Life is Pretty Average Today

Woken by postman's knock, go back to sleep. Wake up at 10. 30. Slip down stairs, find 3 post items for me: a postcard from Hazel, 2 CDs from amazon and a letter with a packet of white chocolate buttons from Candace. Eat the buttons as part of a balanced breakfast. Go see Leah, chat on her bed. Look at the time, woof down porridge. Spend and hour madly attempting to dent enormous laundry pile before holiday begins in 4 days. Peg last bra up on the line when it begins to spit. Decide that spitting will not last and leave washing out. Realise I am late. Grab sailing stuff and old text book.Ring Nicole. Nicole already left and nearly there. Start running to campus. Stop to sell textbook to Indie on way to Uni. Leave £35 up. Big happy face. Arrive outside the SU, Nicole now running late. Talk to Ellie, amazed to find everything in order with the taster day. Marvel at the level of organisation and the 2 homemade victoria sponges. Pile everyone into minibus. Set off. Heavens open. Arrive. Run into sailing club. Curse that I was decivied by the morning's blue skies into shorts and a strap top. Kit everyone out. Choose and organise boats for everyone. Rig boats. Check everyone's boats. Briefly teach land drill. Weather is now blue skies and hot sun, we nip in to change. Back out to boats, start launching people off. Wind picks up. Screams of terror follow. Many stuck in the trees of the bank. Yell instructions from the shore. Safety boat in over drive. All now sailing handsomly. Finally get into boat of own. Launch. Nic's boom falls off. Try to yell instructions, she drifts to the pontoon. Leave her boat tied up, let her hop into mine. Wind really picks up now. Discover that I did not check my own boat's rigging, someone has rigged it wrong. Try to rectify it. SMACK. Get hit in the head by the boom. Try not to throw up. Try not to faint. Get grip of self. Manourver away from the bank. Assess the damage. Head seems ok, aches a bit but ok, nasea attributed to hunger. Have awsome sailing session. Teach Nic how fun it is. Love the exhilleration of the wind shrieking, the rain driving and the constant slap of waves on the boat. Nic finally takes the helm. She starts to like it. Head in early as it's very cold for a newbie. Decide the water is warmer than the air, go for a half dip with Nic, neither of us brave enough to fully submerge. Ignore increasing feelings of head pain. Put the boats away. Change. Start cooking the after sailing meal for everyone. Feel grateful for the warmth of the club house and the gentle chatter. Feel head, find massive lump - better out than out. Help in the mass cooking of burgers and sausages (of course the BBQ has been rained off). Eat a burger. Sample delicious victoria sponge. Feel even sicker. Wash up and clear away. Chat to lifeguard friend about head. She notes that it is indeed a big lump, says to go see doctor when get back, write off as unnecessary. Drive back to Uni. It's raining again. Walk back to house. Realise I'm starting to stumble like a drunk person. Readdress that head is actually very painful. Compromise on lateness of return home denying surgery visit and ring out of hours. Encounter completely useless doctor. Consult Mum and Dad. Told to go to A and E right away. Chat to Leah in her room. Really very painful now. Wait for Charlie to get home from the post office. She drives us to A and E. Get there, remember where A and E is from recent work experience placement, each have a sweepstake deciding how when we finally get back to the car. Looks deceptively quiet from outside. Discover that it is in fact heaving. Check in at reception. Wait with Leah and Charlie, laugh at the absurd FAQs being shown on the TV screen. Analyse other patients in the waiting room. See triage. Am grateful to have such a kind and understanding nurse. Begin to despise her after she prods the now egg sized lump on my head and takes my blood pressure twice. Forgive her when she smiles. Back to hte waiting room. Sneakly update Dad from my phone. Man behind me has the same message tone, I keep getting unecessarily excited. Start to feel less and less with it. Have cold water. Think am going to be sick. Clutch carboard cowboy hat/sick bowl. Sister finds I am in A and E. Contacts me discussing coming to visit. Try to establish who is in front of me. Man with the limp is a long way in front, I am after the woman in the green sari. Pain becoming excrutiating. Finally go to see doctor. Such a nice man. Tested thoroughly and with compassion. He asks if we are students and where and what we study. We discuss my ambitions of being a doctor, though no longer in lucid tones. He diagnoses and prescribes pain killers. Carefully adives my housemates on what to do. Provides contact details. Gives leaflet. Gives packet of painkillers to avoid me having to pay the prescription charge - 'I don't care if you're 19 now, you're in full time education'. Get back to the car at 11. 40. We arrived at A and E and 9. 10. Leah's won the bet. It felt like forever but was wonderfully short. I talk to family on the phone in the back of the car. Charlie drives down dark unknown winding lanes, uncaring that she is normally a nervous driver and she starts work at 9 tomorrow morning and has still had no dinner. Leah navigates from her iPhone. I feel the painkillers working. It feels fantastic. We get home. I roll into my lovely cool bed knowing that I don't have to worry and my friends have taken care of everything. I am infinitely grateful for the loyalty, compassion and unconditional kindness of my family but in particular these friends, people who were strangers to me 2 years ago and yet, life was pretty average today.

a smile in my sick bowl