Yet again this week I have not been performing my usual post quota – could it be the novelty is wearing off? No! I’d never give up this my own private soapbox on which I can share my views and news with the world. Instead I was unable to post due to medical problems, just not my own.
On Tuesday night when I came home about 6pm Michelle, who had taken the day off, had still not returned from the pub lunch she had went to with friends at around 2pm. When she did come in she was happy to see me, if fact she was happy to see most things thanks to the four Long Vodkas she had had during lunch. However after an hour or two she was a little less jovial and suffering from a headache, which I naturally teased and showed no sympathy for being the pillar of sobriety that I am. Pitiless am I am to the hangover sufferer I did find it a little weird when she started feeling nauseous – Michelle may be a light weigh in the holding your booze department but upchucking after four drinks? I don’t think so.
Soon after the nausea presented (that’s my ER-esk way of saying started) Michelle was being physically sick, in fact violently sick – this I knew was not due to four drinks. Once the sickness stated it didn’t stop, at all.
At 1 o’clock in the morning Michelle, still being sick, was now beginning to lose consciousness and was visibly thinner and I did what I should have done hours before and called the NHS Helpline. The nurse I spoke to told me to take Michelle to an after-hours clinic and made and appointment for her at Hairmyres for 1:30am that night. I quickly helped Michelle get dressed and phoned a taxi to take us down to the clinic. When we went out to get the taxi Michelle and collapsed at the door to the close and the taxi drove away, the driver shouting to me to phone an ambulance as he went.
I had left my phone in the flat, Michelle was barley conscious at the door of the close and I didn’t know what to do. I decided to get the phone, which meant leaving Michelle in the close – not my favourite decision, but then bad decisions seemed to be my forte that night and what else was I going to do?
The ambulance, lights flashing, took about five minutes to come – it felt like an hour. Once it arrived Michelle was quickly hooked up to monitor, her blood pressure taken, given oxygen, blood was taken and she was hooked up to a drip. I was to put it in the most accurate terms ‘shitting myself’ so you can imagine how Michelle must have felt (turns out not too bad – she was completely out of it).
We left the hospital at four or five in the morning, Michelle was pretty much the same, but they had given her an injection to stop the sickness (for a while) and said the best place for her was to be at home. I never slept, and Michelle didn’t much either as she was soon being sick again.
Over the whole of Wednesday Michelle showed no improvement but was thankfully able to fall into a deep sleep around 4pm which was largely undisturbed until the next morning. As much as I appreciated everyone’s concern I was unable to sleep until eleven that night due to constant phone calls and being overtired.
Today is Sunday and Michelle seems fine, and is as we speak demanding bacon sandwiches for breakfast, The loss of appetite that came with the sickness having subsided sometime yesterday.
If you’re wondering her illness was called Gastroenteritis (gastric flu), I’ve provided a link so you can look it up – it sounds a lot better than it was.
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Expressing Our Anger At Optical Retailer
Please read the letter I have ghost written for Michelle for details on how were shafted by a major retail Opticians. I have omited the name of the opticain for I fear I might be sued (like that many people read this - but I read about a similar incident in the paper).
Dear Sir or Madam:
Sometime during the month of February 2004 I was administered an eye test in your store and given a prescription of 0.2505 in my right eye and 0.7505 in my left eye. I then purchased Merino glasses along with another set with tinted lenses for which I paid the sum of £209.
I the last few months I have been experiencing headaches and loss of focus in my vision. I naturally assumed that I might require a new prescription and so visited another retail optician for an eye test. The results of this test showed that I do not require and should never have been prescribed glasses in the first place.
I also contacted my doctor regarding my headaches and loss of focus and I was advised that it was possible both ailments were caused by wearing the glasses that ******* ******* provided me.
At the time of purchasing the glasses I was prescribed by ******* ******* I had recently bought a new flat and was trying to overcome debt from the Christmas period and therefore would not have such a pricey purchase unless I believed it were necessary.
At this time I am now left with a £209 pair of glasses which I do not need and still suffering from loss of focus and headaches from wearing an incorrect prescription that I was given by ******* *******. I demand that action be taken on this matter in order to compensate the waste of my time, money and the damage to health.
I would appreciate a swift response on this issue.
Sincerely,
Michelle Dowling
Dear Sir or Madam:
Sometime during the month of February 2004 I was administered an eye test in your store and given a prescription of 0.2505 in my right eye and 0.7505 in my left eye. I then purchased Merino glasses along with another set with tinted lenses for which I paid the sum of £209.
I the last few months I have been experiencing headaches and loss of focus in my vision. I naturally assumed that I might require a new prescription and so visited another retail optician for an eye test. The results of this test showed that I do not require and should never have been prescribed glasses in the first place.
I also contacted my doctor regarding my headaches and loss of focus and I was advised that it was possible both ailments were caused by wearing the glasses that ******* ******* provided me.
At the time of purchasing the glasses I was prescribed by ******* ******* I had recently bought a new flat and was trying to overcome debt from the Christmas period and therefore would not have such a pricey purchase unless I believed it were necessary.
At this time I am now left with a £209 pair of glasses which I do not need and still suffering from loss of focus and headaches from wearing an incorrect prescription that I was given by ******* *******. I demand that action be taken on this matter in order to compensate the waste of my time, money and the damage to health.
I would appreciate a swift response on this issue.
Sincerely,
Michelle Dowling
Monday, April 11, 2005
Full Lid
As I write this I am acutely aware that I have to make this entry much more interesting that my previous lacklustre post, thankfully I had a busy weekend so it shouldn’t be too hard.
When I woke up on Saturday morning at around 8am, my phone rang almost immediately. It was Jim, with whom I had made arrangements to join on a quest to a building site at Leavendale to ‘liberate’ a hand towel style radiator. Unfortunately an hour later we discovered that Jim’s man on the inside had failed to leave the ‘merchandise’ at the agreed place and we were going home empty handed.
Almost as soon as I got home I was back out again to go to Asda for the ‘big shop’ with my mum – on which I spent about £70 on the biggest pile of crap you could fill a giant fridge freezer with.
Back from Asda, I had half an hours rest before meeting Dave at the bookies to waste my money on a host of losers in the Grand National Even more upsetting than the loss was the fact that I upped my bets from previous years having picked the winner three years in a row.
While at the bookies I had got a text from Stuart inviting me up to Mark’s (not Sparkie) for some X-Box. I wasn’t too sure where Mark lived so I arranged to meet Stoo up at the water tower at Greenhills. While I was waiting I saw a girl getting into a car looking over, she was wearing a hood though so couldn’t see who it was at the time – turned out it was Maxine, Jim’s finance who was coming out of her mum and dad’s – small world.
Michelle and I were going for dinner that night at 8 o’clock so when I realised half way through a game of Halo that it was 7:25 – I was fairly certain I’d be getting’ ma baws toed off Michelle. I phoned a taxi and was down the road for twenty-five minutes to 8 and ready in a record 3 minutes flat which left me waiting until quarter to 8 until Michelle, who had been home for an hour, finished getting ready.
Dinner was okay, the meal was nice, but it was slightly spoiled by the ‘Bamtastic’ couples beside us, one of whom at one point suggested to his girl friend near the end of the night that they ‘get a wee gram of coke and head down to Centre Point’. Classy you’ll agree.
When we got home – there was an amusing conversation with my drunken parents (well at least my dad was – not sure about my mum) but as I have written close to 500 words at this point I feel I should wind this post up.
I also have Sunday to talk about but if I’m being honest there’s not too much to report except Michelle and I being shafted out of just shy of £200 by a major retail opticians. Trust me – you’ll hear all about it.
When I woke up on Saturday morning at around 8am, my phone rang almost immediately. It was Jim, with whom I had made arrangements to join on a quest to a building site at Leavendale to ‘liberate’ a hand towel style radiator. Unfortunately an hour later we discovered that Jim’s man on the inside had failed to leave the ‘merchandise’ at the agreed place and we were going home empty handed.
Almost as soon as I got home I was back out again to go to Asda for the ‘big shop’ with my mum – on which I spent about £70 on the biggest pile of crap you could fill a giant fridge freezer with.
Back from Asda, I had half an hours rest before meeting Dave at the bookies to waste my money on a host of losers in the Grand National Even more upsetting than the loss was the fact that I upped my bets from previous years having picked the winner three years in a row.
While at the bookies I had got a text from Stuart inviting me up to Mark’s (not Sparkie) for some X-Box. I wasn’t too sure where Mark lived so I arranged to meet Stoo up at the water tower at Greenhills. While I was waiting I saw a girl getting into a car looking over, she was wearing a hood though so couldn’t see who it was at the time – turned out it was Maxine, Jim’s finance who was coming out of her mum and dad’s – small world.
Michelle and I were going for dinner that night at 8 o’clock so when I realised half way through a game of Halo that it was 7:25 – I was fairly certain I’d be getting’ ma baws toed off Michelle. I phoned a taxi and was down the road for twenty-five minutes to 8 and ready in a record 3 minutes flat which left me waiting until quarter to 8 until Michelle, who had been home for an hour, finished getting ready.
Dinner was okay, the meal was nice, but it was slightly spoiled by the ‘Bamtastic’ couples beside us, one of whom at one point suggested to his girl friend near the end of the night that they ‘get a wee gram of coke and head down to Centre Point’. Classy you’ll agree.
When we got home – there was an amusing conversation with my drunken parents (well at least my dad was – not sure about my mum) but as I have written close to 500 words at this point I feel I should wind this post up.
I also have Sunday to talk about but if I’m being honest there’s not too much to report except Michelle and I being shafted out of just shy of £200 by a major retail opticians. Trust me – you’ll hear all about it.
Friday, April 08, 2005
Blah
As sure as I am that I have to leave, I have to say that work has for the first week since starting here flown by this week. My volume of work has been so plentiful that I have not only missed every lunch break this week but I have also been staying late and taking work home. I didn’t even email Laura yesterday! (that’s when I know I’m really busy)
Back on the home front (when I wasn’t working from there) theirs not much to report, applied to a few jobs, Sparkie came round for a while on Tuesday, I got a hair cut and mostly I’ve been watching the variety of US shows I’ve been downloading (The O.C. is the mutts nuts I don’t care what no one says).
I’ve been writing again, I’m finally getting closer to a definitive plan for my story and the last of my ‘final’ drafts.
Well that was all fairly humdrum, usually when I write Blog like this I launch into one of my ‘Three Weeks in ‘98’ stories…
Back on the home front (when I wasn’t working from there) theirs not much to report, applied to a few jobs, Sparkie came round for a while on Tuesday, I got a hair cut and mostly I’ve been watching the variety of US shows I’ve been downloading (The O.C. is the mutts nuts I don’t care what no one says).
I’ve been writing again, I’m finally getting closer to a definitive plan for my story and the last of my ‘final’ drafts.
Well that was all fairly humdrum, usually when I write Blog like this I launch into one of my ‘Three Weeks in ‘98’ stories…
Monday, April 04, 2005
Big Gay Grown Up Week
My uncharacteristic lack of rigorously regular daily posts can be directly attributed to my equally uncharacteristic busy week.
The fact that my desk now faces that of the Managing Director in work is undoubtedly also factor in my lack of updates but I have to say not the deciding factor in why I was not posting from my office chair. After my ‘enough’s enough’ sending out of the CV’s and letters last week my work load seems to have quadrupled, keeping me busy throughout the day (and till 6 o’clock on Thursday night). Don’t get me wrong, the work I’m doing is still that of a trained monkey and I still want to leave, but at least I don’t have much time to think about how insulting to my intelligence the tasks I’m given are.
Away from work was also I was also having a busy, but certainly more pleasant time in what was described by some as ‘gay’. On Thursday night David had arranged a night out with the boy’s, myself included. Nothing wrong with that I think you’ll agree, but apparently the fact that we were not going down to the pub or dancing and instead going for a meal together meant we were ‘Lady Boys’. In fact -Lady Boy’s who lunch. Despite the immature sniggers at our meal together it was a good night – everyone was a little disappointed that Sparkie and Jim didn’t make it but despite this we had a good laugh and were up the road before midnight like responsible adults. We were all working the next day after all…
My next ‘grown up’ social event was the Oxymoron that was ‘Gay Couples Night’. Nigel had planned this from the previous Saturday and on Thursday night I was pleased to hear that others thought the concept of a ‘couples night’ was a strange and middle age activity. In fact it was the naming of the gathering as ‘couple’s night’ which brought forth some kind of ominous pressure that we’d all have to be… ‘coupley’, it was not as if everyone who was going would not have went anyway. If I had been asked to drop my keys in a bowl, I would have been out of there faster that…um… well… I’d be fast is what I’m saying (I’ve never good with metaphors).
Despite my apprehension and Michelle’s worries that none the other girls (who she barley know thanks to my three year long exile from going out) would talk to her the night was great. We had the best time we’ve had in ages and any preconceived awkwardness faded away when we walked through the door.
The fact that my desk now faces that of the Managing Director in work is undoubtedly also factor in my lack of updates but I have to say not the deciding factor in why I was not posting from my office chair. After my ‘enough’s enough’ sending out of the CV’s and letters last week my work load seems to have quadrupled, keeping me busy throughout the day (and till 6 o’clock on Thursday night). Don’t get me wrong, the work I’m doing is still that of a trained monkey and I still want to leave, but at least I don’t have much time to think about how insulting to my intelligence the tasks I’m given are.
Away from work was also I was also having a busy, but certainly more pleasant time in what was described by some as ‘gay’. On Thursday night David had arranged a night out with the boy’s, myself included. Nothing wrong with that I think you’ll agree, but apparently the fact that we were not going down to the pub or dancing and instead going for a meal together meant we were ‘Lady Boys’. In fact -Lady Boy’s who lunch. Despite the immature sniggers at our meal together it was a good night – everyone was a little disappointed that Sparkie and Jim didn’t make it but despite this we had a good laugh and were up the road before midnight like responsible adults. We were all working the next day after all…
My next ‘grown up’ social event was the Oxymoron that was ‘Gay Couples Night’. Nigel had planned this from the previous Saturday and on Thursday night I was pleased to hear that others thought the concept of a ‘couples night’ was a strange and middle age activity. In fact it was the naming of the gathering as ‘couple’s night’ which brought forth some kind of ominous pressure that we’d all have to be… ‘coupley’, it was not as if everyone who was going would not have went anyway. If I had been asked to drop my keys in a bowl, I would have been out of there faster that…um… well… I’d be fast is what I’m saying (I’ve never good with metaphors).
Despite my apprehension and Michelle’s worries that none the other girls (who she barley know thanks to my three year long exile from going out) would talk to her the night was great. We had the best time we’ve had in ages and any preconceived awkwardness faded away when we walked through the door.
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