I had a job that required me to undertake an extended role.

The call came down as 'Patient's own hospital bed broken, patient stuck', rather predictably I had visions of some little old lady folded in two by an electric bed.

The 'patient', as it were was sitting in their chair, he husband was running around flapping and the domestic carer was looking confused.

The bed was a type that I had never seen before, it had a hydraulic ram underneath it which tipped the mattress on end by 90 degrees, I suppose so the patient sort of 'slides' into an upright position.

The bed was stuck in this upright position - if the sheets had been black it would have looked like the Monolith from 2001.

After some fiddling around (a technical term) I managed to get it into the horizontal position and checked that it would raise and lower as designed. I'm grateful for my various experiences fixing broken things.

So ten minutes later, after pointing out the rather large print on his bed's instruction folder (Which said 'Emergency out of hours technician ring 0800 xxxx'), and we left another satisfied customer.

I decided to have a joke with Control.

"Control, The patient's bed is fixed, I'll do my paperwork for this job then I'll be ready for any blocked gutters or windows that need fixing".

Funny how people panic and call us...