Blog of Norman Ralph

Well, what a week!

This week has been one of the most eventful, stressful, tiring and generally worrying week in a long, long time. Having returned from Farmyard Party on Sunday, I took Monday to recover. Well that was the plan anyway. Izzy wanted feeding, so I headed round to make some dinner - a lovely chilli and soy stir fry creation - and then decided we would venture to the pub for a swift drink. Mondays in Leeds offers a massive variety of drinking choices to the student. There is Bondi’s £10 ‘all you can drink” night of cheese and tunes; the Fruit Cupboard on Call Lane offers 80p entry and 80p a drink to their ’80s, ’90s and now evening; then there is the Library, which offers its ‘Quids In’ night - all drinks from £1. Izzy and I decided on the latter, mainly due to its locale, the group texts were sent and replies received. Sarann offered us pre-drinks at Graham’s so off we trotted.

Now, I have never been to Graham’s house before but having spent quite a bit of time with the lad recently I was quite intrigued as to what I would find. I wasn’t disappointed! I got there to discover endless supplies of Jack Frost’s white cider (3 litre bottles at 7.5%), a Nintendo Wii, a widescreen television, loud drum ‘n’ bass and to top it all I had arrived mid way through ‘pants and cape day’ - a day that was celebrated by the residents of the house sitting around in pants and capes! We stayed for a swift cider then headed down to thre Library.

To our horror and disgust we found that the Library only does its pound a pint night during term time! So after a relatively expensive drink we headed back to Graham’s, where we wiled the night away with a few beers, pizza and Nintendo Wii. About 2am we decided we were all partied out so tried to leave. It turned out that all the sets of keys to Graham’s house were not actually in the house and the doors were locked. Which meant we were locked in! We sat and waited for the keys to arrive back home, but by 3am we were getting a little impatient. By 3.15 we had decided to break out by clambering through a ground floor window. Which was a mission! It was made all the more difficult by the fact that Michelle was fairly drunk. I say fairly drunk, she was wasted!

Tuesday was a fairly quiet night, spent some time on the telephone to Liz, watched Meet Joe Black and did some chores.

Wednesday saw me finish tidying my room in readiness for Liz’s arrival from Lincoln when I got a call from Bryony. Chris had had to be rushed into hospital and would I give her a lift to LGI as her car park ticket had run out? I spent the rest of the early afternoon sat with Chris in the assessment ward at the Leeds General Infirmary, he has suspected appendicitis and lookd very ill with a fever and severe abdominal pain. Well I knew it was severe because Chris winced…twice! The doctors didn’t realise that this was a sign that he was in agony. I fetched Chris’s mum from the train station and then picked Liz up. Michelle offered dinner as it was her last chance before she moved out of halls. After a delicious meal of homecooked lasagne and bread and butter cuisine I went to pick B up from the hospital.

I was awake most of the night as I was quite concerned about Chris - I had learned the results of his blood work and was dismayed to find that not only was the appendicitis confirmed but they suspected that it had burst several days earlier!! B text me at 2.10am to let me know that Chris had come out of surgery and that the prognosis was good.

Thursday was a hard hard day. I spent the morning helping Michelle pack and move stuff from her halls. Took longer than I expected, but B came round to help (more to take her mind of Chris I suspect). I got home at lunchtime to feed Liz and spend some time with her before running off again to take Matt to see cars. However, I sat down on the end of my bed and next I knew it was gone 5pm! I was not feeling well at all, stressed out, headache and general apathy!

I ended up at the pub in the evening, but wasn’t really feeling it at all. I don’t think I was that good company, but everyone seemed to have a fairly chilled evening.

Today is another busy day. Went to see my GP at 9.40 this morning, got referred to the hospital - which is nice…. Si has just been round to drop some stuff off prior to him taking up residence in Michelle’s room over the summer. Just waiting for the girls to finish tidying so I can move his stuff downstairs. I also have to unpack my car of Michelle’s stuff, move it downstairs and then go back to move her out to Sarann’s. I hate this time of year! I truly do.