A sobering moment

My friend The Policemans Daughter emailed me tonight. We have known each other since we were ....well about 2 years old I guess and regained contact via Friends Reunited. We lived over the road from each other until I sold my parents house (which put Dave into foster care with his mates Mum and Dad, and Shitneck just moved into a flat with some mates) and our Mums became close friends. I suppose she was my first girlfriend, by virtue of the fact she was a girl...err and my friend. Funny, we never dated when we got old enough to, but probably because teenage girls aren't interested in boys their age (this is why Teenager and Mini-Me are not a major concern to me, its the older blokes at the school that worry me ), but more likely is the fact that she was...hot, and I wasn't. Plus I have crooked teeth (like a lot of people in the UK...thanks NOT to NHS dentistry) and am .....errr also vertically challenged...and was a bit of a yoB myself and probably a bit of a pig in the looks front! Blimey, you were fickle weren't you :-) Anyway, The Policemans Daughter has a sister (hereafter known as Snow Queen) and in an earlier email she told me that her sister was now in a wheelchair, apparently she had a spinal problem which they thought could be fixed, but when they operated it was worse than they realized and the subsequent operation left her almost totally paralyzed was a jolt to me let alone what it must have been like for her and made me sad. I don't know Snow Queen very well, in fact barely at all - after all she was older than me, so even less reason to communicate when we were young. The Policemans Daughter said things that were typical of people whose lives are touched by this kind of thing, showing true love and admiration for her sister, using the words with a passion she should cherish and I find it uplifting that Snow Queen has taken some brave decisions and is just determined to get on with life, no matter what it throws at her. I'd like to think I would be the same, but how could anyone know?

Why so maudling then Jack? As I said on a previous posting, the older you get the more you worry when you become ill. I visited The Quack this morning about this god forsaken sore throat that won't go away. The glands are still swollen and he said I should wait 6-8 weeks before going back, if I still have the sore throat. No antibiotics, nothing, fuck all. He even suggested I come off the painkillers. If it doesn't go of its own accord then its off to Ear Nose and Throat at the local hospital for tests and a possible biopsy. Which never sounds good does it? (Another friend - The Chicken Gooner - tells me ENT is always the busiest with the longest waiting lists). I had a motor bike crash 10 years ago which put me in hospital for 6 weeks one Christmas - the injuries weren't life threatening, but the moment I hit the road I moved from an indestructible 30 something to someone very aware of my mortality. Since then every illness makes me wonder if this is the big one, the one that knocks me into the next Big Adventure. It was a life changing moment and one which occasionally flashes back to me. I suppose the upside of the accident was that I learnt the value of life, which after my parents had died had always seemed so cheap. Anyway my point is it's what's in the mind that counts, and I genuinely believe the essence of the real person is enveloped in their mind and personality and not their physical capability.

Teenager is excellent at school! Teachers couldn't say enough nice things...what the hell is going on? Is she like Perry from the Kevin and Perry sketches. Does she smile sweetly at the teachers, give them apples and them come home and sulk,moan and ignore? I am pleased, but it does seem mystifying to see the words "cheerful, helpful and good attitude" in sentences describing Teenager. And when did Teachers become nice? In my day they were all raving socialists, with heavy smoking habits, scruffy clothes, power complexes, with a ready hand to slap you with, or for wielding another man made weapon (slipper was the fave at my school - didn't leave the same marks as the cane...clever technique huh?). I can't remember any teachers that were as polite as Teenagers (or as fanciable in her form tutors case!). Fuck me, I am just a great big old letch aren't I? Good, means I can remain within the GOGB and just get a little worse with each passing day :-)

Later, Jack the Grocer