Monthly Archives: August 2003

Well, after the scare of a week ago, my right eye is returning to normal. I’m down to two eye-drops a day now and the halo’s I was getting when the lights were dim have lessened over time. Now it’s like I cant remember if I had them before the injury or not!

Other than the night it happened, the weirdest part of the experience has to be when my pupils were dilated during my check-up on Sunday. After the eye exam I left the building to the harsh glow of a bright afternoon, realising my pupils couldn’t contract to block out the light. That and I could only really focus on things that were five or six feet away, although Kieran had forewarned me about that bit.

It really was surreal – I went for a walk around the music and game shops, but couldn’t focus on the cd cases in order to read what was on them. Decided that a look in Top Man would be a better waste of time until I could safely drive home, but strangely having completely shagged sight didn’t make their range look any better! ;o)

Ah well, I’m definately on the road to recovery, and for that I’m relieved in a big way. Although this was a bit of a freak accident, I’m definately going to take good care of my eyes from now on.

Probably the best couple of days I’ve spent in a field since going to the Malverns mountain biking event back in ’97.

Highlights for me were Good Charlotte, The All-American Rejects, The Darkness, The Datsuns, and Linkin Park – who were simply phenomenal in headlining Saturday night.

Good Charlotte are just as amusing live as they are in their videos. Although somehow I found them too polished, if there is such a thing. They sounded almost exactly like they do on their album – not a note out of place and they made it all look very effortless. Hilarious but dangerous was a mass plastic bottle throw that they engineered. Looked like a 20 foot wave of plastic on top of the crowd, surging in the direction of the stage!

Metallica were pretty good, too, on Friday night, although I’m not a fan and didn’t know any of their songs, you could feel the quality (to paraphrase a certain someone!) even from where I was quietly standing. They also sounded almost too perfect to be live, but I guess that comes with the time the band have been going, and the pure energy in the performance of each song was something to experience.

Surprises for me were Placebo and Linkin Park. I’m not an authority on Placebo by any stretch, but their set was superb. I had been all set to miss it too, in order to catch Electric Six on a side stage, but that was mobbed so we returned to the main stage to see the sun setting to the powerful Pure morning. That and their final few songs really electrified the atmosphere, and set the crowd up for a great night.

To finish off my Leeds Festival experience, Linkin Park bowled me over. We have Hybrid Theory in the house, but it just doesn’t carry the same weight on a stereo that each track had in the dark on Saturday night. In a word, awesome! I went out and bought an older album (Metoria) the next day, along with those of The All-American Rejects and The Datsuns.

Tonight I went to five a side with the intention of having a good run about, since I missed a game last week while on holiday. I say five a side, but only seven of us turned up, so we decided to play three against three and one in goal.

We’d played for about a minute – I had a shot on goal blocked, and my team of three were attacking again. I went to pass the ball to Chris, past Deniz when the ball rebounded off of Deniz’s knee, right into my eye. I had no time to blink and it just hit me full force on the eyeball.

At first I went down to the ground holding my eye, thinking it would just be a stinger and I’d be okay in a minute or two. After about ten seconds I tried to look up and everything was just a blur. I could only make out colours and shapes, but that was it – everything was mess and my eye was throbbing like hell.

After a minute or two and some welcome Volvic for an eye-wash from Beppe, it became obvious that this was more than a poke in the eye style stinger.

Being the wuss that I am, naturally I went into headless chicken mode. Hey, what can I say, when most of the things I do depend on my sight, losing it is my worst nightmare. (well, waking up without my penis is my worst nightmare!)

I raced home in the car – how I got back with one eye I will never know, ‘cos I couldn’t judge distance to save myself – and ran into the house in the direction of the fridge for some ice. Fliss helped out, getting it into a poly bag and then a tea-towel so I could hold it against my eye, which by this point was almost completely washed out vision wise and aching like hell.

I’ve had ear-ache, tooth-ache, stomach-ache and almost every kind of other-ache I can think of. But eye-ache is a new one on me and it’s not fucking pleasant I can tell you.