Rude awakening
I was woken at quarter past seven in the morning by the phone ringing. “who the bloody hell’s that?” I wondered. Then the answerphone kicked in:
“Steve, just ringing to check you’re ok. We’ve got you down to do overtime on the car today 0630 – 1830.”
Shit. I’d completely forgotten. I rang them back and told them I’d be in ASAP. “No problem, we’ll just change the start of your overtime shift” said the friendly voice at the Resource Centre. This was lucky – it meant I wouldn’t get a late report and have to explain myself to a station officer. I’ve helped the resource centre out quite a bit lately, so I suppose it was their way of saying thanks.
I started my shift at 8.30 instead. I got in the car and started the engine to go out on standby. The MDT promptly went blank and restarted itself. It would take it over a minute to restart itself. I hadn’t yet pressed Green Mobile, so if control got a job for me, they would ring the mobile to tell me anyway, so I wasn’t too worried, but made a mental note to keep an eye on it.
My first job was to a young woman who was 17 weeks pregnant and had gone to her GP for a check-up. Whilst there, she had a mild epileptic fit. The GP wanted her taking to hospital to check all was ok with baby. The crew came and we got her into the back of the ambulance. I left the crew to it, got in the car and did the necessary paperwork for the job. I pressed Green Mobile then started the engine. The MDT did it again. This was going to drive me bloody mad by the end of the day, so I called control and told them my MDT was playing up so 1) could they tell me if they send me a job and I don’t show Amber to Scene within 10 seconds and 2) could I go to the engineers in central London to get it fixed?
I got to the engineers without a problem. The engineer did the usual sucking between his teeth and oooing and ahhing, then said it was the backup battery on the circuit board. It would take a while to fix, so I left him to it and went across to the café, where I had a fantastic Full English Breakfast, consisting of sausage, bacon, egg, beans, tomatos, chips, two slices of bread and a cup of tea. I finished it hoping I wouldn’t get a job to a suspended any time soon, and made my way back to the car.
It was fixed, and the rest of the day was relatively uneventful with a steady stream of calls, but nothing too taxing, so all in all I ended up having a pretty good day really. The easiest money I’ve earned for ages.
I’m on nights this weekend, and with extremely bad timing, I’m having a new washing machine delivered on Monday morning. It should have been delivered last Monday, but the idiot delivery blokes managed to break it before I even clapped eyes on it. So I’m hoping for a relatively quiet night on Sunday night so I can have a bit of a nap as I won’t be getting any sleep on Monday. I just know I’ll end up being busy…
“Steve, just ringing to check you’re ok. We’ve got you down to do overtime on the car today 0630 – 1830.”
Shit. I’d completely forgotten. I rang them back and told them I’d be in ASAP. “No problem, we’ll just change the start of your overtime shift” said the friendly voice at the Resource Centre. This was lucky – it meant I wouldn’t get a late report and have to explain myself to a station officer. I’ve helped the resource centre out quite a bit lately, so I suppose it was their way of saying thanks.
I started my shift at 8.30 instead. I got in the car and started the engine to go out on standby. The MDT promptly went blank and restarted itself. It would take it over a minute to restart itself. I hadn’t yet pressed Green Mobile, so if control got a job for me, they would ring the mobile to tell me anyway, so I wasn’t too worried, but made a mental note to keep an eye on it.
My first job was to a young woman who was 17 weeks pregnant and had gone to her GP for a check-up. Whilst there, she had a mild epileptic fit. The GP wanted her taking to hospital to check all was ok with baby. The crew came and we got her into the back of the ambulance. I left the crew to it, got in the car and did the necessary paperwork for the job. I pressed Green Mobile then started the engine. The MDT did it again. This was going to drive me bloody mad by the end of the day, so I called control and told them my MDT was playing up so 1) could they tell me if they send me a job and I don’t show Amber to Scene within 10 seconds and 2) could I go to the engineers in central London to get it fixed?
I got to the engineers without a problem. The engineer did the usual sucking between his teeth and oooing and ahhing, then said it was the backup battery on the circuit board. It would take a while to fix, so I left him to it and went across to the café, where I had a fantastic Full English Breakfast, consisting of sausage, bacon, egg, beans, tomatos, chips, two slices of bread and a cup of tea. I finished it hoping I wouldn’t get a job to a suspended any time soon, and made my way back to the car.
It was fixed, and the rest of the day was relatively uneventful with a steady stream of calls, but nothing too taxing, so all in all I ended up having a pretty good day really. The easiest money I’ve earned for ages.
I’m on nights this weekend, and with extremely bad timing, I’m having a new washing machine delivered on Monday morning. It should have been delivered last Monday, but the idiot delivery blokes managed to break it before I even clapped eyes on it. So I’m hoping for a relatively quiet night on Sunday night so I can have a bit of a nap as I won’t be getting any sleep on Monday. I just know I’ll end up being busy…
written on the PRF by Steve at 10:17 pm
1 Comments:
Someone from control was late the other week, and they sent a DSO round to knock on his door and see where he was! No, it wasn't me!
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