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25 February 2012

Posted by DMC on 26 February 2012 in Diary |

No sooner had I got into my office (8.05 this morning than a call came through from Abu Dhabi from one of my cricketing mates., Patrick Lepper. I told him he was pushing his luck telephoning an invalid at that time of the morning. I suspect that he had forgotten about the time difference. Anyway, the good news is that he’s landed a good job with a German company operating in Abu Dhabi. He has been appointed as Corporate Director for something to do with oil and gas and freight movement.

He was extremely lucky to land this job in the face of hundreds of expatriates leaving Dubai, which is only about 40 min away. It is one’ against the head’ as they say, in rugby. There must have been stiff competition for the job. I’m delighted for him as he has had very little luck over the last 20 years since I’ve known him, so it was a good start to my Saturday morning to learn of his good fortune.

Actually, there was very nearly was no Saturday morning for me. At around 5.15 this morning. suddenly I suddenly find it hard to breath and then realised that I was not getting our air my respirator,. I struggled to get my arms from under the bed clothes, which took a couple of minutes or so, and, of course, I panicked and flailed around trying to find the alarm button, but without success. The respirator itself has an alarm but ‘my lovely’ keeps it as low as possible because of her sensitive hearing and there was no way that she was going to hear it even though she was up and about. My only hope was the alarm. Fortunately, I just avoided blacking out. before I must’ve struck the alarm and she came down, realised my predicament and I could just squeak out “get me up” She was able to drag me to a sitting position, and moved me about so I could try to get balanced. I then clung to her on for at least 15 min before managing to get my breathing under control again. It was a lucky escape and something to do with a connection between a respirator and the pipe leading from the mask, which, and then enter me, had apparently broken and Alice had taped it up using there’s bits of that paper tape and a bit of a alastaplast. Clearly, this should not happen, So Alice rang mid-morning and a couple of hours later and you respirator and pipe arrived so hopefully we will have no further problem

The other thing we must do is increase the volume of the respirator alarm which is so quiet at the moment I doubt it. It can be heard outside my bedroom. I realise that ‘my lovely’ will not be able to stand the noise, as she has very sensitive hearing and any loud noise distresses her, so I shall suggest that we purchase some earmuffs that they use in shooting ranges, which will completely deaden the sound, and keep them in the hall outside the bedroom door. It is no good relying on her finding her earplugs when I am desperately trying to breathe. The irony is that with the respirator in place but not producing any air I could not even gasp air through my mouth as it was sealed off. It was as if I had had a plastic bag pulled over my head. If I can get someone to increase the alarm volume on the respirator, I will not have to entirely rely on my personal alarm system. which, when it goes off in the normal way, Alice would assume that I wanted something rather than there was an emergency. Before today, this would have been fine. However, we have learned an important lesson.

Talking of the well-known stiff upper lip of the British reminds me of the French general  who once asked his British  counterpart why they always wore red jackets? Click here for his reply to the old enemy.

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