On Saturday, I started a 12-hour
paramedic
shift. As I walked into the standby room, I encountered an emergency doctor I hadn't seen in a while. Right after breakfast, we were called to our first trip, so I couldn't talk much to him, but later on, we got to play the typical "what have you done" game.
He is a family doctor in a smaller town around one and a half hours away, and I've known him for quite some time. So, I asked him if I would have time to give me the Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and polio combo
vaccination
. Why ask my family doctor to do it and pay money when I've got a friend who does it for a
coffee
? He agreed, and I set off with my codriver to get the vaccine from a nearby pharmacy.
After a bunch of shorter missions (which I can't remember anymore), we drove off to the blood bank in Graz to get blood for the local hospital. A group of paramedic colleagues brought a sample to the blood bank beforehand so the lavatory could perform a cross-checking test.
Sometime in the afternoon, another paramedic colleague asked if it would be possible for me to extend my shift through the night and make 24 hours instead of 12. Since nobody else had time, I agreed, and at 7 pm, I switched codrivers.
After a long trip with a manic depressive patient, we arrived back at our home base at around 00:30. I quickly went to
sleep
because you never know when you have to get up again. I wasn't sleeping long. At 03:04 am, the radio was already delivering a new mission.
A guy needed to be transported from the local hospital to the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory. So it was a drive with an emergency doctor, blue lights and siren (tho I didn't need to use the siren as nobody was on the road anyway).
We came back around 6 am, so I didn't bother to sleep again, as at 7 am, I would go home.
After the two and half hours of sleep on duty, I was pretty exhausted when I fell asleep at home. But the day wasn't over yet.
At 1 pm, I woke up again, ate lunch, did some laundry, and at 6 pm, I was on the road again to see
KISS
in
Vienna
with my parents and a good friend.
I think I don't have to say I started working late today. Luckily with the flexible timing, starting later just means going home later. It is almost eight now, so I will be preparing for bedtime again. Luckily there shouldn't be anything to interrupt today's sleep apart from the heat in my Apartment.
I did perform a great show, although it was the same I saw a few years ago, still impressive. I wonder if it will be their last tour for real. It seems like they still got a bunch of power in them.
Many seem to be complaining about that, but as long as I don’t actively notice it, and probably not many people can in the heat of a concert, it doesn’t bother me. Who wouldn’t use help when your body can’t do the things anymore you did in your youth?
A live concert should be viewed as a experience, not a competition on how good you can match a recorded (and maybe auto tuned and edited) CD or MP3.
When I saw Bon Jovi a few years back people complained that he couldn’t hit the notes perfectly anymore. So what? A typical concert enjoyer probably doesn’t even notice a octave up or down (especially because of the loudness overload).
And yes, I’m wearing ear protection at concerts. No need to shred your eardrums just for the sake of it.
I don't want to hear the studio version when I go to a live show. I might as well just stay home and listen. I like live performances for their uniqueness. But Bon Jovi and other aging rock stars are getting raked over the coals lately. I'm not expecting the vocals to be perfect, but at the stage where you *need* to lip-sync, it might be time to hang it up.
Well, they are saying it's their last tour, so maybe they did it just to finish the tour? I did enjoy the show and that is the thing that matters to me. If I heard some prerecorded vocals, so be it, I didn't notice :)
Many seem to be complaining about that, but as long as I don’t actively notice it, and probably not many people can in the heat of a concert, it doesn’t bother me. Who wouldn’t use help when your body can’t do the things anymore you did in your youth?
A live concert should be viewed as a experience, not a competition on how good you can match a recorded (and maybe auto tuned and edited) CD or MP3.
When I saw Bon Jovi a few years back people complained that he couldn’t hit the notes perfectly anymore. So what? A typical concert enjoyer probably doesn’t even notice a octave up or down (especially because of the loudness overload).
And yes, I’m wearing ear protection at concerts. No need to shred your eardrums just for the sake of it.
I did enjoy the show and that is the thing that matters to me. If I heard some prerecorded vocals, so be it, I didn't notice :)