Shifts

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate working shifts? I think I may have, one or two million times. Night shifts really mess up your social life. If you are working days then there is always the opportunity to meet people after work, but when you work nights you will find that there are very few people around during the daylight hours you have off to do anything with.
But the worst thing is the mess it makes of your sleep patterns.
I was working night shifts from 30th December through until yesterday morning at 7 (yes, I am going for the sympathy vote AGAIN, as I was at work when the New Year arrived and was not able to celebrate, I couldn't even see or hear any fireworks from where I was stuck!). While I was working those shifts I found that I was more tired than normal and found myself waking at around 15:30 each day. This gave me just 3 hours to myself each day before I had to leave for work again. Yesterday my shift finished at 7 (well 6:15 really as someone came in early for me, which made a pleasant change) and again I slept through until 15:30. When I woke I felt like most of my first day off was already gone. It felt so unfair.
Today though, I have woken up at 06:30 and, although it means I have ALL day to do stuff, I just know that I will be feeling it later when the tiredness catches up with me!

I have likened myself with a blackbird that lives around where I do. (I'm making the assumption that it is the same bird each time). Birds are meant to sing at a specific time each day aren't they? Well where I am I hear this blackbird singing at all times of the day. First thing in the morning, as I come home from work, during the middle of the day and, last night, I even heard it singing as I went to bed at 01:30!! The poor thing his internal clock seems to be as f*ck*d as mine!!