Nightwork

Shaun of the Dead

Here I am, a product of the modern age. Sitting in my workmate Gary's fold-out beach chair typing on my Panasonic toughbook, connected via bluetooth to my Nokia 6630 running on a proper 3G network.

From my deckchair I can connect to work through a secure client VPN circuit and check my emails and network updates- surprisingly few new emails at 00:23 - why are they all at home sleeping while I work!

For the last three weeks, I have lived the life of a vampire, sans the obvious bloodletting. We are upgrading software on cellular switches called BSC's (a fancy name for a cellphone "telephone exchange"). We have to re-boot the systems after the upgrade which drop all customers on calls at the time, hence the 1am start. Then with fingers crossed, we await the switch restart, then embark on numerous tests to ensure all is well before we go home at around 4am to sleep.

The problem with this plan of attack is that we become like the walking dead during the day. We have to check out of the hotels we stay in at 10am, but more often the sun streaming in though the blinds wake us long before then. We have actually taken to "nanna naps" during the day, something I havent done since I was three.

Tonight is the last night - the trouble is now I cant get to sleep until 2am, so the cycle of sleep will take a while to change. Unfortunately I end up sleeping through most of my weekend.

Gary at work