There is usually something going on at The Mario Armani , and even if there isn't, it has one of the coolest bars in London.

I've listened to some of the most famous war correspondents here as well as the great and the good of current affairs and security.

I'm in London, excited about The TRIP Group Travel Risk Management Conference tomorrow. A quick check online and there is a Panel Discussion on The Age of AI Assisted Conflict with Nibah Bills, William Christou and Iain Overton.

If you're in town, and have a genuine interest in current affairs and geopolitics, this is your Safe Space

...

21/09/2026

I recently attended the Polaris - Gatekeeper RoSPA driving course. This has been on my To Do list for a long time, for both professional and personal development.

I cannot recommend this course enough - I am indebted to Sharon Cobb for her excellent instruction and Tony Ruth for his assessment and critical feedback.

You are presented with so much practical instruction and guidance in a relatively short period of time, with most of the hours spent behind the wheel. I'd consider myself a competent driver (with plenty of room for improvement) but I witnessed my skills grow with each new phase of training.

Advanced driving is not about driving faster, it is more about driving safer, more comfortably, more economically, whilst at times, at speed.

For anyone considering this course I would recommend:

✅ Read "Road craft" ahead of the course. Or at the very least look at the pictures. With the theory behind you the practical application is accelerated.

✅ If you don't already, make feeding the steering wheel habitual before the course. There are so many moving parts to the System of Driving, removing one kinesthetic skill frees up mental bandwidth for the other parts. And less time spent correcting poor behaviours on the course frees up more time perfecting the advanced techniques.

✅ Practice narrating your driving. You'll be given advice on this on the course, but it is initially a weird and a bit awkward. Get used to it before hand and you have made your life a little easier.

Even if you have no professional need, this short course adds so much skill to your portfolio of becoming a Tier 1 Civilian.

26/08/2026

13/08/2026

The Death of a Boot.

Always a sad time. So many memories and adventures attached to these, embedded with dirt and dust from foreign lands...

This is my third pair of Quest boots and I've been wearing them almost exclusively for nearly 10 years because they are SO comfortable - for me. Boots are a personal choice, right?

But each pair has always failed in exactly the same spot, around the big toe first and then the little toe. I've tried repairing these ones twice because I don't want to give up on them.

I've also been struggling to find a Non-GoreTex boot. Where the hell are they? I tried a pair of Acu's but they just weren't for me. In fact I ceremonially burned them after 6 months.

I've just picked up a pair of Asolo Fugitive non-GoreTex, their half a size smaller, to fit, and straight away they are a heavier, stiffer boot.

Time will tell....

06/08/2026

EMERGENCY OUTDOOR PREPAREDNESS COURSE

Continuing the MPLAN mnemonic:

DAY 2: MEDICAL (continued)
Morning: Haemorrhage and Understanding Shock
- Pressure dressing techniques
- Effective tourniquet application and considerations for removal
-Wound packing

Afternoon: Trauma
- Musculoskeletal injuries
- Head injury & Neurogenic shock
- Chest Injury & Obstructive shock
- Spine & Pelvis Injury

Evening: Common Medical Conditions

DAY 3: PROTECTION
Morning: Clothing & Emergency Shelters. We looked at some long term survival shelters which, in reality would probably never be used, for a while bunch of reasons. What is much more likely and practical is maximisinh the use of a humble survival bag. And even if you're just using it to sit in, you probably doing that wrong.

Afternoon:
- Casualty Packing - Dedicated equipment and improvised materials.
- Fire - No exotic or quaint techniques, but the realies of going from a spark to a flame to an established fire, reliably and consistently

Evening: Heathrow Stroke & Hypothermia

...

04/08/2026

EMERGENCY OUTDOOR PREPAREDNESS COURSE - DAY 1

This week, we are working alongside Paul Kirtley from Frontier Bushcraft to deliver the 7-Day Emergency Outdoor Preparedness Course - delivered entirely in an outdoor environment.

It's not a Zombie Apocalypse Survivalist course, rather an immersive, practical, pragmatic approach to preventing and managing potential emergencies in a remote or wilderness setting.

Separating fact from fiction, reality from folklore and Internet legends.

MORNING

Paul introduced the Psychology of Survival Situations as well as Frameworks for survival. Rather than going straight to Lofty Wiseman's SAS Survival Handbook and telling stories about the Candiru fish the will swim up an man's urethra (which almost certainly has never happened) his advice draws on sources including: "Checklist Manifesto" (Atul Gawande), "There's No Cheating in Survival" (Chris Smart), "Reckoning with Risk" (Gerd Gigerenzer), "How To Survive" (John Hudson, Chief SERE Instructor), "Man's Search for Meaning" (Victor Frankl), "Survival Psychology" (Dr John Leach) and the work of Dr Sarita Robinson.

AFTERNOON

The start of the Medical element beginning with an approach to Casualty Assessment and Decision Making

EVENING

CPR and difficult conversations about resuscitation in Remote Environments

01/08/2026

Desperately sad news that Nimal "Nims" Purja and his 9 team mates have been missing on Broad Peak since an avalanche yesterday.

The man was a machine and imagined what was previously thought impossible, completing the 14 Peaks challenge in 6 months, an accomplishment previously completed no faster than 6 years.

Nims was on his way to complete the highest number of 8000m summits without oxygen.

If you haven't seen "14 Peaks" on Netflix. Do it now. Seriously, clear 1hr 41m of your weekend for it. If you have seen it, watch it again. It is not just a story of physical achievement, it is also one of inspiration and compassion.

Rest Easy.

24/07/2026

I'm privileged to know these people: some of them started as candidates, others as colleagues, all ended as friends.

And I am lucky enough to have happened upon an impromptu catch up where the bravado was left at the door: Stories were told, laughter was contagious, honesty was shared and the litmus-test of friendship was that despite the many years between us all within a communal industry, no one spoke about "Work".

It was about people and the here and now.

03/07/2026

I recently spent the day at Cranfield University's Close Combat Symposium, as a guest of Cranfield Ordnance Testing & Evaluation Centre (COTEC).

We have been delivering the QNUK First Person on Scene - International (FPOS-Int) to the team at COTEC for a number of years.

I am indebted to Trevor Lawrence, Head of Energetics Technology and Dr Aimée Heliker, Senior Lecturer, for their generosity in sharing their knowledge and understanding of Blast and Ballistics kinematics with me over those years, which has enabled me to distill and share these complex topics to delegates on our courses.

On the Range I was fortunate to be exposed to some of the current and emerging technologies in fi****ms and optics, as well as getting some time on a selection of fi****ms.

In 1980, Lindsey, in the Journal of Trauma wrote "Treat the wound, not the weapon", which is still true, but understanding the kinematics explains why the wounds associated with blasts and ballistics can be so complex and destructive.

****ms