Mr. Scruff - Honeydew

Hopefully Girlfriend will get tickets no probs to see him in December. I love his music, and I simply love the animation in this video. I like the cute comment someone put on Youtube - "I wish the world was like this." Y'know what? I do too.

One day in the calendar

I don’t know where in my old age it started but Christmas lost its sparkle and mystery somewhere along the way.

Why is it each year that collectively we seem to loose all sense, spend such insane amounts of money, get far too emotional and over-indulgent, before swearing that we’ll not do it again next year.

It’s October.

And we’ve got weeks and weeks of this overkill still to go.

It’s only one day in the calendar for god sakes.

Be merry people; but keep your heads whilst all around you are losing theirs.

(With thanks to Kipling)

People talk

It was subtly mentioned this evening by a colleague that some people I work with are aware of this blog.

It's been suggested that it's perhaps a not a good idea to blog about the job.

I've come to the conclusion, as I have been doing for a while now, that it's probably not a good idea to blog about the job.

Which is a shame really.

I've tried to share over the past time a few aspects of what is a weird & wonderful job from the point-of-view of a newbie. I've taken great strides to stay anonymous as an officer and made sure that I haven't identified the force that I work for.

However, I simply don't think I can take the risk anymore. People talk.

So if "I don't talk about work that much" as I remember saying once before, that's why.

Court

...Wasn't too bad come to think about it.


Apart from the waiting...


The defence turned up in good time.


I turned up on time.


As did the magistrates.


The prosecutor however, did not.


Some four hours late, and after some excuses and heavy-duty faxing, the trial finally got underway.


The questions from the prosecution were straight forward enough when they eventually came to me in the stand.


I stood trembling inwardly in anticipation of cross-examination by the defence.


"Officer, did you actually witness the alleged incident?"


"I did not, no. I arrived some time after the event, having been deployed there by our control room."


"No further questions your worships."


Beautiful.

Back to life, back to reality

In an act of unusual financial recklesness i went and bought an X-Box 360 this afternoon; the 'killer app' that is Halo 3 has worn down all my reserves of willpower and I've surrendered to the teenager within me. Well hey, it's the autumn, the nights are drawing in. See, that's a good reason too, don't you think?

And it's back to a sort of normality tomorrow. As in the start of a another set of shifts back at my usual station, not the relxed small-town outpost I've been enjoying for the last few weeks on a community attachment.

So it's goodbye to...

Numerous cups of tea
Foot patrol
Finishing on time (for the most)
Hanging out with the PCSO's
Having proper conversations with the public
Wondering "Well how shall I fill the last few hours?"
Updating my pocket notebook in-situ
Attending a number of incidents along the line of "Report of 6-8 juvaniles causing a nuisance...."

And it's back to...

Attemptingtoinvestigatecrimeatthesametimesasattendingincomingincidentsandallocatedincidents andissuingfixedpenaltytickets [*pause for breath*]
Quick barked conversations with the public; trying not to be rude whilst edging out the door to the next job
Deciding whether it's worth taking the formal break today or ploughing on to the next
Going to one end of the sector for a job before being called to the opposite side for something urgent
Realising I haven't eaten all day
Always having one ear on the radio
Thinking I should have been off over an hour ago
Finding new and original ways to write up quite why I couldn't make it to an allocated job

In a perverse wasy, I've kinda' missed the latter.

Oh, and I almost forgot, I'm due at court tomorrow...

Enjoying it whilst it lasts

Remember me?

I used to blog here didn't I?

Some time ago I got major fecked off and disillusioned with work. I got majorly tired... then, oh dear, I discovered Facebook.

Lack of motivation multiplied by an surprisingly addictive 'social networking' site resulted in my neglecting this little part of the internet that I created.

Sorry.

But I'm back. In a number of ways.

Though I'm not reborn, relaunching or reinventing... A notable birthday and a trip away to somewhere familiar yet still completely undiscovered... Has found me returning home, to life and to work, with the motivation and will to see things through that I think I was sorely lacking a few weeks back.

Still with me?

Good.

Work-wise (the cause of so much joy and ills) - it probably helps as well that I've not gone straight back onto response driving. I'm spending two weeks with the community beat team learning about a very different type of policing. After suffering endless jokes about the number of cups of tea consumed (from fellow response officers)... I've genuinely enjoyed doing frankly old-school things like (get this) walking, yes walking the beat. Meeting members of the public in a situation where there's not an urgent problem to be solved, and I can actually take time to talk and listen to them? That's a whole new situation to me.

But then the radio goes. There's a job going off somewhere and something in me is tugging to grab some response car keys and go whizzing out to it like the headless frazzled chicken that I was before. I ignore the radio for the most, I'm not response... I'm with the Community Team... But the instinct is irrepressible.

However I'm taking time to enjoy the calm.

While it lasts.

Yorkshire Airlines

'Proper' blog posts on their way I promise.

In the meanwhile, let me leave thee with this grand aver-tise-ment.

Makes me reet proud.