Busy week
I am having such a busy week this week with starting placement. I am completely knackered after working the last two days on 12 hour shifts, yesterday I left the house at 6am and got home a few minutes before 9pm.
I actually feel like I have a hangover, I clearly haven't been drinking enough. A hangover type feeling is almost certainly caused by dehydration, although no matter how much water I have drank today I don't actually feel any better for it. Hopefully I feel better at 5am when I get up tomorrow.
I have been sent to a hospital at the other end of the city and travelling there is a bit of a nightmare. We are not allowed to park in the hospital car parks to save the spaces for patients which would be fine if there was decent public transport at the ridiculous times of day we have to travel in order to get to our shifts on time. Where I live honestly has some of the best public transport you will ever find, there's at least one bus every ten minutes both into the city centre and out of the city and depending on the time of day there is anything up to six trains an hour! However the public transport system is absolutely useless before about 8am, our shifts in all the hospitals start at 7.15 and you need to be early to change into your uniform so public transport is not always convenient.
What I have been doing is taking my car to the nearest subway station which is not all that near, the subway serves the other side of the city for the most part and doesn't come as far south as me. I park my car in their car park and 'park and ride' which costs me £5 each day which mounts up to a small fortune over the eight weeks I will be there.
Well its 9pm and I am up at 5am so I had better go and pack my bag for tomorrow and sort out something I can take in with me for lunch then feed the animals before bed.
Comments
maxeen wrote on February 26, 2015, 3:58 PM
How expensive to park your car! I always park in a supermarket which has a good bus service by it ,completely free to go to town on the bus(bus pass) then go in the supermarket for my paper and lotto tickets,so I don't feel mean at using their parking....
Colibry21 wrote on February 26, 2015, 5:11 PM
It's not always easy to have to deal with a long commute. I'm sorry it's giving you a difficult time.
Feisty56 wrote on February 26, 2015, 5:33 PM
What an exhausting-sounding couple of days you have had already. Wow, I hope you are at least enjoying a good bit of it -- when you're not too tired to enjoy.
I think it was daft of the hospital not to have a plan for parking for its employees, or at least a parking garage/lot off-premises where hospital-provided shuttles and security was present.
MelissaE wrote on February 26, 2015, 7:00 PM
That is quite a bit to park your car. I hope the hours get better.
melody23 wrote on February 27, 2015, 4:49 PM
To be fair to them that does include a return subway ticket which costs £3 so the parking is only really £2 and I can park there all day. Its not cheap by any stretch of the imagination but its way cheaper than most other parking in Glasgow. If I parked in the supermarket here for any more than two or three hours depending on which one it was (they all have different allowances) I would get a parking ticket.
melody23 wrote on February 27, 2015, 4:52 PM
Coming from where I come from originally I am used to a long commute, my commute to high school involved a ferry and two busses! When I started working in the city it was far worse than that. Its the time of day that's the problem really, its soul destroying setting the alarm for five am.
melody23 wrote on February 27, 2015, 4:58 PM
I cant speak for other health boards but no staff are allowed to park in car parks in any NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde hospitals, save a few people who have permits. I have no idea who these people are, or what they do that deserves a permit but at every hospital there are a few 'staff permit holders only' spaces, I have no idea who gets a permit, I have never met anyone that has one but I would guess its the managers who have never done a twelve hour shift in their lives. If we park in the car parks we get tickets because every car park has an attendant the bigger hospitals have blokes that zoom about on golf carts all day handing out parking fines.
1Its a really good ward I am on just now, just a bit of a pain to get to. The fun will start with my next placement which is closing down and moving to the new hospital during my time there - no idea how that's going to work.
melody23 wrote on February 27, 2015, 5:00 PM
Unfortunately our shifts are standard, 7.15 - 7.30 days or nights, I am on nights next week.
maxeen wrote on February 27, 2015, 5:01 PM
Gosh! Hope that doesn't happen here ,nothing is forever ! Hope you don't get a ticket...
melody23 wrote on February 27, 2015, 5:07 PM
That's why I pay the £2 extra to park in the subway car park, to make sure I don't get a ticket. Parking here is so bad, even where I live which is right on the outskirts of the city you struggle to get parked, tonight I had to park two streets over from where I live because it was the only place I could get a space, but at least we don't need to worry about parking permits or paying for parking here. I live quite near a football stadium and all round about it they have residents parking permits which mean that certain cars can only park in certain places.
BrenndaMarie wrote on March 1, 2015, 5:32 AM
Have a nice night try not to work to hard. You need to find some time for rest.
LilyDay wrote on March 1, 2015, 12:11 PM
It's too bad that there aren't better options available for you.
AliCanary wrote on March 2, 2015, 4:25 PM
Oh, my, it doesn't sound like fun at all. Do try to take care of yourself! Dehydration is unfriendly stuff.