Difficult Times

It’s been a difficult few days I must admit. Getting a phonecall at work late Thursday afternoon saying that I need to get my arse to North Wales because dad was getting worse. So I book my train ticket for Friday morning and as I was traveling through mid-Wales another phonecall, he’s very bad, a family member will be there at the station to rush you over to the hospital.

Typically, he perked up by the time I got there, so I did get to spend some time with him, although he wasn’t making much sense as the morphine was obviously taking effect. 

It’s a terrible thing to see a loved one die, I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone, but even worse when your loved one has lung cancer. Having to watch him as he struggled to breathe, the feeling of utter helplessness is all encompassing. All I could do was hold is hand. Luckily all three of my sisters have a nursing background and were amazing with him, taking shifts around the clock to look after him.

When the end came he was quite peaceful, which was a blessing. 

My Name

When I’m bored I like to play with fonts. Yeah, I know, nerd!

Anyhow, I’ve had a lot of fun with Google Translate with my name. I have for instance found out that my Latin name would be Vitus Williams. Me! Vitus lol

Amongst the other things, I like to see is how my name looks in different scripts, and this is my favourite. Persian. 

Lovely isn’t it.

Old Man Hair

For those who know me in real life, you may have noticed that I’m getting a bit thin on top. I’m far from going bald, but I do have to make sure that I wear a hat or I will burn the top of my skull in the noonday sun. 

I’m not overly worried about this, I occasionally shave my head when I get fed up of my hair, so vanity is far from my mind. What does irk me is where all of this hair has gone. It seems to be growing out of my ears and nose, not only this, my eyebrows seem to be lengthening too, if I’m not too careful with keeping and eye on all of this, I’ll end up looking like a donkey eared yeti!

Why does this happen? Is this a cruel twist of fate that all men must suffer once they hit 35? Why does it stop growing where it should and grows where it’s just bloody awkward? 

I could blame the inordinate mount of brains that I have, but I suppose it’s more to do with old age. It just worries me what will come next, anal prolapse? Shit!

Trainspotting

In danger of making myself look like a complete nerd, I am going to admit that I love trains. Not in the same way as some of course, I don’t rush out to collect registration numbers nor do I take photos of the 12:21 from Bristol Temple Meads for my vast collection of slightly blurry polaroids of choo choo’s.

I am of course talking about the traveling by locomotion and the romanticism involved with riding in a carriage. 

I was lucky enough to travel through many of the European countries by train when I was 17, an experience I will never forget. But that is a story for another post, in fact I most likely have already written many times about that trip. What I took from that experience is a love of travelling without too much effort and the ability to see the scenery around you and to meet people from different cultures.

Obviously I can’t really do that by traveling around the UK, but I do love hearing the changes in accent as I travel through the different counties of Britain. I also love seeing people saying their ‘hello’s and goodbyes’ at the stations, you can make up your own stories about people seeing each other for the last time or coming back from being at war or traveling the world etc. The vast amount of emotions you can see at train stations are vast.

I have personally met one or two wonderful women for the first time at a train station, some of those meetings end up in relationships others are just fleeting moments to be enjoyed. Each one has been nerve wracking but enjoyable and I can’t think of a nicer place to meet someone rather than at an old Victorian train station. 

It’s a shame that fares are getting so extortionately high and the service so unbearable. I’d personally love to be able to use the trains more often. 

Travelling Without Moving

Today I took the day off work to make sure that I could get up to North Wales early to give myself the maximum amount of time to see dad at hospital. Obviously this was far too much of an expectation on my behalf because the Universe doesn’t like me very much and wants to fuck me up the chocolate as much as possible.

A train journey which should have taken about 6 hours ended up being 11 hours, resulting in me missing visiting hours this evening, so I now only have a couple of hours to see the old geezer tomorrow. Anyhow, that can’t be helped, shit happens and you deal with it.

What made the situation worse is I bumped into someone in Stroud who was heading my way too, we shall call him Pissed Up Wayne, because that’s what I call him. Now I like Wayne, he’s ok in my book but tends to rub people up the wrong way. He’s the type that will smoke in a non-smoking area, not tobacco mind, we’re talking weed here.. He also get’s pissed, monumentally so. He’s a tall chap covered in home-made tattoos, so he is a daunting figure to some, I think he’s a pussy, but I know that most people are full of wind when it comes down to breaking teeth.

So he and I were sat together for the best part of 9 hours. Like I said, I like the bloke, and the first half of the journey was great, someone to talk to, but after things started to turn sour, he just pissed and moaned all the time. 

As you know, I’m so laid back I don’t particularly mind delays as such, it’s just the cosmos fucking with me. In Universal Standard, a delay of a few hours isn’t even an atomic blip in the huge scheme of things but to have to put up with a grown man whinging even got me grinding my teeth, plus knowing that I wouldn’t be able to see dad later also made me less receptive to patience. 

Anyway, I’m here now, trying to instal Skype onto mum’s laptop, which is proving to be impossible. You know how it is, new laptop, new Skype download and brand new account, can I get it to sign on? NO!

So thank you Universe, today has been a touch your toes and think of Wales day. Tomorrow better be good, or I will bring down the cosmos, just mark my words!