The worst day!

OK, After the day I had yesterday I thought it a good idea to post the worst days that you have had.

:sad: What happened yesterday Mike?

My worst day...probably the time I spent a lot of it in hospital because I thought my mother was going to die, that was quite bad. In my experience though seemingly bad things always seem to work out fine in the end...they always seem to for me. Could be just optimistic though.

And I will start.

OK, I was working in Madrid this week and I awoke to the sound of my rooms phone going off. I had over slept and one of my Italian collegues was phoning my room to invite me for a days hard work. I stumbled into the elevator, threw down a coffee as one does and went to our car.

We drove to the first site an found that some bright sparks had disconnected the generator from the screen ( I work for a company that makes HUGE video screens using LEDs ) and were in the process of laying out power cables to connect into the local mains grid. So we packed up and went to the next screen. Well, seeing as it was my Italian collegues turn to do the modification I left him to set up his harness etc while I set up the access ladder. As he neared the top of the 20M tower he called down to me (Mike, I am sorry but I have forgotten the keys. I have left them in my hotel room!) Down he came, I packed up and off we went towards our hotel.

Not far down the road we were pulled over by the police. My collegue ( who turn was to drive ) had his hands free ear thingies and throat mic. Pity really, these arnt allowed in Spain! So, we were escorted to a local cash point and told to hand over 105 euro or have the car impounded! 105 euro lighter we made it back to the hotel.

When we got back to our hotel I recieved a frantic phone call from my other Italian collegue who was having problems at another of our screens. I duly setup my laptop and access the customers private network only to find out that it wasnt working. The internet fault eventually turned out to be due to the Spanish 3G network going down in Madrid. We, keys now safely in our pockets we got back in our car and went to the screen that I had recieved the phone call about. I harnessed up and climbed up the mast and got into the screen only to find that some bright sparks during the previous night had had a little fun and pulled some cables out. How they got up there I will never know. Its very very dangerous withouut the right safety kit.

Well, screen fixed, a happy customer and our stomachs growling we decided to have a spot of lunch. Burger King here we go. We found the nearest one and promptly filled our empty bellies and fully sated ourselves.

Well, walking back to our car we discovered that there was a small pile of glass next to the passenger door. Some idiot had stoved in the passenger quater light. Oh well, never mind. Idiots will be idiots.

We opened the boot and told Mauro to take his laptop where he promptly said ( what laptop? its gone!) So had mine, and my Tom Tom. Oh no! We had been done! Like most travelling engineers I carry my life in my laptop case. However, I was lucky. Seeing as in Spain you have to carry ID I had my passport in my pocket so I was able to leave the country.

Well, after a visit to the local police station ( Spanish cops are pretty good. They do have a sence of humor )we filled out HUGE amounts of paper work. I have a copy and its all in Spanish!

OK you lote. beat that!

Mike.

the day i started 6 form - parties finished but nightclubs started lol

but 6 form sucks

Oh, a piece of advice here. if you do have your car broken into in Spain make sure that you tell them EVERYTHING that was stolen. Once the statement is finished you CANNOT add to it. Basically, if its not on the statement you can not claim for it. Last night as I was sulking I went to bed early (well, I had no laptop to keep me amused did I) and looked for my beautiful SONY ebook only to remember that it was in my laptop case. Thats one thing I cant claim back on now.

So, take this as a warning.

I wish you hadnt have done that Mike, I started to remember the worst day I ever had but the similarities to a day that we both remember are too close for comfort.

The Day I heard that one of my friends (who I happened to have lost touch with) had died after battling childhood leukemia for 3 years, a shame, because he was one of the nicest people I had the pleasure of knowing :sad:

Hi Joey, Karoline and Liam. I started this post as a bit of a tongue in cheek post. Yes, I had a bad day yesterday but I didnt think that this type of post would happen.

This post is supposed to be a light hearted bad day thingie. Whilst I am very sorry for your loss and grief I can only offer my appologues for raising this topic.

Mike.

Meh, I took it as fairly lighthearted too, like I said things usually turn out okay (mine did, mums fine and still telling me that I should shut up about robots) so no need to apologise to me.

My sympathies with Karoline and Liam though :sad:

Sorry About That

Anyway, cheers for ur kind words Mike, the day I heard he went, I didnt post a thread about it in the general chatter section because I was too sad to.

Just to lighten things back up again. My favourite yeah, yeah, stop mucking about moment was when Mark and myself were on our way to see Alice Cooper and Mark informed me that he had left the tickets at home. We were at the time standing in a tube station in London and 50 miles driving distance away from home. This resulted in Mark phoning his wife and her meeting us to hand over the envelope in a hotel car park, all very dodgy looking. Thankfully all we missed was one of the support acts.

(Message edited by Ian_humphrey on February 27, 2009)

I think one of the very worst moments in my life (so far, knock wood) must have been when my Granny, called Moemoe, was still alive and living in an assisted living apartment. (Assisted living as in having a social worker living in one of the other apartments who for the entire block could take care of stuff for you if you asked. And if she had the time.)
I was working some 10 kms away from there, thus being the closest relative in case. And the in case did happen when my Mama called me to check on Moemoe because she hadnt been returning phone calls for 24 hours now. Moemoe was by that time living an extremely sedentary lifestyle, i.e. she never went out, had her shopping done by my uncle, had no friends, and thus not answering the phone suggested dire events.
All my colleagues saw was me slamming down the phone, leaving my desk so fast it left a cloud and caused paperwork to fly around, and yelling at the HR Im off for today, family circumstances on my way through the door. (Fortunately we have in Belgian Work Law emergency paid days off (and unpaid days off) for whatever happens to close relatives.) I must have broken every speed limit on those 10 kms but I couldnt care. I ran to the apartment, peeked through the window next to the door, thought I saw a shade lying on the floor in the living room, fumbled with the keys, got the right key in the slot, turned it, ran inside...
And Moemoe, lying on the floor in her own waste products, greeted me with:
Babeth, why are you standing on the wall like that ?

Turned out she had slipped, lost balance, and fallen down. Couldnt get up, got hypothermia, got her mind befuddled (dementia was already encroaching but every member of the family except Mama and I refused to acknowledge that), and was seriously convinced that she was standing upright and I was standing on the wall.

Now, she had this emergency-button-on-a-necklace.
Right ?
But she wasnt wearing it because it was cumbersome, as in: it always was hanging in the way whenever she bent over to do something. And so she left it on the nightstand. Go figure.

Unfortunately this wasnt the last time. It took two more falls, and me refusing to go in the third time and demanding my uncle come over and go in, before the rest of the family understood that something was amiss. Moemoe was gently convinced to go live in a home, where she passed away in complete serenity 7 months later, and I was spared further trauma of checking in on a beloved relative who might be dead.

You know, I can laugh about it now.
But I am now the closest relative living in distance of my Mama. I just know things will repeat itself.
But that is life I guess. Its a rollercoaster: 5 minutes of anticipation, 30 seconds of sheer howling terror, and 2 minutes of winding down and saying Phoo-ee gee was I scared ?.

Coming out of school when i was in infants, i was about 5, and my nan was standing outside waiting to pick me up instead of my mum, i go over to her with a big imaginary ? above my head, turns out shes been taken to hospital after falling down the stairs! :sad:
I was in a trauma for some time.

Either finding out last year that I failed half my AS exams (its okay now as I have redone them now and I am well on track for Uni)

Or when I was having an emergancy opparation due to my appendix being on the right on the verge of rupture, Ironicly it was the day that RW was no longer going to be aired. (so far I have had over 11 operations altogether and I am 17, this is more than the rest of my family combined.)