Lemon Jelly - Nice Weather For Ducks

Perfect soundtrack to the torrential rain.

Gotta' love the big-band break down towards the end.

As someone commented on YouTube:

"Omg! Karl Marx on LSD!"

Genius.

Then it all went a little bit Pete Tong...

So I head back up north for the weekend and all breaks loose.

1. Thierry Henry signs for Barcelona.
2. Two of my long-term friends break up their respective relationships. One is married, the other unmarried with a young child.
3. I end up waking up on the sofa of a friend-of-a-friend's place at stupid-o'clock on Sunday morning with no idea what the hell they're called and where my other drinking buddy got to. I had to discretely look around the living room for a bill and hope there was only one bloke living in the house and that was his name.
4. Due to torrential rain and randomly open/closed roads my 90 min return journey took closer to 4 & 1/2hrs.

Next time I get all relaxed & zen I think I'll declare it a little less loudly.

However I'm now packed & ready to scoot down to see the girlfriend and then onward to Dublin on Thursday. Thanks for all the tips & things from everyone for Dublin. I shall most certainly report back with experiences & pics.

Everything Zen

I've got a week's 'protected learning' back at the training unit which has been, to be frank, spectacularly dull. It has however been lifted by seeing all of my training colleagues again. What his me especially this evening is how these people, over time, unexpectedly became friends, as well as colleagues. Not what I would have expected when we first started out; such a disparate bunch.

We've come a long way.

So tonight was a nice chilled Chinese buffet with a bunch of them and a few drinkies.

What's chilling me out even more though is the prospect of...

*gasp*

Time off.

No wonder I've been feeling so stressed at times, I realised only the other day that I've been pretty much working solid since January the 8th!

Days off here & there, but not a proper week-or-so solid break.

Just tomorrow to go, then it's off until July 2nd!

Even more exciting, I'm off travelling again.

Only a shift hop this time, but girlfriend & I are going on a city break to Dublin next week for four days.

Not a moment too soon.

It's what we do

Some oh-so big and brave soul has been posting on a number of police-related blogs, sharing their wit charm and supposed glee over the stabbing of a police officer in Luton.

Clearly they want to get a reaction.

Usually I bite my tounge and don't rise to it.

For once...

I replied.

* * * *

Anon.

Know what PIG stands for?

Pride. Guts & intelligence.

But hey, anon, abuse as all you want.

There'll come a day when you need us.

And then what will you say to us, when you really, really need us.

When you get bottled down the pub.

When your place gets burgled.

When you've wrapped your car around the central reservation.

Protect the public?

Yes.

Including you?

Yes.

Because it's what we do.

The Cinematic Orchestra - All That You Give

Amongst all the stress...

This is chilled bliss.

Late night work worry

I get second thoughts about the job.

On the most frustrating days, even allowing for urgent incidents, I can struggle to investigate my own workload crimes.

What's worse is that from attending incidents you can pick up even more crimes for investigation to add to your ongoing allocated crimes.

What's most annoying though is when you get something allocated and told that it is your priority. Even though the things you've already got on your plate are supposed to be your priority.

Then an urgent comes in and that supersedes all previous priorities.

Later you're asked why you didn't do various things in time and why you haven't got 'X' number of ticks-in-boxes from your shifts on patrol.

Prioritisation is a skill, but there comes a point when you cannot split yourself into five bloody separate officers to do five different things.

Blame falls downwards. And one of the most depressing things about the job so far seems to be that sometimes it's not always about doing the right thing, but doing enough to cover your own back to deflect the downward cascade of blame, crap and shifting goalposts.

Because chronically stretched resources mean that you simply cannot do the right thing by everybody.

London 2012

Design gurus strike again.

This sucks.

Sign the petition.

Please.

I'm so proud that the games are coming to London, but this is a naff logo to unveil to a global audiance of billions.

Best man for the job?

So on this set of rest days I did a bit of a round-trip to see my brother down south, back via the girlfriend.

My brother specifically I hadn’t seen for a good few months now and I made a real effort to drive the few hundred miles to see him as he’s going abroad.

With work.

In a few weeks.

To sunny Helmand province.

Afghanistan.

Hence the special effort, to see him before he goes.

Over breakfast my brother asked me if I would like to be his best man, which was a real surprise and honour. Last time round he chose one of his friends, and to be honest I was absolutely fine with that. Honoured I am, ah yes, but there is responsibility.

Even though it won’t be until next April, I’m a little intimidated by getting up and speaking in front of a few hundred people; taking a fine line between humour and ceremony.

However there are the fun parts. I get an active party in planning his ‘stag’ do.

Adventure sports?

Strippers?

Adventure sports with strippers?

Thankfully I’ve got plenty of time.

But at the rate this year is going…