Woah, Shit, It's Been So Long? Part 3
Love???
Earlier this year I got a frantic message from Karen C that Skin had reformed for the Classic Rock day at Download and were doing a mini warm-up tour. There was going to be an accoustic night in Pontypridd, a gig at the 100 Club on Oxford Street, London and a gig at Wolverhampton Wulfrun. Now normally I'd have been packing jeans, a slutty top and the camera within seconds of a message like that, but finances being as strapped as they are I had to say No, I wasn't going. Karen, being the little diamond that she is, told me that she was going to stand me the price of the gig and train transport down there. WHOOP!
Now Karen had been to the Ponty accoustic gig and met a barmy but likeable Welsh bloke (In Wales! I know!) called Mark, his sister Julie and best mate Dai. And with her "thing" of being teeny, but wearing a top hat, she got spotted at Wolves and dragged over by Dai. I bimbled along in her wake and got introduced to the three lovely Welsh types. Mark was a laugh, daft as a brush, Dai was groovy too, Julie was a bit quiet, but still nice. They had Julie's son Warren and Dai's nephew with them too - always good to see kids being brought up properly. :) At the end of the gig we all got to meet the band, got bits signed and Julie got my details for facebook friendliness. Hugs all round, quick kiss from Mark and a tingle... Odd, nice, but could have been the excitement of the night.
A little while afterwards got the friend request from Julie and swapped messages, including something unusual from me. See Mark's got kids with his ex-wife who lives in Morpeth, just north of Newcastle, not too far from me. So I mentioned that if he was up this way seeing his kids, let me know and we could do beer or something. Yeah. Me, making a tentative date with a bloke I like. Never fuckin' happens. And shock on top of shock, I get a message back that he thinks it's a great idea. In fact he's up that way in a few weeks, and he'll book into a hotel for the Friday & Saturday nights as he's not expected until Sunday. Cue much bouncing around the house, along with panic because it's in its usual shit-pit state.
So some facebook and text messages swapped and things look rosy right up until they stop a week or so before he's due to visit. Hmm, ah well, if he's lost interest that's his loss. Or he's met someone local, or he's got swine flu... Turns out that last one - not too far from the truth. I got a message from Julie saying he'd been really ill for a couple of weeks up to the weekend he was supposed to have visited. Mark did go up to see his kids, but took Julie's son Warren with him to make sure he was ok. And while he was up there he ended up in A&E where he got told that he'd had got an infection from an insect bite on his leg.
So he got back to Wales and got back in touch, really sorry, had been really rough and wants to reorganise our weekend. A date is arranged and a B&B booked in Barnard Castle. That got him some Brownie points, not assuming he was staying at mine, not assuming anything was going to happen... Anyway, the Tuesday before he was due to come up I got a text: "Hi, I'm in hosp. DVT. Don't worry. x" And then nothing for the next 24 hours. I sent text messages, trying not to sound panicked or desparate, a voicemail message on his phone, one on his sister's home phone, but she was away on holiday. Some of you will have seen the panicky call for advice on facebook which ended up with me phoning Cardiff hospital, to be told that he was fine, and due to go home that afternoon. Cue much relief and please pass on that I called to see he was okay. Turns out the "insect bite" was a DVT, and a clot had passed round his blood stream, probably causing a minor heart attack while he was up north, and settling in his lung. Fuck.
Well he's loads better now, has had a series of injections into his stomach and Warfarin tablets to sort his blood flow and break down the clots. He's got an appointment on Monday morning and if he gets the all clear to travel he'll contact the B&B to rebook as soon as possible.
We've spent that much time on the phone since he got back from Morpeth the first time we've got to know each other quite well and hopefully we'll get on as well when we finally meet up again. He's lurvely, says all the right things, we laugh together, have the same taste in music, comedy, films, photography, all sorts of stuff and this could be pretty good. Can you tell I'm trying to not be a gushing girly? :-)
Who knows? It looks good so far anyway.
Earlier this year I got a frantic message from Karen C that Skin had reformed for the Classic Rock day at Download and were doing a mini warm-up tour. There was going to be an accoustic night in Pontypridd, a gig at the 100 Club on Oxford Street, London and a gig at Wolverhampton Wulfrun. Now normally I'd have been packing jeans, a slutty top and the camera within seconds of a message like that, but finances being as strapped as they are I had to say No, I wasn't going. Karen, being the little diamond that she is, told me that she was going to stand me the price of the gig and train transport down there. WHOOP!
Now Karen had been to the Ponty accoustic gig and met a barmy but likeable Welsh bloke (In Wales! I know!) called Mark, his sister Julie and best mate Dai. And with her "thing" of being teeny, but wearing a top hat, she got spotted at Wolves and dragged over by Dai. I bimbled along in her wake and got introduced to the three lovely Welsh types. Mark was a laugh, daft as a brush, Dai was groovy too, Julie was a bit quiet, but still nice. They had Julie's son Warren and Dai's nephew with them too - always good to see kids being brought up properly. :) At the end of the gig we all got to meet the band, got bits signed and Julie got my details for facebook friendliness. Hugs all round, quick kiss from Mark and a tingle... Odd, nice, but could have been the excitement of the night.
A little while afterwards got the friend request from Julie and swapped messages, including something unusual from me. See Mark's got kids with his ex-wife who lives in Morpeth, just north of Newcastle, not too far from me. So I mentioned that if he was up this way seeing his kids, let me know and we could do beer or something. Yeah. Me, making a tentative date with a bloke I like. Never fuckin' happens. And shock on top of shock, I get a message back that he thinks it's a great idea. In fact he's up that way in a few weeks, and he'll book into a hotel for the Friday & Saturday nights as he's not expected until Sunday. Cue much bouncing around the house, along with panic because it's in its usual shit-pit state.
So some facebook and text messages swapped and things look rosy right up until they stop a week or so before he's due to visit. Hmm, ah well, if he's lost interest that's his loss. Or he's met someone local, or he's got swine flu... Turns out that last one - not too far from the truth. I got a message from Julie saying he'd been really ill for a couple of weeks up to the weekend he was supposed to have visited. Mark did go up to see his kids, but took Julie's son Warren with him to make sure he was ok. And while he was up there he ended up in A&E where he got told that he'd had got an infection from an insect bite on his leg.
So he got back to Wales and got back in touch, really sorry, had been really rough and wants to reorganise our weekend. A date is arranged and a B&B booked in Barnard Castle. That got him some Brownie points, not assuming he was staying at mine, not assuming anything was going to happen... Anyway, the Tuesday before he was due to come up I got a text: "Hi, I'm in hosp. DVT. Don't worry. x" And then nothing for the next 24 hours. I sent text messages, trying not to sound panicked or desparate, a voicemail message on his phone, one on his sister's home phone, but she was away on holiday. Some of you will have seen the panicky call for advice on facebook which ended up with me phoning Cardiff hospital, to be told that he was fine, and due to go home that afternoon. Cue much relief and please pass on that I called to see he was okay. Turns out the "insect bite" was a DVT, and a clot had passed round his blood stream, probably causing a minor heart attack while he was up north, and settling in his lung. Fuck.
Well he's loads better now, has had a series of injections into his stomach and Warfarin tablets to sort his blood flow and break down the clots. He's got an appointment on Monday morning and if he gets the all clear to travel he'll contact the B&B to rebook as soon as possible.
We've spent that much time on the phone since he got back from Morpeth the first time we've got to know each other quite well and hopefully we'll get on as well when we finally meet up again. He's lurvely, says all the right things, we laugh together, have the same taste in music, comedy, films, photography, all sorts of stuff and this could be pretty good. Can you tell I'm trying to not be a gushing girly? :-)
Who knows? It looks good so far anyway.