:: Jules' Blog ::

:: Monday, May 05, 2003 ::

Well, I have to say that this week sucked quite considerably!

On Monday I got an anchovy bone stuck in my throat, which no amount of dry bread, honey, gargling or other such wonder cures would shift. Decided it would probably work its way out by the morning...

...It was still there on Tuesday, but it wasn't bothering me all that much so I just got on with my day. Not a terribly interesting day, although I did learn that training is to start next week! Hoorah! We (the runners) can be trained in VT, maintenance, or both (I'll be doing both, thank you very much!). We have to come in 2 hours early on our 'lates' weeks (so 10am instead of 12pm), and get a couple of hours each day being trained to do something useful! This is what I really got into running for, so I could learn how to do stuff! Making cups of tea is not exactly taxing on the brain! So my training will start next week. Maybe I'll stick this job out for a leeetle bit longer then...

Wednesday was pub quiz day! Some other company had arranged and paid for all the local companies to go to this quiz, get free beer all night and get £200 prize money! I think they were trying to sell their sound effects. Anyway, our team (Al's Pals, drunkenly changed to Al's Asses by me!) did pretty well considering one of its members got pissed and wandered off to chat up the barmaid, only returning to shout out the incredibly obvious answers to us.

Alan: Did you get that?
Us: Yes Alan.
Alan: It was DALLAS!
Us: Thank you Alan. Piss off now.

Of the four teams from our company, we came second. We beat the boys' team, and that's all that really matters :o)

On the way home from the pub where the quiz was held, I got completely lost. I walked in the general directon of Tottenham Court Road, but never actually found it! I ended up on a main road eventually, where I was told by a nice passer by that the tube station is "that way", and "didn't I tell you that yesterday too?" "Er, no" says me. So I found my way to Waterloo East and was lucky enough to catch the last train home. I really need to investigate night buses...

On Thursday morning I was still drunk, and stayed that way well into the afternoon. Thursday was also May Day, when the May Day Riots happen in central London, i.e. right near where I work! I really paid no attention at the time, but I realised later in the day that the workmen I had seen boarding up shops at 11:30 at night when I was trying to find my way home on Wednesday were doing so for a reason. There was apparently a lot of trouble a couple of years ago when all the american owned businesses got their windows smashed. I heard that there was to be a trouserless march on Tottenham Court Road at 3:33pm, but I forgot to go out and check, dammit!

But some good came out of the day. I was sent home at 5pm, just in case things got so bad that they decided to close Charing Cross, as has happened in the past, thus leaving me with no route home! When I got home, I went to see if the doctors was still open. It was, and I went in to see the nurse. Remember the anchovy bone? Well it was still there. So the nurse had a look at my throat, looked bewildered and scurried off to find a doctor. In came the doctor, who had a look at my throat, said she couldn't see anything and that I should go to the ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) department at Lewisham hospital. Luckily I had told work that I was going to have to do something about the bone and they told me to just come in whenever I could on Friday.

So Friday morning I trained to Lewisham in the rain, found the hospital, gave in my referral letter an settled in for a two and a half hour wait surrounded by Women's Own!...

...Jules is momentarily distracted by the sound of an ice cream van...at 7:30pm?!...

Eventually my name was called, and waiting for me were two (rather nice looking) doctors. I explained my situation and one of them had a look with his torch and couldn't see anything, which he decided was reason enough to stick a camera down my throat - through my nose!! Not the most pleasant experience of my life, I can tell you. It was't bad until it hit a certain point and my eyes started itching and streaming! Shows how it's all connected together in there! He still couldn't see anything so decided that the bone was probably under the skin (ew!) and that I should wait 3 or 4 days and come back if it was still there. I don't think he believed me but I told him that I could feel it when I stuck my finger down my throat! They're quite sharp are anchovy bones! But if I do come back, he said, it's quite likely that they'll have to cut it out.

So that's decided then. The bone stays. It is still there, but no-one is putting a knife anywhere near my throat.

This weekend has been spent working at Boots. By the end of this week I'll have worked 14 days without a break. Joy. I think I'll go to bed now...

:: Jules 6:46 PM [+] ::
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