Day 30+2

…get hideously bored, as it turns out. Temporarily distracted by the next instalment of The Apprentice (about bloody time he got booted out), Thursday morning felt empty. I woke up with a start at about 7am, but wasn't hungry and couldn't think of anything decent to get up for.

So I went back to sleep.

After getting up though, I mooched for a bit, ate breakfast, read the paper from the day before, washed my hair…then did some more mooching.

I admired everything in my leaving beauty bag again, looked at my lovely flowers and pined for more leaving snacks; but it got to the stage where I was actually twiddling my thumbs, so I went up to mine…and did some washing.

Then I sat. And did some more thumb twiddling.

Boredom firmly sets in

Is this what unemployment is like? I think I'm meant to be gallvanting and doing all those things that I've always gone "if I didn't have a job, I'd…". Somehow, my brain is just back in school summer holiday mode. i.e. FOR GOD'S SAKE GIVE ME SOMETHING TO DO.

A dilemma

So I was grateful to be invited to grab a sandwich with a friend, then I ran some errands. Looked in H&M and felt far too guilty to spend money that I need to eke out. I'm sure I've said this before, but it's like saving for an involuntary pension.

My brain says "just bugger off on holiday for weeks on end", but then my conscience says "then you'll come home jobless and peniless and I'll pack you off home".

An Alexander Technique lesson later, I couldn't be bothered to go to the gig I was meant to go to, or to the club I was going to go to, and settle down to watch some comedy.

Note to self: You must not watch endless crap on daytime telly.

Unexpected turn of events

Things went askew when I got too bored to stay up any longer at about 11, and as soon as I got to my room, I heard a car door slam. I peered out the window, and after some neck contorting, read the word "police" on top of the car just as I heard my housemate and two other voices come in the front door.

He'd been mugged on the path that crosses the park opposite our house, at about 10.30pm. Three teenagers had made off with his laptop and left him with a very split lip and cuts and bruises on his head.

A&E

Off we went to casualty, where we sat til 4.30am. I fed him lovehearts to counter the shock, as his lip was burning and hot tea wasn't really going to work.

Most of the sitting was in the waiting room with:

• Someone who'd overdosed but was firmly refusing to let his family order for his stomach to be pumped. The nurse explained that as whatever he'd taken, in the quantity he'd taken, wouldn't have much side effect, they could take him home.
• Someone who comes in quite often, and thought it was the daytime. The staff were very genial in dealing with him.
• Four boys, one of whom had twisted his knee really badly. All of whom were slowly sobering up.
• A woman who was violently sick several times.
• Some others who will remain a mystery, as they kept themselves to themselves.
• A crappy TV channel.
• No magazines, or newspapers, or anything. In a waiting room!

When we got moved to wait in Curtain 8, I had flashbacks of being young.

As well as living in hospital accommodation for a good while, I was also babysat by my dad's secretary a lot when he was a surgeon = lots and lots of time in hospitals. The sheets, pillowcases and blankets on the bed were very very familiar and inviting, especially at 4am. My housemate was insisting that I have a nap, but I would have fallen deeply asleep and refused to move if I'd done that.

After a frustratingly short check by the doctor, which wasn't at all thorough, informative or cautionary, we went back home and both gratefully sank into our beds.

Last thoughts before I went to bed was a what if – what if I had gone out that evening? My housemate would have come back to an empty house and might have gone further into shock, or been concussed and not realised, or have had to sit for hours and hours in casualty on his own, getting worked up inside his own head that everyone must think he's the type to start fights. It's strange how self conscious people are in the most serious of situations.

It did reinforce the "everything happens for a reason" way of thinking…but then I suppose it could just have been chance. But let's leave the fate and destiny hypothesising to another day…

: 30 Apr 2006 23:45 |  Tags: Unemployment |  Comments (1) |  Report a problem