I realised recently that I hadn't done a blog entry for quite some time. I believe this is down to a few contributing factors, one, I'm having quite a busy and fun social life here, that is literally devouring my time. Two, I've been ill for almost 3 weeks out of the past two months (and complaining about it for an additional 2). And three, laziness. But, quite a few blog-worthy things have happened, so, here they are, in no particular chronological order.
Robbie. Yes, of the Williams variety. I went to see him play a gig. Now, you may be wondering if I've gone a wee bit wrong in the head, but I assure you, no, I have not. Mostly, the reason I went was that it was FREE. Now, this alone may not of been quite enough to entice me down, but fortunately (or not) it was located literally 5 minutes walk from my apartment. So, on a somewhat grey afternoon I found myself taking a short stroll down to the mauerpark to find a large crowd of people (of the younger variety), then doing my best to spot a teeny weeny Robbie Williams in the distance, bouncing around, singing crappy songs. To be honest though, it was quite a fun experience.
Robbie, Jesus posing.
The other big event of late was a little trip to the hospital. It started as a rather bland Monday afternoon, felt a little on the queasy side but nothing too serious. Must be something I ate, I thought. A couple of hours later the vomiting began, not the most pleasant, but I figured whatever had upset one's stomach was now working its way through the sewer system, done. I popped out for a brief appearance at a Birthday gathering (where they had rather amazing looking Indian food that I couldn't eat! One has not had a good Indian in rather a long time.), returned home and discovered that my stomach was not quite finished with me. A rather gruelling 4 hours then followed where either end of my body competed to see which could expel the most, slowly at first, and then gathering pace like they were in a race. By the end of the 4 hours I'd evacuated pretty much all the liquids in my body and resembled a prune-ish white ghost. I half collapsed a couple of times, was unable to walk for a little while and had the curious experience of my arms and face going 90% numb.
So, to say I was in a bad state, would be an understatement. Fortunately I'd been in constant contact with a friend here, foreseeing my decline a little and warning them that I may need some assistance. From my (fuzzy) memory, I think that over the space of about 30 minutes it went from "Can you find me a late night doctor", to "I may need to go to the hospital, where is one" to "I'm about to pass out and can't get up off the bed, call me an ambulance". Which, thankfully, she did. Five minutes later there were two nice gruff German ambulance men who didn't speak a word of English at my door (which I'd managed to open and kind of jam myself in-between it and the frame so they could find me). They then spent about 20 minutes running various tests and asking me varied questions before deciding that yes, I was quite fucked up and should be taken to hospital.
I got to sit in a little red padded wheel chair in the back of the ambulance and be whisked around (no sirens though, I seemingly wasn't ill enough for such excitements), with my brain flicking between passing out, being in a lot of pain and thinking "Hmm, this is pretty cool, I'm in a fucking ambulance. Its just like TV!". I was plonked upon a little bed when I arrived and a nurse came and stuck a huge needle in one's arm, drew a pint of blood and then attached a huge bag of saline to me. I then spent an indeterminate amount of time watching this bag drip into my veins, whilst at the same time absolutely freezing my arse off. I was shivering so much that if you'd walked in, you would of assumed I was being electrocuted. I did manage (after some time) to get the attention of one of the nurses, who after me telling them of my freezing condition, went off and brought me what appeared to be a large sheet of tissue paper. After covering me up with it, they seemed satisfied that this was enough, smiled and disappeared, leaving me to my shivering fun.
All in all, I was on the bed for around 4 or 5 hours. Being poked, proded, tested and eventually injected with a series of drugs from little test tubes, combined with another bag of (I presume) saline, and a couple of glass bottles of stuff (potassium I think). My two views for this entire expereince where as follows :
mmmm, saline.
The ceiling.
An hour or so more of observation, to make sure that I wasn't about to die anymore, and they kicked me out onto the street, literally. It was at this point that I realised some of the drugs they had given me had made me a little high. And that I had no idea where I was. Thankfully I'd had the wisdom to keep my phone with me the entire time (hence the pictures) and Nokia Maps came to the rescue, telling me that I was infact not that far away from my apartment. A short taxi ride later (where the taxi driver took the piss as I was floating around at the top of his cab) and I was home. I collapsed into bed, presumably slept, and then I don't really remember much of the day or two after. The rest of the week was spent eating bland food (anything with a remote hint of taste would re-inflame one's intestines) and drinking water, whilst watching a copious amount of TV.
For those that are wondering, I had Gastroenteritis, caused by a rather nasty variety of some bug (E-Coli, Salmonela etc). The whole experience was a little on the shit side, but still fun and exciting, its the first time I've ever been rushed off to an A&E in the back of an ambulance.
All of this made Halloween a little on the sober side, not a bad thing as I've needed a break from the vodka for a while now. Went out to a couple of parties and wore a wig for a short period of time :
Otherwise I've been spending my time looking for an apartment, the short term lease on this place runs out at the end of November and can't be extended any further. So far I've not found anywhere particularly good, or if I have, I didn't get them. Apartment hunting sucks ass.
I did go along to a good classical concert a while ago :
The best bit of which was a tall solo drummer, full of pomp, playing Bolero on a teeny little drum at the front of the orchestra. Taking all the grandeur and importance of a solo violinist/pianist, despite the fact he was just playing a little drum (he was pretty awesome though).
And, of course, more Daisy.
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