From Jetlag (without the pleasure) to Super Saturday sport

It's been a fortnight of extremes for me as June came to a close.

I started with a week of night shifts. For those that don't get what we do on a night shift, I wake up at 6, leave for work at 8, get home around 12 hours later & head to bed soon after. Of course that is getting up at 6pm when sensible people are having their dinner, start work as people are enjoying their evening, and then spend the remainder of my working day watching people sleep. Working a night shift in my job should be THE most boring thing you can do, because the patients have all slept well and no one has had any difficulties.

Perpetual Jetlag

The hardest part of working shifts is swapping from working nights to days. I got home from work at around 8am on Monday, I had to get some sleep, then sleep again that night because I was at work Tuesday lunchtime. Its like living with jetlag, your body gets used to effectively working on Australian time and then you have to switch back to UK time in 24 to 36 hours. Add in to that we are expected to be responsible for the safety and security of 20 vulnerable patients as well as the other staff.

Sporting obsession

Work during the day is not all go go go, there are times when we encourage our patients to have some down time, relaxation just like we all have in normal life. Of course Tuesday was just one of those days, especially with THAT football game in the evening. Unfortunately, the two occasions when I needed to go and do something was the two occasions that England scored! I like my football, but I do find it quite amusing how England football fans make such a fuss over playing the Germans. The Germans don't make a fuss over playing England, they beat us often enough to know they are better than us, at football at least. But not on this occasion!

Wednesday was a day of training, there is a legal requirement for training updates on much of what we do, some things every year, some things every 2 or 3 years. After that I was free for a long weekend and so off to the boat I go.

Driving Dread

I could go on and on about the standard of driving post lockdowns! Everyone I have spoken to who had to carry on driving during those times agrees, there has been a horrendous drop in the standard of peoples driving. I'm not just talking about the inability of people to move over the the left hand lane on dual carriage ways (spoiler alert, the right lane is for overtaking) or the fact that people have forgotten what the national speed limit on a dual carriageway is (spoiler alert, the speed limit on a dual carriageway is SEVENTY unless signposted otherwise). No, these are annoying, but recently the world has gone even more off track. I've seen a few people driving with full, noise cancelling headphones on. I hope one day an ambulance carrying their family member isn't stuck behind them! But even more jaw dropping was when I saw people doing 50 to 60 on a main road stop and give way to someone on the slip road!

I really can't wait to be off the roads and on a boat.

Sailing again

Finally on boat, Friday was an early start. I had arranged to meet up with friends Dave & Lydia in Yarmouth on the Isle Of Wight on Friday night. I was up and ready to set off by 8, but the delay having to go and fill up with fuel was to cost me dearly.

Unfortunately it was into the wind all the way down the solent, but it was a good test for the new engine and the treated and filtered fuel.

An hour away from Yarmouth my earlier delay came back to bite me. The tide in the solent can be quite vicious at the wrong time, and now punching the tide my one hour to go was suddenly 2 plus hours. I really should have listened to myself and left Swanwick at the latest by 8am. Still, I got there in plenty of time, and an evening of good food and merriment was had by all! It is always good to catch up with friends, especially in these strange Covid times.

Super sports Saturday

The plan for Saturday was to be up early and watch the assembled mass of sailing boats taking part in the round the island race. There's around 1,700 boats enter this spectacular race, unfortunately I misjudged the start time, but watching the flotilla pass by the harbour entrance was quite spectacular.

After another meal out it was a much more subdued evening, the excesses of the night before were definitely taking their toll, I'm not as young as I used to be. A "quiet" evening watching England football team produce yet another winning performance followed.

Sunday was a glorious sail, up to 7 knots under head sail only. Note to non sailing friends - that's pretty good on a sailing boat! And so another sailing trip ends. Good company and good sailing, that's all I need in life.