Happy new year???

It was all going so well.I could have almost used the Q word. But then on the stroke of Midnight to herald in 2007 it was as if someone pulled a switch and then battle commenced. As clock struck midnight i was in a front garden on a council estate trying to keep apart feuding neighbours, one of whom decided to see in the new year by throwing a concrete slab through the others window.Lovely. As the neighbours were venting their fury on one another, pretty fireworks exploded above our heads in a cacophony of colour. With that and the mayhem on the ground, i got some flavour of what our troops must be dealing with in downtown Basra. Anyway, arrests were made and this charming area of the town returned to some kind of order. Maybe it's because i wear rose tinted glasses but i always see the new year as a transitional period where people can step back and say to themselves 'this year i will try to be a better person and behave accordingly' but alas, this never happens or if it does it wears out by January the 3rd.

As for the rest of the night, it was the usual round of drunken domestics, criminal damage, suicide attempts etc. One pleasing moment for me however was when i had to assist an ambulance crew to gain entry to a house where a male had taken a handful of pills and could'nt answer the door. We arrived with no Method of entry kit and only a short crowbar in the boot of our car. In a vein attempt to open the UPVC front door (always the worst to open) i tried to 'jemmy' the door open by brute force and ignorance. I inserted the bar in the door frame near to the lock and pushed. The door then made a satisfying pop and then swung open with little or no effort. Fantastic. Also i managed to locate the keys for the door in the flat (The gentleman inside was incoherent and could not tell me where they were) and secure the door again without the need of a locksmith and potentially hours of waiting. It was a small victory, but it made me happy. The gentleman was then whisked of to the local hospital to be looked after.

Amazingly, i managed to get off duty only half an hour late which in my book is an achievement for a new year.