Still on nights!

Am still on nights, though tonight is the last one which is nice. It is not that I mind working nights, after all I only worked nights for ten months in my last job, but the human body is programmed to sleep at night and be awake during the day, though I am pretty sure mine is programmed to be asleep most of the day as well as the night, but that is another thing!

Anyway, last night, or probably the early hours of the morning, I came across this article on the BBC website. I spend a lot of time surfing the net at night, as my role is basically reactive......someone comes into the police station, I deal with it. No one comes in equals no one to deal with. Okay, we do have a few admin type tasks to do as well as doing PNC (Police National Computer) checks for officers - we have access, they don't - but that still leaves a lot of the night to fill.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11012356#

I found this article quite interesting as I am firmly in this camp, rather too firmly I am sure some would say. I actually have an 'O' level (yes, I am old enough to have done 'O' levels instead of GCSE's, though I have a couple of those too) in Computer Studies. The machines my school used where the old BBC basics and this was BW (before windows) and everything was in DOS (do most modern computer users even know what this is). Projects at school involved many hours with the Encyclopedia Britannica and the photocopier, none of this whack it into Google and hey presto, project done. Oh, and we actually had to write as well, draw grafts and stick (as in use glue) in pictures etc if required. Anyway, I digress...........my laptop goes on the minute I get in the door and I spend many an hour happily surfing. I feel slightly uneasy if I leave home without my mobile (cell phone to you overseas types) and my ipod goes with me almost everywhere. I get my news online, happily shop on line and chat to family overseas by text. I also watch TV, usually while surfing the internet - the advantages of a laptop and wireless. Seven to nine hours a day - IS THAT ALL??? If I count time spent at work, I probably equal much more. It does make you wonder though, how did we ever manage without computers, the internet, mobile phones etc? As I am from the generation that saw home computers become available, the use of the internet become common place as well as the birth of mobile phones, I guess I should be able to answer that, but I can't. When my internet broke a few weeks ago I felt lost, isolated, cut off and I still had access at work. Just another example of how we all become so reliant on things that we once did so well without.

Well I hope that tonight is a peaceful night with no dramas - well for me anyway. While my nights have not been busy in anyway, last night I spent over an hour with a drunk 'person' (struggling to be polite here) who came in with a problem that was not a police matter. Anyway, it was about 1am, not much else to do, so listened, tried to establish what the issue was, gave advice, listened some more, before at about half two and having lost the will to live I told him to leave or I would have him removed. I then get a phone call from the control room, followed from another from the PEC (Police Enquiry Centre - the nice people who answer the phone when you call us, either on the 9's or on the non-emergency number) asking if I had just thrown someone out of the station (yes), why (he's a drunk nutter) and what did he want coz he ain't making sense to us (well he wasn't to me either, but after and hour and a half, the gist of his story is....). Yeap, you guessed it, he called in from the phone box that is just up the road from the station (about 50 feet) on the 9's!!!!!! Let me remind you, the 9's are for emergencies, ie someones life is in danger, you witness a criminal act taking place etc, not because you fancy a chat or are pissed.

Well, it is time for the news, so I had better go an watch that to keep my average up.