Vaccine success and vertical drinking

It's been a month or so since my last post and that's largely because the work at EICC has been mostly slow and unremarkable.

Most shifts are quiet to start with and pick up a bit as the day progresses. This makes sense when many of our clients are drop-ins rather than appointments. Few people think of dropping in between 8 and 9am unsurprisingly.

My shift patterns at EICC are the oddest thing to report. Not sure if a human or an algorithm sets the staff rosters but it is far less varied than the shift pattern at QMU. For the whole of July I have only worked 07:30 to 15:30 shifts and only later in the week (Thu, Fri, Sat or Sun), despite availability throughout the week. However next month's shifts appeared recently and they were even odder.

Again only shifts in the second half of the week and now only four hour stints! So 15:30 to 19:30 Thu, Fri, Sat Sun, then the same days the following week but 11:30 to 15:30. I'm quite sure I do not want to be working 4 days a week. I'm happy to do the occasional 4hr shift if necessary or helpful but not for a whole month. I will get these changed.

Meanwhile we continue to offer all three vaccines to all relevant takers. I vaccinated my first couple of sixteen year-olds this last weekend. The policy is so new that our information and paperwork is yet to catch up! From what we have I was not able to let them know when or if they would receive a second vaccine as the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation apparently have not yet made a decision on this. I presume it will be 8 weeks like the rest of the population but who knows. Watch the news to find out.

I have not been on it yet but the vaccine bus has been out and about across Lothian and appears to be going down well. They are often very busy in their various locations. I hope and presume such outreach work will continue especially in the outer reaches of Edinburgh and the wider Lothians as well as on University and College campuses over the first few weeks of students starting back.

The overall pandemic statistics are looking reasonably optimistic at the moment and strongly suggest that vaccinations are working well. Hopefully that will continue to be the case long into the future. As I write, lockdown restrictions have finally mostly all gone and we will see how that impacts on infection rates over the next three weeks or so. I am currently cautiously optimistic and really looking forward to attending some Fringe and Festival theatre shows over the next few weeks. As well as indulging in the newly renamed pastime of vertical drinking!

If all goes fairly well and smoothly there may only be a couple of more blogs from me as my present contract will expire at the end of October and I will then drift quietly back into full retirement. Unless of course I don’t! “Events dear boy events”


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