This is Getting Real – My Friend

I mentioned in the last blog that Carol and I were off to the Rams Fundraising Ball last weekend and that I was acting as photographer for the evening. Well, I shouldn’t give up my day job to become an actor is all I can say. I’d had a pretty rough day on Friday, after the trek over to Oxford I was feeling tired and a bit rough. My brief for the evening was to get as many shots as possible of the various guests at the ball, including table shots and specifically shots of Nick Easter. I just wasn’t up to it I’m afraid. We were sat on a table with guys from Camp Mohawk, the clubs charity partner. I felt like a total lemon as I couldn’t make conversation as with background noise my voice just wasn’t strong enough to be heard. Carol and I left as soon as we could and by the time I got home I hit the morphine bottle big time, probably too big as Saturday was a daze to me. In the end I published around 20 shots, when I should have been looking closer on 60 / 70. Hindsight is a wonderful gift, I should have passed the baton onto someone else for the evening. 

A friend of mine is playing a gig on Friday evening with his band in Reading He’d suggested that perhaps I’d like to go along and take some shots of them on stage. For once I’ve been sensible enough to decline the offer, as again, I don’t think I’d do the evening justice. Anyway, I’ve been going to bed by 9.30, I doubt they’ll even be on stage by then. I did manage to get some shots done this week. The Rams Ladies side, The Sirens, had their first pre-season training session on Wednesday evening, so I popped up and took a few pics of the ladies getting rather sweaty in the 25 degree heat! Of course I managed to get the obligatory shot of Amy Parsons with her “Game Face” in place 

 – Amy really likes the shots I take of her in action, or I think she does, it’s not always easy to gauge her reaction via her FB comments, as I'm not sure of the meaning of some of the words shes uses. There’s a special introduction to girls rugby being held at Rams on Sunday, and depending on how I feel I’ll try and get up to take some publicity shots for them to use. The rise of girls / ladies rugby is quite amazing in the Berkshire area at the moment, long may it continue.

It took until Tuesday for me to feel vaguely human again. A decent night’s sleep certainly helped, for once I wasn’t awake at 4am with my mind going 20 to the dozen. I actually felt quite “Buzzed” all day, a good breakfast, full lunch and a decent dinner all scoffed down for the first time in a couple of weeks. But, by Wednesday it was back to picking at food and drinking gallons of water to get the stuff down without gagging, very much a case of losing on the swings and losing on the roundabouts. By Friday I was back down to a pretty low point I’m afraid. My stomach has been reacting in a rather unpleasant way to the morphine and I haven’t quite managed to balance up the different potions available to me to counter the after effects.

The procedure I’m going to undertake is now becoming a reality. I’ve joked my way through this over the past couple of weeks, but it’s now looming up close. There’s just over a week to go and my mind keeps thinking that “This time next week…….” thought. The things I’m dreading the most are being fed by a tube until the wound has sealed properly. That’ll probably take up to ten days. The other main issue is trying to work out the best way to communicate whilst I can’t speak. The option of recording voice messages doesn’t really work as I can’t speak well enough to actually record anything. I guess it’ll be a case of sign language or writing messages down. A number of people have promised to come and see me whilst I’m holed up digging the escape tunnel, and for that I’m extremely grateful, but please don’t expect to have a full blown political argument with me, it ain’t going to happen, and PS, I don’t really like grapes, unless they’ve been crushed and made into a rather decent Malbec. The lack of voice is something I’m going to have to get used to, it won’t be a quick process to get any sort of voice back once the operation has been completed. I’m damn sure that I will get extremely frustrated during that time, so ahead of the game I’ll apologise now to anyone I lose my rag with. At least I won’t be able to shout at you.

I’ve been following a friend of mine on FB who’s currently out in NZ for the Lions tour, some of the photo’s he’s posted up have been truly wonderful, showing off the country in all its glory, albeit they’ve been well wrapped up against the elements of a NZ winter. Luckily he’s from Scotland, so I suspect he’s still got sunburnt on his bonce. It got me thinking of “Bucket List” type things that Carol and I should be looking to do once I’m back on my feet. I know it’s a long way off, but South Africa 2021 with the Lions has been added to the (ever growing) list. The Lions will probably have a better chance of winning in SA than in NZ too.

The forecast for the weekend is looking pretty darn good, so we’ll try and make the most of it. Carol suggested that as the neighbours are away we could do a spot of naked sunbathing to top up the tans, not sure Max and Anna thought it was the best idea in the world though. We’re off to Nino’s tomorrow night for the last family meal together for a while. Anna, after a week in Centre Parks, is leaving for Leeds and her new life as an employee rather than a student on Sunday. Max has his final A Level on Monday and then no doubt he’ll be deservedly putting his feet up for the summer after working hard at his exams. (I’ll be nagging him to get a job from the day after I get out of hospital!).

Another fairly short update as it really is a case of treading water until the operation. I think next week is going to be an emotional rollercoaster, but we’ll get through it.

The next post will probably be a week on Sunday, just before I go in to the Churchill.

However you’ve come across this blog, be it Google, Facebook, Twitter (@Honest Father, hope you’ve retweeted!) or some other form of electronic magic, as always thank you for reading.

To be continued……..

#Shoulder2Shoulder