13.05.2021 | “And as the walls are crumbling, I am tumbling to the ground”

Lyrics: “I Can’t Do Anything About It” ~ Felix Hagan & The Family, 2011

Emergencies | Monday morning, 6:30 I got a call about a health emergency of a elderly family member. And with that my time off to relax ended abruptly. The patient is doing ok so far under the circumstances, which is the most important part of the story. There will be a long road of rehab ahead, but so far we’d like to stay optimistic. It’s only been three days in fact. But the first 36 hours till Tuesday evening went by in an anxious blur and I’m only now finally getting back to a kind of less anxious state of mind. It won’t be a calm state of mind for while, I’m afraid.

In my family we’re used to similar kind of emergencies and we’ve got a routine down. Who will pack the bag and bring it to the hospital, take care of admittance and organizing one of the phones to rent. And who will be there with the patient in the ER, waiting for consults, exams, holding hands, keeping company. COVID made all of those routines void, because nobody is allowed near any patient in hospital except for palliative or dementia cases and even then there are lots of hoops to jump through.

On Monday early afternoon I learned that they were finally transferred from the ER to a regular floor, I could quickly talk to a doctor (with no valid diagnosis yet) and at least find out how to bring by some personal items, clothes, glasses etc. When I showed up at the hospital front desk and inquired about phones to rent, I learned that there weren’t any available. Damn. That was new and probably due to the pandemic and the visitors restrictions? Like I said our patient is elderly and never owned a mobile phone. They managed to call us from a phone on the floor that night, which was a relief. On Monday evening I went online to order a simple mobile phone (what we call “Granny phone” here in Germany) to pick up at the store the next day and then went to get a cheap prepaid SIM card. Registered the number, picked up the phone, set up the two emergency speed dial numbers and drove back to the hospital to drop it off again.

Tuesday evening they called and I was so relieved to hear their voice and notice that the phone set up worked out and they can now easily reach us in any case. One of us has also been calling them at least once a day, so we’ll stay in touch as we probably won’t be able to visit them until they are transferred to another hospital for rehab. This all sucks so so much, but there’s nothing else to do about it than to hang in there.

I really hope I’ll manage to recharge / relax for the rest of the week though, before I’m back at work on Monday.

Vaccinations | Good news here at least. As of yesterday all of my close contacts have had their first jab of a COVID vaccine. I’m due for my 2nd shot on Saturday 29th May which makes Sunday 13th June my “Freedom Day”. I was joking about that with friends yesterday, but in fact I have marked it in my calendar and depending on what the weather will be like I consider driving up to the seaside for the day. In Germany we’ve eased up on regulations for fully vaccinated people (and those who have been through COVID), so I might just make the most of it. I miss the seaside.

Reading | I had started a fantasy novel last weekend and enjoyed that so far, but it had it’s darker parts of the plot and right now I didn’t feel in the mood for that. So just like with my TV shows (reruns of loved ones in a comfort binge) I turned to a novel (series) I read for the first and only time about 10 years ago: “Into the Wilderness” and that’s just the right kind of comfort reading I need right now.

Fangirling | For the first time – as long as I can remember – Frank Turner started including kid-sized T-shirts on his merch a few weeks ago. That was my opportunity – my duty in fact – to buy it for a child I’d like to “pull over the dark side”. I’m kidding. But she knows I’m fan of Frank, she recognizes the FTHC logo on my car and the beanie and she knows he’s a singer, so… I put together a playlist of a few danceable, swear-free songs as introduction and wrapped it all up as a present yesterday. It was well received, though that might have been just because it was a present! We’ll see…

A few day ago Instagram memories pulled up a post about Lost Evening 2018 and I was getting properly sad and sentimental. I still am in fact, because gig buddies have been sharing similar photos from either of the last three Lost Evenings Festival on their socials as well. I miss this. The gigs, the people, the whole community and the vibe of these few days in Camden. But hey, it’s #notacult ;-)!

Lost Evenings, 2018
Lost Evenings 2018

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