Late shift

When I first started my job as a busdriver, I never got the early shifts. I didn't own a car at the time and the planner didn't think it was safe to let me cycle in the middle of the night. I didn't mind, since I hate getting up early. (He did however give me late shifts, which would end at the same time as the early shifts started. He was funny like that.)

Then he left, we got a new planner, I had acquired a car by that time and early shifts became part of my life. Fortunately there weren't many of those, so I didn't often have to do it. Late shifts however were a bit more common, since a lot of companies had evening do's which we had to do: drunk people on my bus are definitely NOT my favourite!

This week I am late shifts again. Yesterday and the day before it meant getting the staff of an amusement park back home and tonight and tomorrow I have to do Rail Replacement. In other words: the trains aren't going due to works on the tracks and all travel is therefore done with coaches and buses. I start at 6pm and finish after midnight and tomorrow the same thing.

Late shifts are easier than early shifts in my opinion. I never like getting up early (in the past I have had to get up as early as 12.30am), because it's so hard trying to get enough rest in advance. I don't go to bed at 7pm, especially in the summer. It's nearly impossible to sleep anyway with all the light (summer) and noise in the street. So you invariably go to sleep too late, don't get enough rest and then have to drive a coach full of people, find the way, be nice and not fall asleep behind the wheel! Not to my taste.

Give me late shifts: you get enough sleep, you are well rested and you go home again when it starts to quieten down again. Brilliant!

I just wish I wasn't working tonight!