Normal service will be resumed shortly...

I'm tired. Partly because I had to get up early for a samba gig, but mostly because we were kept awake last night by idiots having a party in the flat just along from ours. If the numpties had stayed inside, it wouldn't have been a problem, but they spent most of the night out on their balcony, which is only fifteen feet or so from our bedroom window. They were arguing, calling to partygoers inside the flat and screeching at people they knew down on the street, twelve floors below. Not only did we have problems actually getting to sleep, but I kept waking up from dreams where I was being accosted by groups of people to find that the shouting from my dream was still going on.
I had a nap when I got back from the gig, so I wasn't too tired when Boo and Matt came up for a barbecue this evening. Plenty of food was eaten, we watched Doctor Who and Coneheads, and now I'm writing this and getting sleepier by the minute.
Tomorrow we're either going cow-spotting or going to see X-Men III, depending on whether the weather forecasters lied or not, (they usually do).
So, all in all, not a particularly exciting weekend, but we're too broke to do much else.

Chris is improving. He got the stitches out yesterday so he looks a lot less scabby and horrible now, and most of the swelling and bruising has gone down too. The concussion is taking a while to clear up - he's still quite dizzy, especially if he leans forward, but it's a lot better than it was. We still haven't heard anything from the police about whether they're anywhere close to finding the thugs who attacked him.

Note to self: find more interesting subject matter!

A difficult weekend

I was having a pretty good day on Saturday. That is, until I got home. The phone rang, and it was the police to say that Chris had been 'given the wrong incident number'. When I asked what had happened, the officer would only tell me that Chris had been the victim of an assault earlier that day. She said that he was at the hospital, but he was OK so I didn't need to worry.
Of course, I was panicking, so I phoned the hospital and was put through innumerable switchboards until I finally got to the department where he was and got to speak to him. Chris said that he was all right except for a small gash on his head, and explained what had happened.
He told me that he'd gone to a local gala day. Some idiot threw a rock at him and Chris hit the guy (not hard, and usually he wouldn't react like that - he says that he just saw red). He hoped that would be the end of it, but when he was leaving the event, he saw the man who'd thrown the rock standing with another guy. Chris thought that if they tried anything, he could handle it. But, at that point, a third man hit him from behind. Chris fell down and they all started kicking him in the head. He doesn't know what happened after that, as he was knocked out. The next thing he knew, they were gone and two passers-by were with him, trying to stop the bleeding, then an ambulance came and took him to hospital.
By the time I got to the hospital, he'd been x-rayed and examined, and the doctor was in the middle of stitching him. As well as the local anaesthetic, they were giving him laughing gas - it's probably the only time I'll ever see Chris intoxicated! It made him talk very loudly and slowly. When the doctor said that he didn't need any more of the gas, because she was finished, Chris wouldn't give the mouthpiece back and I had to take it away from him.
They let him go home, because I was there to accompany him and to keep an eye on him in case he developed any more symptoms relating to his head injuries.
He was very dizzy for a couple of days, but he's beginning to feel better, apart from the headache. However, he looks worse now, as all the bruising and swelling took a while to fully develop.





He's got four stitches in the gash on his forehead and three in the triangular cut by his eye, as well as the black eye and assorted bruises and scrapes. We hope that the forehead one will heal quite well, as the skin there doesn't move around much, and the doctor pointed out that, in a few years, the cut by his eye will be disguised by the crows-feet!

The whole incident scared the crap out of me, and as well as feeling sorry for him, I'm also a bit mad at Chris because, if he hadn't hit the guy and had just ignored him, then this wouldn't have happened. I'm also scared that they might try to finish what they started, although Chris says that he won't be walking anywhere in the estate again, except for the very short path to the bus stop. This morning I started thinking about how easy it would have been for the thugs to not have stopped and for me to have come home to find that I was a widow. I suppose it'll stop dwelling on my mind soon.

There's nothing like a relaxing bath...

...and tonight's attempt was certainly nothing like a relaxing bath.
I like to have a nice long bubble bath on a Friday evening to unwind after a week's work. We decided what to have for dinner then Chris went to start cooking while I got in the bath with a magazine.

Now, those of you who've seen Bill Bailey : Part Troll might remember his description of an accidental train announcement.
"Dave? It's burning...what are we going to do?"

You can probably guess what happens next. Chris comes running into the bathroom brandishing the fire extinguisher, yelling "How do you make this thing work? The wok's on fire!" I assume he's overreacting and say "What, really on fire?", he goes "Yeah, there's flames coming out and there's smoke everywhere" so I jump out of the bath and sprint nakedly through to the kitchen, leaving a trail of bubbles behind me, soak a teatowel and throw it over the (now-not-very-on-fire) pan, send Chris out to the balcony and pass the wok out to him. Then we open all the windows because most of the flat is full of smoke and put Jonas out at the far end of the hall, worrying that he might suffocate.
I then decided to try to continue with my bath, as the bathroom was the least smoky room, but unsurprisingly it wasn't as relaxing as it had been, so I gave up.
Dinner was really nice when we eventually got it, though.