Dateline: October 25 – December 3:
Non-stop, three continent travel: USA – Australasia – Europe (Melbourne, Sydney, Paris, Lisbon, London, Manchester, Grasmere and New Jersey). Seven days a week with businesses including Wine, Superyacht Software, Life Insurance, Premier League Football, Healthcare Software, Division 2 Football, Advertising, Cork Supply, Energy, Waste Management, TV/Movie Development, Textile Technology, Luxury Hospitality, Skincare, Transport Software, Food Retail and Lovemarks like Herdy. All topped and tailed with Family ups and downs – my beloved Auntie Enyd’s passing, brilliant times with daughters Nikki and Bex, and passionate, loving interludes with Trudy, Mark and Vanessa and five of our nine grandkids. Full day/dinner sessions with The Challengers, The Spartans, Sogrape’s global leaders, Harv 81’s Executive Leadership Team, AIA Australia’s EXCO, Brentford Academy’s Force, Charles/James’ Global View Systems and the dynamic Leadership / Transformation Teams of Averda and BB Energy.
Four to six hours sleep a night (instead of my normal eight), 30 minutes Peloton every morning, my 24th month without alcohol, unhealthy hotel convenience food – insufficient veggies, poor hydration – Pepsi Max not totally a substitute health-wise for water (but sure tastes better). Zero transition time in books/streamers – Man City, All Blacks and Ashes cricket my only escape – and that all was very VUCAA too!!
Dateline: Thursday, 8.00pm. The Farm, Basking Ridge, New Jersey.
7½ hours on Virgin to JFK. 2½ hour nightmare drive to The Farm. JFK a lousy option – Newark is 45mins from The Farm, so much better when flight schedules allow.
Welcome committee at The Farm – Trudy, Vanessa, Mark, Kendall, Cam and Andrew, plus of course – Gary and Archer (orchestrated by Vanessa – dogs washed and in Christmas bandanas). Bliss.
Dateline: Friday:
- 5.00am: Continuing sleep pattern: Four deep sleep hours, then awake.
- 9.00am: Two Zoom calls with London and Georgia.
- Mid-day: Feeling strangely light-headed.
- 3.00pm: Due to pick up Andrew from school. Dizzy, couldn’t balance, room spinning.
- 3.15pm: Trudy picks up Andrew. I lay down.
- 5.30pm: I wake up. Room spinning.
- 6.00pm: Consult Dr Google – and Dr Trudy. Dizziness / light-headedness in adults of my vintage caused by inner-ear issue, lack of sleep, dehydration, lack of nutrients, stress/tension. I score four out of five!
- 7.00pm: Rehydrate / Nourish.
- 8.00pm: Sleep for five hours.
Dateline: Saturday:
- 2.00am: Watch Australia dismantle England in 2nd Test (again!).
- 7.30am: Watch an exciting Aston Villa v Arsenal game. I feel the pain of my two Gooner super-fans / super-friends Nicky Gray and Stephen Brauer.
- 10.00am: Watch Pep’s new Man City dismantle Sunderland. Rayan Cherki / Phil Fodens’ goal of the season moves the Cityzens into second place, two points behind Arsenal. Normal service is resumed!
- 12 noon: Room starts spinning again.
- 12.15pm: Back to bed.
- 5.00pm: Wake up. Room spinning. Take blood pressure – through the roof.
- 5.30pm: Trudy is looking after Andrew. The three of us climb into The Defender – off to Urgent Care in Bernardsville. Seen immediately. Blood pressure – way too high. Blood sugar test – OK. EKG – concerning. Pulse – abnormal. Sent to ER in Morristown urgently.
- 6.00pm: We drop Andrew off.
- 6.30pm: Enter war-zone of Morristown ER. Full speed ahead. Blood pressure and vitals taken. Moved into wheelchair and into Trauma, Red Surge Zone. Bed in a corridor – directly in front of Ambulance arrivals. Corridors full of patients in beds. Zero rooms available. Stretchers non-stop coming in – everyone looks in worse shape than me. All our consultations take place in a main arterial corridor – noisy, crowded – it’s an ER! It’s a surge trauma space. It’s like an episode of M-A-S-H.
- 7.30 – 11.30pm: Never-ending procession of nurses, orderlies and doctors. Testing me for brain, heart, vertigo, stroke – etc etc. Thorough and calm in unbelievably hostile Saturday night conditions. Too many patients, not enough beds, not enough staff, but everyone professional, pleasant and backed up with excellent tech. Patients’ process/protocol creaking with all the pressure – understandable. Bloods taken – twice. Chest x-ray – taken. Cat scan – taken. Blood pressure – taken three times – coming down.
- 11.45pm: Supervisory doctor gives me two choices:
- Stay in corridor and do an MRI at 9am.
- Leave now with 99% confidence all is well (all tests passed with flying colours), and contact Neurology expert if condition continues (unlikely). Cause is fatigue and body telling me to give it a break.
- Midnight: Trudy and I take Option 2!
Dateline: Sunday:
- 12.15am: Cheese and Broccoli soup at The Farm (first meal since 10.30am!!).
- 12.45am: Sleep in our own bed!
- 5.00am: Writing this blog.
Don’t Let The Old Man In.
PS: With thanks to:
- Trudy – my rock.
- Nikki, Bex, Vanessa – my loving daughters.
- Robin – for caring and his telepathic empathy.
- Marcus – for telling me I was in the right place and getting the right diagnosis and treatment.
- Julie – for her ongoing, ever-constant, unconditional support.
- Gary and Archer – for being there.
