Various – Top 500 Albums 1959-2008
Alice Cooper – 120 Real & Imagined Singles 1965-2008
Various – Good Morning Vietnam!
Jason Lytle – Yours truly, The Commuter
The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Axis : Bold as Love
Depeche Mode – Singles 81-98
Phil Collins – Face Value
The Black Keys – Attack & Release
Various – Alan Brodie 50th Birthday Party Vol 5
David Bowie – Hallo Spaceboy (CD-R)
Up around 6:30 and worked on creating a 120 song MP3 disc for the car of real and imagined singles by Alice Cooper from 1965 through to 2008...
Left the PC on, finishing off a task as I made my way out into the rain and drove to the podiatrists for my six, seven or eight-weekly visit to get my toes “done”...
Apparently, Anne awoke around 9:15 with a shout of “Your Feet!!” knowing my appointment was at 8:45 and having been fooled by the sound of the PC that I was still in the house...
The lovely podiatrist, Helen, is with child again and I will no doubt need to give her up shortly, as her attention will inevitably turn away from the feet of Mr CBQ and towards her upcoming offspring, V2...
Back home but via (a) the baker for some tasty soda bread and (b) PC World for some ink provisions and some blank CDs and (c) Tesco for some lovely tasty wine...
...and some very economical beer...
Lunch (including egg, soda bread and tomato) before heading out again for the bus to music chum Jim Igoe’s place for his 40th birthday party...
I took the opportunity while waiting for a change of bus, for a quick nip into FOPP – no CDs (none this week!) but I bought a DVD of Julian Schnabel’s film “Lou Reed Berlin” which I saw at the cinema last year and which is soundtracking me right now as I write this on Sunday evening...
I was first guest from outwith the house to arrive at Jim’s, despite getting there around 4pm, joining him and his lovely wife Sheena and his friend up from London for the occasion...
Shortly afterwards a trio of Jim & Sheena’s friends arrived from Dunbar and we were all sitting round chatting...
The new arrivals seemed all to be in their 70’s but, despite the age difference, we were having a good laugh. I’d noted the man, Lloyd, had a Canadian accent and he confirmed that was his home land from a good while back...
We were chatting about Canada, I was telling him about our trip there last year and he started to tell me a story about the last time he and his wife had been there, when something quite awful happened...
Suddenly he said “oh I’m having a dizzy spell” and next thing he’d collapsed, slumped in his seat...
It was clear he was in serious trouble and Sheena immediately called an ambulance and, while it was on its way, remained on the line to the emergency services giving them info and receiving instructions...
Because of my shoulder, I was unable to help when we were told to get Lloyd down onto the ground so Jim quickly ran and got a neighbour and he, Jim and Jim’s friend between them got Lloyd onto his back on the ground as instructed by the people on the phone...
I was comforting Lloyd’s wife and their friend while Sheena was pumping his chest to try and get him breathing again...
Within minutes the ambulance arrived and the two paramedics started to give Lloyd CPR and electric shocks, then a third paramedic arrived and the three of them fought to bring Lloyd back...
All the while we were standing shocked and wringing our hands knowing there was nothing we could do...
After what seemed an eternity we saw Lloyd’s chest moving again and then the race was on to get him onto a stretcher and out of the house – we tried but couldn’t get him out the front door, due to the narrow angles, so he had to be taken back out into the garden and through the garage...
Once out front, they put him on a trolley and to the ambulance – it seemed an age since the ambulance had arrived...
Sheena took the two ladies to the infirmary, following the ambulance and Jim, his friend and I just stood there stunned by what had just happened...
Now, I am so glad to say that I was in touch with Jim this afternoon (Sunday) and he advised that, against all odds, Lloyd is alive, although still very ill indeed – so my thoughts, as well as all of last night and today, remain with him and I can only hope that he can make a recovery...
The doctors are still unsure of what happened...
Of course I was due to meet up with Anne, Pam, Lynn, Ross and Jamie to go to Jim Park’s Show in town, so I had to leave shortly after the ambulance left and went off fearing the worst and convinced that Lloyd must be dead...
It was too late for Jim to cancel his party but it turned out that Sheena was able to return home around 6:30 with the news that Lloyd was alive and of course people started arriving in numbers shortly there after...
Jim advised today (Sunday) that the night went off all the better in the knowledge that Lloyd was still with us...
I was unaware though and walked up the road in a daze, bumping into old friend Eona, painter of a number of portraits of Crispy the Cat (who coincidentally was born 25 years ago today)...
We had a quick catch up and I apologised for being distracted, telling her what had just taken place...
I continued up the road and ended up being only a few minutes late for the planned rendezvous...
The team were shocked too by what had happened but did their best to cheer me up – and of course the four comedians in Jim’s show helped to take me out of myself...
A drink afterwards in the bar with Jim and the crew also took my mind off matters...
Then me, Anne, Pam, Lynn and Ross bade farewell to Jim and Jamie and headed to our car...
....meeting brother–in-law Keith and his wife Maureen on the way – they’d been at the Book Festival in Charlotte Square...
We drove to Bombay Spice and, as planned, ordered a takeaway and waited for it to be prepared...
...before driving home to enjoy its tastiness...
The beer flowed, the wine flowed, the music entertained...
Pam enjoyed Depeche Mode’s early hits...
Meg lay on the ground in her strange dog-like position (she was a rescued cat, having been found abandoned with a dog in a house and seems to have some dog-like behavioural traits)...
...but my mind kept going back to the events this afternoon...
Before we knew it, it was after 2am and Lynn and Ross set off for home...
A really good night with some great friends, my wife and my sister...
I counted my blessings...
Lowlight of the Day : Being confronted with the fleetingness of life...
No comments:
Post a Comment