Fucked up

[aaaaaaaaaargh!]

Just this afternoon I've learnt that my neighbours know both parties involved in a vicious axe attack here in Guildford (rival drug dealers, axe in head and chest, survivor won't press charges), and they know the fella it's taken the local plod seven years to catch after stabbing an old boy to death near a local pub. I feel that qualifies as "fucked up"!

Shit, which side of town was that on?

[Joy Nktonga]

The old man stabbing happened not far from the Wooden Bridge pub, along Manor Road. The axe attack was in October last year and that happened just outside the corner grocery store on Grange Road in Stoughton.

[aaaaaaaaaargh!]

Ah right, that's the other side of the A3 to me ;o).  I didn't realise Guildford had mean streets as such.

[Joy Nktonga]

I'm about to make some sweeping generalisaions, but as a rule the north side of Guildford, pretty much north of the A3, is pretty rough. Bellfields and Park Barn (mini Moulsecoombs and Whitehawks to our Brighton brethren) and areas of Stoughton, Worplesdon, Westborough etc. Obviously, not all of us who live in the north side are rough, but this is where most of the shit goes down. As you know, town centre can be pretty horrific on Friday and Saturday nights, and I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if the majority of troublemakers come from the areas I mentioned.

Edit: Thanks Rudi - It's been a few years since I lived around there. I've tried hard to remove even the names from my memory.

[rudi]

That'd be Moulsecoomb, dear...

[Neil]

More stories, more, more.

[SimonG156]

More stories, more, more.

Why do I get the impression that you are masturbating?

[Neil]

Why do I get the impression that you are masturbating?

Heh, just looking for some engaging reading, and people telling stories from their lives is always great.

[biniput]

Why do I get the impression that you are masturbating?

Hehe.

  Here's a little something that i do not know i should mention so names will be abbreviated etc.  This girl i know has been going along with her boyfriend to a pool team i play in every thursday for a while now.  This bloke who has learning dificulties (around 35yr) has joined up with us around 6 months ago.  This man it turns out had been spending a lot of time staring at her quite intently on the nights during play.  I had never noticed this myself but then had never looked out for it.  Then on the friday (just gone) after the game he phones her up (she is team captain) and says things like i am tired and i want to drop out of the team.  However after around 30 seconds to a minute the whole tone changes as he suddenly starts going on about "boots", the fact that she is under-arrest, being locked up and hands up etc.  This is said (to my ears at least) to heay breathing that COULD be to do with some machinery going on in the background. This goes on for around 3 minutes more. Obviously there is a police fetish here but also an obviously disturbed fascination going on here.  She had not mentioned this to me for a week though her work collegues had heard it as the answer phone massage (on her mobile) had been sent at 9:30 am.

What do we do.  What would you do.  My brother says go to the police as he (the caller) is disturbed.  The girl in question is being too cautious in my opinion but there are a number of options.  Is this a dangerous situation or has a slow man just said what he thinks is allright as he may not see her again? Also a month ago a text message was sent from an unknown caller about the same sort of thing. I suggest finding out (how?) if he has a care worker or social worker that should be told of this.

[rudi]

I'd ask him about it directly first.

If he (mistakenly) doesn't understand it's inappropriate it'd be unfair to get all official on him immediately.

If he fails to stop though, then yeah, the police. They won't lock him up or owt, but it'll be logged, they may even talk to him and that should (usually) be that.

[CookACat]

I've been told that recently, someone decided to kill himself in Waterstones, in a branch with a big drop down between the stairs in the middle. His fall was broken by, and somewhat slowed down by, a large art-deco chandelier thingy, and a friend of a sibling who works there had to sit with him for ten minutes while he died slowly on the floor. Grim.

My boyfriend's friend also got bitten in the face by a complete stranger at an Eighties Matchbox gig. Plenty of blood, not pleasant.

[biniput]

This thread is really living up to its name.  Why Waterstones though? I wonder what those last minutes feel like.  Horror at dying yes but surely a massive loss of stress as nothing in this world matters any more.  A shame that as an entire world perspective changes there is no way to take advantage which is maybe why a lot of near death people do change thier lives.

[CookACat]

As you know, town centre can be pretty horrific on Friday and Saturday nights, and I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if the majority of troublemakers come from the areas I mentioned.

And of course there's the delightful tale of the drunk girl who the bouncers threw out of Cinderella's on North Street a few years ago, they refused to let her back in to get her bag/money, she walked home through town, and she was quickly killed by the Bedford Road car park. Sorry, that's just very morbid, but you mentioned the 'ford again and I have verbal diarrhoea.

[Pinball]

When I was a student I did an attachment at Lewisham Hospital A&E for a month. Basically, my job was to assist, as a non-medic, the staff during the night shift. What the hell my tutors thought I would gain from this - apart from an iron constitution - I don't know. [Well, actually, I learnt a lot about the lab tests, biochemistry etc.].

Any road up, I saw lots of things that have never left me, really. The drug abuse in Lewisham is (was) pretty bad, and lots of alcoholics were also turning up, including one who vomited up litres of blood and died. RTAs, suicide attempts, heart attacks etc. I saw lots of resuscitation-type stuff. The worst was probably a teenage girl who was hit by a hit and run driver while she was crossing a pelican crossing in Lewisham. She had lots of fractures, head injuries, internal injuries, and several medical teams were looking after her at the same time (orthopaedic for bones, general surgeons for abdominal injuries, neurologists for brain etc.). She was then taken to the Maudsley for a brain MRI scan/further tests. Before she was wheeled off, I naively asked if she would be okay, and one of the medics pointed to her ear, from which grey material was oozing out. This was her brain. The trip to the Maudsley was to confirm she was brain dead, with a view to then harvesting her organs.

This was at 3am, under harsh bright fluorescent lights, and with me half awake. The staff were professional and coolly clinical. There were no emotions. A truly surreal, disturbing experience, and a memory I shall never forget... :-(