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Am I a bad person?
Jun. 11th, 2005 11:46 pmFirstly, I'd like to welcome a new reader. Hello Cardiff bloke. You know who you are. The decision to give Cardiff bloke the address of this journal was a difficult one. Initially, I was completely against anyone I know in the 'real' world reading it. Then I read through all my past entries and realised that I haven't written anything about Cardiff Bloke that he doesn't know already and the stuff about mutual friends isn't the least bit controversial. In the end I gave him the address as I don't see what harm it'll do.
Back to the subject of my email. I spent today in Oxford at my friend's 26th birthday party. It was a difficult occasion as she suffered severe head injuries after falling 60 feet from a tree in the Australian rain forest last year and as a result has trouble communicating. I feel like a really bad person as I'm not that great at talking to her. It's difficult to find things to talk about especially as she's lost most of her short term memory. There's no point in asking what she's been up to since I last saw her as she hasn't got a clue! Another effect of her injures is that she is now unable to initiate conversation herself. According to my mum, who works with kids with learning difficulties, her syptoms are similar to those of someone with autism. She is looking much better though. I've now seen her three times since she returned from Australia and she has made vast improvements between visits. Apparantly, people with head injuries make major improvements within the first year and then improve slowly for many years afterwards. Today was the first time I've seen her walking. When I first saw her in October she had just taken her first steps using a special support machine and now she's pretty much back to normal appart from a bit of a limp caused by a slightly dodgy ankle. The most striking difference now from before the fall is that she has lost a front tooth. She has a false one on a plate but takes in out quite a lot. I think she should join Cat and my mum in the 'oops I've lost a front tooth club'. Both Cat and my mum lost theirs in much less spectacular fashion. Cat fell out of a taxi when she was drunk and my mum tripped walking down the High Street whilst carrying lots of bags.
One of the other girls I lived with in my 2nd year of uni was there too. She is now a doctor and lives in Swansea so I don't get to see her very often. She seems happy which is good as many of my friends seem to be miserable at the moment. Saying that she is a very spiritual Christian which is probably the main reason. I was shocked to hear that two of her cousins had been involved in a car accident and one had lost the use of one of his arms. This was particularly shocking as this girl had been involved in car accident when she was 7 years old in which her mother (the sister of the father of the cousins) was killed. I can't imagine how horrified she must have been when she was told that they had been in a crash.
None of the other girls from the second year made it. The six of us haven't been together once since we left the house. It gets difficult when people have high powered jobs and start getting married etc.
In other news I've been playing 'The Sims. Busting Out' on the PS2. This is keeping me happy for the moment as my PC is not powerful enough to cope with The Sims 2. I can confirm that 'Busting Out' is just as addictive as The Sims on PC. It's more task driven and you have to complete certain goals in order to move up the levels. Each time you move up a level you move into a new residence. The residences are all different types of building. So far I've lived in two normal houses, a haunted mansion (which also appears in The Sims but has lost a storey and a resident in Busting Out), an art gallery and a night club. I've also visited a penthouse appartment and a trailer park. The fact that you can go visiting is wicked as you don't need to have expensive skill building equipment in your own residence and it's more interesting. I've just reached level four which seems very tricky. I have to get married which is always tricky in the Sims as both characters have to be in a really good mood and a large amount of 'buttering up' has to be done to the intended spouse first. I've been good and haven't played at all today, but several hours have been wasted already this week!
Over the last couple of weeks I've watched most of series 5 of The Tribe on video. I can only watch 'most' of the series as several episodes failed to be videoed including the very last episode. The Tribe website is currently saying that Five will repeat series 5 starting in June so I'll have to try and get the missing episodes then. Anyway, I quite enjoyed series 5 and was shocked by how much I'd forgotten about it. I know pretty much everything that happens in series' 1 & 2 as I've watched them so many times but, appart from the first few episodes of series 3, I've hardly ever watched series 3 - 5.
As for Hollyoaks. I watched 'In too Deep' the other week and was left slightly confused by the whole thing. Hollyoaks should stick to be a humourous soap rather than occasionally branching out into the surreal. It's so shocking hearing the characters swear as it's after the watershead. Obviously, I'm used to hearing people swear all the time in everyday life and I don't find it shocking at all which shows how different 'soap' life is to real life. I really like the pairing of Lisa and Ben even though Lisa has been a fairly nasty character in the past. I think they're going to be the subject of a spin off series soon and I'll be interested to see how that turns out.
Back to the subject of my email. I spent today in Oxford at my friend's 26th birthday party. It was a difficult occasion as she suffered severe head injuries after falling 60 feet from a tree in the Australian rain forest last year and as a result has trouble communicating. I feel like a really bad person as I'm not that great at talking to her. It's difficult to find things to talk about especially as she's lost most of her short term memory. There's no point in asking what she's been up to since I last saw her as she hasn't got a clue! Another effect of her injures is that she is now unable to initiate conversation herself. According to my mum, who works with kids with learning difficulties, her syptoms are similar to those of someone with autism. She is looking much better though. I've now seen her three times since she returned from Australia and she has made vast improvements between visits. Apparantly, people with head injuries make major improvements within the first year and then improve slowly for many years afterwards. Today was the first time I've seen her walking. When I first saw her in October she had just taken her first steps using a special support machine and now she's pretty much back to normal appart from a bit of a limp caused by a slightly dodgy ankle. The most striking difference now from before the fall is that she has lost a front tooth. She has a false one on a plate but takes in out quite a lot. I think she should join Cat and my mum in the 'oops I've lost a front tooth club'. Both Cat and my mum lost theirs in much less spectacular fashion. Cat fell out of a taxi when she was drunk and my mum tripped walking down the High Street whilst carrying lots of bags.
One of the other girls I lived with in my 2nd year of uni was there too. She is now a doctor and lives in Swansea so I don't get to see her very often. She seems happy which is good as many of my friends seem to be miserable at the moment. Saying that she is a very spiritual Christian which is probably the main reason. I was shocked to hear that two of her cousins had been involved in a car accident and one had lost the use of one of his arms. This was particularly shocking as this girl had been involved in car accident when she was 7 years old in which her mother (the sister of the father of the cousins) was killed. I can't imagine how horrified she must have been when she was told that they had been in a crash.
None of the other girls from the second year made it. The six of us haven't been together once since we left the house. It gets difficult when people have high powered jobs and start getting married etc.
In other news I've been playing 'The Sims. Busting Out' on the PS2. This is keeping me happy for the moment as my PC is not powerful enough to cope with The Sims 2. I can confirm that 'Busting Out' is just as addictive as The Sims on PC. It's more task driven and you have to complete certain goals in order to move up the levels. Each time you move up a level you move into a new residence. The residences are all different types of building. So far I've lived in two normal houses, a haunted mansion (which also appears in The Sims but has lost a storey and a resident in Busting Out), an art gallery and a night club. I've also visited a penthouse appartment and a trailer park. The fact that you can go visiting is wicked as you don't need to have expensive skill building equipment in your own residence and it's more interesting. I've just reached level four which seems very tricky. I have to get married which is always tricky in the Sims as both characters have to be in a really good mood and a large amount of 'buttering up' has to be done to the intended spouse first. I've been good and haven't played at all today, but several hours have been wasted already this week!
Over the last couple of weeks I've watched most of series 5 of The Tribe on video. I can only watch 'most' of the series as several episodes failed to be videoed including the very last episode. The Tribe website is currently saying that Five will repeat series 5 starting in June so I'll have to try and get the missing episodes then. Anyway, I quite enjoyed series 5 and was shocked by how much I'd forgotten about it. I know pretty much everything that happens in series' 1 & 2 as I've watched them so many times but, appart from the first few episodes of series 3, I've hardly ever watched series 3 - 5.
As for Hollyoaks. I watched 'In too Deep' the other week and was left slightly confused by the whole thing. Hollyoaks should stick to be a humourous soap rather than occasionally branching out into the surreal. It's so shocking hearing the characters swear as it's after the watershead. Obviously, I'm used to hearing people swear all the time in everyday life and I don't find it shocking at all which shows how different 'soap' life is to real life. I really like the pairing of Lisa and Ben even though Lisa has been a fairly nasty character in the past. I think they're going to be the subject of a spin off series soon and I'll be interested to see how that turns out.
