After Duty Ritual

This Blog Post was originally published on adagia.org.

Although I’m not sure if this applies to all paramedics, I think most of us do something after their duty/shift.

As you might have guessed by now, I was doing a Paramedic shift today (from 7am till 7pm). I wasn’t on duty for over a month, so I was looking forward to it. A few missions later, fast forward to my ritual :)

The first thing to do when coming home getting rid of the uniform and take a hot shower. Nothing disconnects you more from the day than that. After that, I put on my pyjamas (even if I do a night shift).

Then it is time to decide what to eat (normally some junk food, today, it is a pizza out of the freezer and some olives).  While the meal is preparing, I go to my whisky “shrine”, which I’ve got in my living room and decide what to drink (Tomatin it is today). Sometimes I also grab a beer. I’m not drinking to get drunk, but I don’t want to drink water or some kind of

Then the hard part comes, deciding which movie to watch. Sometimes I watch TV shows, but I don’t want to invest 20 episodes after a long shift. This takes the longest most of the time (for example, today).

After eating and watching a movie, I’m normally really tired (well, the alcohol also plays a role), and it is time to go to sleep. And that is pretty much it. Now, I really need to decide what to watch. My pizza gets cold :)