Here we go again…another weekend of summer fun begins tonight
Two of the teams from my station have managed to co-ordinate their diaries and combine the remains of their pocket-money and are off for a night out in the city. No doubt the evening will be a long and glorious one with evidence, both good and bad, being broadcast via social media. Perhaps tonight will be the night some of those locker room rumours will be proved as fact or fiction. One thing is certain, it will not pass without something to fuel the grapevine for the next few weeks…
Ironically, however, am not going to be involved in writing the latest chapter of the Divisional History Books. My team is on early shift tomorrow and, as such, are not forming part of the drinking party tonight. Instead, I shall be sitting around a fire-pit with my nearest and dearest having a bite to eat, a quiet drink or two discussing the highlights of the week just gone and trying to work out the how we are going to balance the childcare, work and (most importantly) fun over the remainder of the summer break.
Sadly, summer fun is already a distant memory for some – we have had a spate of motorcycle and young-driver fatalities in this part of the county over the last couple of weeks. I have seen the utter devastation that these tragedies cause. I have knocked on the doors, and gone through the screams and the tears with too many families already.
It’s a long time, for me, since a spell of good weather has simply meant an opportunity for a BBQ or a trip to the beach. The beer flows freely, the music gets turned up in the cars, the tarmac gets sticky, the bikers get brave and don’t even get me started on mixing sports bikes and t-shirts…
So, as my colleagues start their evening of fun, and I prepare to start my week of policing I just hope that, for one week, we can all bathe in the summer sun without yet another knock on a door
