Death To Smoochy

I basically spent the whole morning and afternoon in bed making up for the hours of sleep that I lost during the night shift last night.

But as a result, I have now become a nocturnal mammal.

Seriously though, these night shifts really stuff up your 'bio-clock'. Times when you're meant to be sleeping, you're awake. And times when you're meant to be asleep, you're awake. I reckon I could move to the US about now and not suffer from jet lag.
Sure, I could try to do what I've been doing and try to 'save' my sleepiness for the night so I could sleep for 12 hours or so by turning in early. But what does that do? It leaves my head spinning in the morning because of the lack of sleep.

You see, calculating the hours of sleep, the afternoon before the night shift, I'd try to get some sleep - maybe an hour or two. Then, as I rock up for the night shift, I'd lose 7 hours of sleep, because I'd try get at least 9hrs of sleep.

Coming back at around 9am after my shift, I'd sleep for 6 hours till 3pm. But hey! My body is thinking I've only slept for 6 hours and not 9! So I'm still missing those 3 extra hours. And it's because of that that I'd still be groggy.

That's when I'm faced with two choices. Sleep some more till 6pm where I'd have made up those hours lost the previous night, leaving me pretty much nocturnal for the right of the night, or stay awake and endure fatigue till evening. Unfortunately for me, I've tried the second option many times and each time, I end up feeling really awful in the morning. The last time I tried it, my head was spinning the moment I woke up. It lasted till that night when I finally slept at the correct time again.

However, this time! I've decided to test out option number one. I've slept till 6pm but I had a 3 hour interval from 12pm because I was awoken to the sound of noisy relatives outside. I can recall someone, who I believe was my nephew, banging on some sort of metal object. It sounded something like a pot of some sort. But for those who know me, I don't usually wake up all that easily. Not even if you're blasting music in the same room, I'd still sleep soundly.

But somehow, the volume created this afternoon was amazingly sufficient to wake me up from my deep slumber.

Anyway, it's not that I'm complaining. All I'm saying is that, now, I've turned nocturnal and I'm free to blog! LoL. Yeah. All that blabbing I did above was just so that I could say that I am now free to blog. hehe


Sarah has given me some additional inspiration to blog a bit more about my life in the Police Division. And so now thanks to her, I now have something I know I can blog about! lol

During our previous night shift, we had 3 cases of '32's come in. The term '32' relates to people of unsound mind. Insane. Mentally blank. Idiot. Stupid. Ok, maybe stupid is a bit far, but you get the idea.

From the look of them all, the last 32 that was brought in was the youngest. Probably around his late teens to early twenties. He was like completely oblivious to what was going on. When we were trying to bring him into the Temporary Holding Bay, he resisted said to the officer, "I don't want to die."

The officer bringing him in said, "What? Aiyah, you won't die. Just sit in there. C'mon." Yet, he still refused to move. They were motionless for another few seconds before they told him to remove his glasses as well. But being a 32 and all, it seemed as though nothing was going into his head. He had this really blank look; as if we spoke some alien language and he didn't know we were talking to him.

After finally handcuffing him inside, he sat quietly for a while. Few minutes passed till, one of the officer saw that he was standing towards the corner of the THB and looked as though he was gonna urinate in the corner. It would be very frustrating if he actually did because it would mean cleaning up and at 4-5am, which cleaner would be awake and on duty during those hours? None of course. So it would mean we would have to do it.

But that was not the highlight of the night. The highlight of the night was when one of the 32 went completely bonkers. Fun for me cause I was the first one to spot him acting funny.

Being handcuffed to a metal railing behind the seats, he suddenly stood up, turned around, and started to kick the railing. He repetitively kicked the railing till his end of the railing was actually out of its socket. I actually didn't notice it till I heard all that banging. I looked at the THB and saw him hacking at it with his foot.

I leaped off my seat and shouted at the guy, "Oi! Hey!" banging against the glass window I shouted until I eventually caught his attention, "Oi! What are you doing!?" I purposely pointed my finger at him as I gave him this pissed off aggressive look to intimidate the fella. I'm not sure if he took to it because he too stared back at me, as though he was the boss. After another few seconds of staring, he turned back again and started to kick the railing again. I shouted even louder, "HEY!" By then, all the officers in the vicinity came to the scene and confronted the guy. The 32 turned around again and stared at me again and I stared back. I wasn't worried because I was still behind the glass but the other female accused who was brought in was like a bit panicky and was like giving me this 'What should I do?' look. I briefly directed her to follow the female officer, pointing the female accused to the corner as I continued my stare down with this 32. The regular at the scene asked me to retrieve the other regulars who had just left a few moments ago as my friend, who was equipped with a T-Baton, confronted the guy, speaking in Hokkien.

It wasn't long till I returned back to the scene with my friend at the mouth of the entrance of the THB. He tried to ask what in the world the guy was trying to do, and he told me that all he was speaking was gibberish. All he could pick out was that the 32 said a chinese idiom. It was something like, "Blood will flow like rivers."


Actually, at the time when I heard about it, it really didn't seem like anything. To be frank, we don't take anything the accused say during their stay in our custody seriously. Most of them are nut case and some just insane.

But after typing it back here; after quoting, "I don't want to die," and, "blood will flow like rivers." It does sound a bit freaky. Doesn't it? Well, to me it does; especially when I'm the one encountering stuff like this. lol


Well, those are most of the interesting situations I have had to face during the few shifts that I have been doing. It's really interesting to be in this industry. You see a whole lot of things that people normally wouldn't get to see. I'm sure if I didn't get in there, I wouldn't have seen some of the things I have seen to date and of course, there will always be plenty more I won't get to see, or at least don't hope to see. For example, my friend was dispatched to a multi-storey suicide case on his first day as a neighbourhood police officer. How freaky is that!? I've seen pics of people dying like that and it really ain't pretty. Cases where people hang themselves too. It can be really messy when the police find them.

Anyway, I won't go into too much detail. I can hardly stand the sight of it. That's why I'm not into anything medical. The last job I'll probably wanna get would be to become a coroner. Eeek!


If there's one thing I've learnt so far, it would be this. I've realised just recently that I will not like to use a squat toilet to poo. The old man who was under our safe custody showed me all the 'disgustingness' of pooing in a squat toilet and I won't like it at all. haha

Nah, but in all seriousness, this whole Police experience has really given me something to think about. After seeing all these sad cases of people dying and going insane and people doing illegal stuff, it makes me really grateful for what I have. For who I know. For who I am. I would be shattered if I were to see any of the things that I've seen so far happen to people I know. Takes the perspective of life to a whole new dimension. Let's just hope none of you will be victims of what I've witnessed so far..