Do people never sleep?

Well here I am again, on my 7 nights, I have managed to survive my first night back even although I felt rotten because of my sore throat and I started early to cover an organised fireworks display.

Well 1800hrs and my colleague and I are heading out of the station to cover the fireworks display, even although it is raining the park is quite busy, we arrive and position ourselves beside the main stage next to the Police and first aiders (can't be real first aiders though, they did not offer us any coffee!!). The event starts well and the music is good (Cha cha slide reminds me of my days at Ambulance College and I am caught dancing behind the ambulance by a female cop *BLUSH*), I receive a call from my boyfriend who is covering a fireworks display in a less than salubrious part of Edinburgh as a first aider (Bet he had tea or coffee or at least body armour) and we chat about each other's event (it is lovely to hear from him and he cheers me up every time he calls).

My colleague and I are supposed to be covering the event until 2200hrs when we then start our shift, but the fireworks display finishes at 2030hrs so we think that we will get a chance to have a cuppa before we start........Oh no that is not the case, as we are leaving we are approached by two Police officers who ask if we are attending the collapse at the entrance to the park, we look at each other and both say "What collapse?" and the cops tell us that they called into Ambulance Control to request an Ambulance, so we turn on the blue lights, carryout a perfect 3 point turn and proceed to the area whilst trying to contact the Control to tell them that we are attending. We pick up our patient from this and head into A/E (which is nice and quiet). After clearing from this we receive another 999 call for an assault in the park, upon arriving we discover 2 patients waiting for us, we clean them up and get them calmed down in the Ambulance whilst waiting on the Police. Once we clear from this call at 2155hrs we head back to the station to start our normal shift, we just finish checking our shift vehicle and receive our next call, and so it continues all night, the majority of calls seem to be for assaults or traumatic injuries, which result in us traveling great distances throughout the division and beyond to neighbouring areas as well. The Controller, who is new to the job, is keen to make sure that we are fed on time, which is nice, but he also makes sure that we are working for the rest of the shift. We eventually get back to station at 0500hrs for a well deserved rest and cuppa and are dispatched again to our last 999 of the evening at 0645hrs for a patient with difficulty in breathing. My colleague and I are both glad to see 0800hrs and even more happy to see our colleagues waiting at the station when we arrive to take over our vehicle. I hope tonight is not the same as last night, I think I am too old for this (My boyfriend would agree that I AM old).