Hey Hey and a Big G'Day toya,

Well it had to happen one day.
Wish it had of chosen a different week though.
Sadly though we can’t swap or change the date we were born.

I'm now the big Double Twenty and as birthdays go it kind of wasn’t what I imagined turning Double Twenty would be like. I imagined having a wonderful day in class with my students (many of whom actually had cards waiting for me) singing the 'You Look Like a Monkey and You Smell Like One Too’ song whilst dancing and having a great time.

Sadly it didn’t happen that way.

The night prior I went to bed earlyish with a headache and upon waking on ‘You Smell Like a Monkey Day’ I felt like Austin Powers was continually running over my head with a steam roller whilst Mini Me was poking my eyes and ears with a hot poker.   After ringing in sick I crept beneath my blankets where I felt safe surrounded by darkness and silence. As I do each time I wake with a migraine I slept another seven hours until the school rang me to remind me that there was a ‘You Smell Like a Monkey’ dinner for me at five.

Thankfully things inside were beginning to fade.
Light and sound though still the enemy, were not the powerful beast I had woken to.

I met everyone at the school gate and we then began walking to the restaurant which of course on this occasion was at the other end of town. Walking amongst any form of traffic let alone five o’clock traffic in China is not the best thing to do even if you have a normal headache. The chaos created by the one trillion things all ringing their bells and beeping their horns at each other as they fight and push their way here and there to and fro is simply not what I needed.

Twenty minutes later I finally sat and hoped the world would to slow down.

As it didn’t bother to even try I began my battle with the beast by grabbing the closest cold beer I could find and a few minutes later grabbed a second. If the world wasn’t going to stop spinning then I guess the best thing to do on your Double Twentieth is to do your best to catch up. Once I began to enter its orbit things became much clearer and the room full of people all yelling at each other in conversation, even though sitting beside each other didn’t seem to bother me anymore.

From then on I found the night and began clicking my heels along side.

The food was delicious and my friends had ordered a perfect selection for an occasion such as a Double Twentieth. The cold beer continued to flow and as promised kept me in orbit as the world continued to slowly spin around me and the constant dull ‘Thud Thud Thudding’ of the beast was kept muffled in an iron cage. The cake came and soon after half of it had found its way onto the happy faces of those all around me which thankfully included me as it was after all, my Double Twentieth.

After we had cleaned ourselves we left the School Crew and the Leeds Lads and I headed to KTV with some friends of Ting Tings.

Post Double Twentieth….

When I woke I felt the same as that Eddakath guy did waking on the morning of his Double Twentieth but I had a feeling that this time it was Mini Me behind the steering wall of the steam roller and that it was Dr Evil who was poking my eyes and ears with a hot poker.

So I took that Eddakath guys advice and crept beneath my blankets.
Here I felt safe surrounded by darkness and silence.
I then slept the entire day and early evening away.

Now For a Bit on My Beast

Migraine is a chronic condition with recurrent attacks that are associated with headaches and are described as an intense, throbbing or pounding pain that involves one or both temples. The pain can also be found in the forehead, around the eye or at the back of the head. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, facial pallor, cold hands and feet and sensitivity to light and sound commonly accompany migraine headaches. As a result of this sensitivity to light and sound, migraine sufferers usually prefer to lie in a quiet, dark room during an attack.

A typical attack lasts between four and seventy two hours.

An estimated forty to sixty percent of migraine attacks are preceded by premonitory (warning) symptoms lasting hours to days. The symptoms may include sleepiness, irritability, fatigue, depression or euphoria along with cravings for sweet or salty foods. Patients and their family members usually know that when they observe these warning symptoms that a migraine attack is beginning and for approximately twenty four hours after an attack, the sufferer will usually feel drained of energy and may experience a normal headache along with sensitivity to light and sound.

Unfortunately, some sufferers may have recurrences of the migraine during this period.

Vertebrobasilar Migraines

Characterized by dysfunction of the brainstem which is the lower part of the brain that is responsible for automatic activities like consciousness and balance.   The symptoms of vertebrobasilar migraines include: fainting, fatigue, sensitivity to light and sound, vertigo (dizziness in which the environment seems to be spinning) and double vision.

How is a Migraine Headache Diagnosed?

Migraine headaches are usually diagnosed when the symptoms described previously are present. Migraine generally begins in childhood to early adulthood and while migraines can first occur in an individual beyond the age of fifty, advancing age makes other types of headaches more likely. A family history usually is present, suggesting a genetic predisposition in migraine sufferers.

Beers N Noodles toya…..shane
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The soundtrack to this entry was by Aqualung
The album was ‘Still Life’
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