I love my crewmate.
Not romantically mind you, that would be very wrong, but in a brotherly way.
You see, she's had a few days off work and I've had to work with other people. Now, these other people are fine people to be working with, but as I've never worked with them before we don't have the 'telepathy' that my regular crewmate and I share.
Let's imagine that we have a patient who is actually sick (I know, I know it hardly ever happens, but please bear with me) a simple glance from either one of us can let the other know what we are thinking with the patient being none the wiser.
It's nice not to notice that the nice ambulance people who are trying to treat you also think that you might end up shuffling off the mortal coil somewhat sooner than later.
The back of an ambulance is fairly cramped and so you work out fairly quickly how to work with the other person without bumping into them while still sharing out the jobs that need to be done. With a strange crewmate you find yourselves doing awkward shuffling dances in the back of the ambulance as one of you goes to put away the carry chair while the other tries to check a blood pressure.
With mixed sex crews there is also the potential of sexual harassment, thankfully my crewmate has managed to keep her womanly desires under control and away from groping my bum.
The current joke is that I'm looking for a divorce – like a married couple we finish each other's sentences, we whistle at the same tunes on the radio, we think alike and, like a married couple, I've stopped flirting with her.
Why, it's only a matter of time before I feel comfortable farting in the cab.
And of course, when we can, on nightshifts* we get to sleep together – me farting and drooling on one sofa while she snores and scratches herself on the other, slightly smaller, sofa.
Of course she does try to get me in trouble, like the time we were going to a little girl who'd apparently swallowed a magnet.
“You get bonus points if you can work a pun in there while you are talking to the mother”, she suggested.
“Like what?”, I asked.
“I don't know, something like 'I'm really attracted to your daughter'”
“Oh, so 'pun' is a new word meaning 'paedophile' and you want me getting arrested for telling a mother that I'm attracted to her three year old?”
She did manage to stop laughing by the time we reached the job.
So there you have it, part of the reason why I don't change ambulance station or go for my Paramedic qualification is that I just like working with her too much. A good crewmate makes all the difference to this job, and I'm glad I get to work with her.
*And by 'nightshift' I really mean any shift where we are left alone for longer than ten minutes – gotta grab those naps when you can.
Hi Im a long time watcher but have taken the plunge!! I also loved my crewmate (another female) and we were crewed together for 5 years,not one complaint ever and loads of thank you's. But the idiots who laughingly 'run' our service decided to split all the crews up and have some on cars and others with ECA's.Now you go into the station with no idea who you will work with and even if you do know that can be changed at the drop of a hat! Morale is a rock bottom and sickness is sky high.Says it all really………….
the whole sexual harassment comment is something that i can relate to all too well… within my St john division we have a nursing officer, she has the tendency to cop a feel of my bum when ever she can… it all started off as a silly joke regarding rugby players with big muscular thighs, and firm buttocks whilst on duty at Twickenham Rugby… hence sending her to cop cheeky feel in front of a few people in the first aid post, making me blush!!! the joke still goes on now a year or so later.also… whilst on the ambulance i have two close colleagues who i work very well with whether Im attending or driving, knowing the person you are with on a personal level i feel is a very important factor. apart from a few weeks ago when one of them accidently set off the foam fire extinguisher making it look like we were having a foam party in the back, luckily we were not carrying anyone else.
its all a good laugh, i suppose it has to be… i do it for free!!! 😉
There many humours , four be your workfoure humours, Blood, Flewme, Colera and Melencolia.
then there be good humour to get rid of the four.
7. a. That quality of action, speech, or writing, which excites amusement; oddity, jocularity, facetiousness, comicality, fun. b. The faculty of perceiving what is ludicrous or amusing, or of expressing it in speech, writing, or other composition; jocose imagination or treatment of a subject.
Distinguished from wit as being less purely intellectual, and as having a sympathetic quality in virtue of which it often becomes allied to pathos.
1682 tr
Just so glad that there be laughter, it be the best medicine.
OED
I'm relief staff, so plug the gaps in our stations rotas, as not on a regular shift. It means I regularly change partner and can get 'farmed out' to other stations in the area. I think this is good for the probationary period as you see how many people work (good and bad) making it easier to adopt your own style rather than just mimicking the person you work with. Also it increases your work social circle in that you meet and work with a wide variety of people.I love my station and barring one or two difficult personalities (Nice enough people but you can't get on with everyone can you?) I have a great working relationship with everyone there.
Having said that I'd love to a regular shift so I can know what I'm working more than a week in advance!
I'm so glad that you still have some positives in the job, because you've seemed so disspirited recently. I'm expect that having a good working relationship with your crewmate is what keeps you sane in the frustrations of the job.
Hey!Here's an idea! Let her post something on the blog.. maybe something that you have said but from her perspective?
Maybe something else? How does that sound?!
Hru
I agree to that. My crewmate and I had a good laugh reading your blog yesterday. At the moment, I'm stuck alone 'cos the doctor-on-call just sent him to the hospital. The doctor wouldn't let me take him (even when he wasn't allowed to drive himself), just in case something happens while we're waiting for someone to cover. So I have to work with someone else. Aw.