Mahinda’s Little World

I’ve just had one of the most amazingly varied and busy weekends ever!

Friday

Work, as per usual, and then I headed over to the university quarter to meet Alison for an evening with the Harmony Gospel Choir. Now, as someone who’s not a fan of general happy-clappiness, you’d think that sort of thing anathema to me. And you’d be right.

However, Zen had txted me an invite, Alison was going anyway, and I had nothing better to do of a Friday evening. So I met her outside Varsity and we headed to St. Peter’s Chaplaincy, which is sort of joined to one side of the Precinct Centre. We couldn’t get tickets quite so far in advance (it was 7.15pm, and the concert started at 8pm), so we headed to Sand Bar.

In an absolutely genius move, Sand Bar has started selling rather tasty olives at 80p a cup, in addition to their well-kept (and ever-changing) ales and interesting selection of bottled beer. The place really does have the perfect beer for everyone, and at a decent enough price, in pleasant surroundings.

Anyway, we were all very continental and sat on the steps outside for half an hour or so, before venturing back to St. Peter’s.

We got our tickets, and ended up sitting next to Adam and Ben, who were along to support Lydia. The concert was…different. All a bit gospel, surprisingly enough, with much praising of the lord. Top marks to one or two of the soloists, and the slightly deranged bloke doing the conducting.

Not sure whether I’d go to one again. Nice enough, but not really my sort of thing.

Afterwards, we headed to Umami for some noodley goodness, in the hope of finding a veggie curry laksa for Alison. While they did do a laksa, only meaty options were available as they used shrimp paste in the base. It is a pretty essential component*, so that’s allowed.

* I have made veggie laksas without anything fishy, but they don’t taste quite as nice.

We ate, and were suitably satisfied. Good food, good service, and at a good price. Job done!

Suitably fed, we walked back towards Alison’s place, stopping off at Hardy’s Well for a pint. Bizarrely, I bumped into a vague workmate (same site, but he’s one of the internal audit guys with whom I never cross paths), who turned out to live just around the corner.

Soon it was back to Alison’s place for a few drinks - very much of the "whatever’s left" variety, I had mostly gin and tonic, while she had various Archer’s, Galliano and Coke concoctions. We chatted away merrily, and I have a vague recollection of a documentary on the telly all about porn. Most odd, and just a bit distracting!

I crashed over, with the plan being to wake up early as I had to be out and about.

Saturday

This is the exciting day.

I had to be at Piccadilly station at 10.30am, to meet some MUGSS types and the CAMRA U30 bunch for a trip to the Macclesfield Beer Festival.

We left Alison’s place at 8.30am, as she had to get into town, and I caught a Finglands bus towards Withington. An unexpected bonus was getting a free fare, as the driver couldn’t be bothered to fish out a £2 pass. As we passed through Withington village, a doddery old chap (who, to be honest, looked as though he’d been drinking) got up…and then missed his handholds and fell over comprehensively as the bus stopped. It wasn’t a particularly sharp stop or anything.

Anyway, this chap had fallen flat on his back and looked a bit dazed. I helped him get up while the only other passenger got the driver to stop…and that’s when I noticed that blood was streaming out of the side of the guy’s head. Other than that, he was dazed but unharmed, so I helped him off the bus on to Palatine Road, just by St. Cuthbert’s Church.

He had some water, which I used to cleanse the wound slightly. It was a gash just in front of the ear, about 4-5" long from just above to just below the ear. And, of course, bleeding profusely. The bus driver had some tissues, which I held to blokey’s head in an attempt to stem the flow. I sent the driver away after a little while*, as things were under control. I managed to scab some more tissues off some passers-by, and kept pressure on the wound.

* This was probably a mistake. Oops.

I then wondered whether I should call for an ambulance or walk him over to Christie’s…or even get someone to stick with him while I ran home (about 500 yards away) and picked up some dressings, with the plan being to patch him up and take him to hospital. I asked him a little about himself. His name was Daniel (I think), he was an alcoholic, and he suffered from epilepsy. He was also shaking quite a lot. I couldn’t get the phone out fast enough!

So, I stood there with Daniel in the sunshine waiting for help to arrive. Having recently (a whole ten days earlier!) finished a "First Aid in the Workplace" course, I knew what questions to ask. The paramedics arrived and took him away.

I don’t know what I’d have done differently before the first aid course, to be honest. I might not have been quite as confident, or asked the right questions. The confidence was the main thing, I reckon.

All through this, I’d managed to keep my white shirt (of course) absolutely pristine. It was only at the end, when Daniel reached his hands around to my sides in a gesture of thanks, that I managed to get bloody fingerprints on it!

So, off I walked in the direction of home, my hands and forearms covered in blood. I got some very odd looks from the passing joggers - I was sorely tempted to just say "it’s alright, none of it’s mine!"

Home. Washed. Changed. And straight out again. All before 10.15am.

And there’s the end of my lunchbreak. The rest of the weekend will follow at some point…