Throughout the past few years I have had a lot of bad happened to me personally and my family. On 25th November 2000 my dad had a heart attack and was rushed to hospital in the middle hours of the morning. I remember being disturbed by the ambulance people in the middle of the night, however didn't get out of bed and the next morning I just passed it off as a dream. However, that was until my nana came downstairs telling me that my dad had been taken to hospital and mum was there with him in intensive care. Being 11 at the time I didn't know how to react, and just tried to ignore what was happening as I didn't know how to react. After my dad had heart surgery the following day, the medicines they gave him triggered another heart attack, and also multiple strokes. This meant him having to stay in hospital for a long period of time, and was in a coma from 26th November 2000 through to 28th December 2000. I hardly saw any of my mum who was almost always at his bedside, and my nana and grandad moved in here to look after my brother, sister and me. What was worse is that we spent Christmas 2000 not knowing whether my dad would make it to New Year or not. He was given a 1 in 100 chance of surviving what he had gone through, and as you could probably imagine we as a family felt a combination of upset, hurt, stress, and guilt. I was 11 years old and had to comfort my mum crying. Eleven years old, and I was the only one that could support my mum as for my age I had a very mature personality. Just the pain of seeing my dad in that hospital bed on Christmas day with mum sat beside him holding back her tears was enough pain to last me 5 lifetimes. I hate to imagine what my siblings were going through; my little brother was only 7 at the time, bless him. Miraculously, my dad was sitting up in bed and talking by New Years day 2001. I am grateful to whatever power over us made my dad pull through slim chances of survival. He however had suffered brain damage due to surgery on his brain to stop his strokes. He was in rehabilitation during the beginning of 2001, and came out in early March. He was still very mentally ill though in the sense of brain damage. HE still has the intelligence up there, however he had trouble getting his words out and more often than not either said the wrong things or couldn't say what he wanted to at all. This used to frustrate him so much and it was so upsetting to see other people treat him as an outcast because of this. Fortunately he has gotten better over the past 4 1/2 years, to the point where now sometimes you'd wonder if he ever was really ill. He still has trouble remembering some things and getting his words out; but it is a mega improvement over how he was like at Christmas 2000. Where he is now today is truly amazing, seeming as he only had a 1 in 100 chance of survival! It still causes a lot of pain nowadays, though, to see how because of my dad's illness our family life has changed drastically to the extent where my mum is now the breadwinner of the house and the way how roles have changed. Us three as offspring have also matured a hell of a lot due to what's happened to us throughout the past 4 years.
Another big pain in my life was the fact that I was gay. When I first realised that I fancied men instead of women (I was about 11 at the time), I didn't know what to do and saw myself as an outcast. Bear in mind at the time all these things were happening with my dad being in hospital. I was utterly confused in myself inside, and really thought that I was wrong in the head. However, as my teenage years went on, I learnt to accept who I was and became happier. That was until I confided in someone who I thought I could trust. That day was the worst of my life - I told this girl that I was gay thinking that she'd keep quiet, and the next day at school everyone was talking about it and taunting me. People who were my "friends" started to avoid me. I would hear people talking about me being gay as if I wasn't there. I'd get the usual "queer", "gay", "fag" comments shouted at me. This all continued for the next year or so, and at that point I really did have few friends. As I became older I learnt to ignore all the homophobic behaviour to the point nowadays where I really couldn't care less to what peopel thought. I had to go through the pain of falling in love with a straight guy for 2 years - I just couldn't accept the fact that he was straight and that I never had a chance with him, ever. However things seemed to get better in early 2003 when I met my first boyfriend. It was a long-distance online relationship, however we managed to last 10 months. However even until now I still feel so much pain of what he did to me (to cut a long story short, he was a d**khead to me, and only wanted me for the sex and to look good for having a boyfriend). Not to mention the fact that not long after breaking up I found out he had cheated on me no less than 6 times. I'm still emotionally unstable about the whole subject at times; but nowadays I tend to think to myself "Look Jon, your strong, he was a b**tard, you dont need him doing this to you" and I hold my head up high. But (most of the time) I hold myself above him, I'll no longer let him get to me anymore.
Add on top of these two major problems stress from school; being treated as a "social retard" because I don't follow fashions, and being called "boring" because I'm interested in appliances, my life really has been hell at times for me in the past few years. But what I can say, is that throughout all the bad times, I've always had my interest in appliances there to keep me sane and to keep me going. It lets me forget about the world and it's problems, and enables me to relax. There's nothing better to relieve stress than doing a couple loads of laundry, or going down the launderette and listening to the washers and dryers whirring, winding, hissing, clunking away.
In a nutshell; appliances and laundry have managed to keep me sane through thick and thin. Anytime I'm stressed, I know all I have to do to cheer myself up is grab some dirty clothes, a box of Fairy, and find a washing machine, and away goes my stress!
What's more, is the fact that I know I can come to this board and read about appliances - old and new, as well as THS, and although I don't post frequently, I always get a warm feeling - a sense of community, a sense of being welcome even if it's just to lurk around reading the posts. I have met a few good friends on here - Louis being one of them, that I know I will have for life.
I know this has probably been a tedious read, and nobody else probably wants to hear my problems, but I just want people to know how my interest in appliances has managed to keep me going.
I would like to end by giving a great big thank you to appliances and especially Classic Appliances, for giving me something to fall back on whatever is happening in my life.
Jon
Another big pain in my life was the fact that I was gay. When I first realised that I fancied men instead of women (I was about 11 at the time), I didn't know what to do and saw myself as an outcast. Bear in mind at the time all these things were happening with my dad being in hospital. I was utterly confused in myself inside, and really thought that I was wrong in the head. However, as my teenage years went on, I learnt to accept who I was and became happier. That was until I confided in someone who I thought I could trust. That day was the worst of my life - I told this girl that I was gay thinking that she'd keep quiet, and the next day at school everyone was talking about it and taunting me. People who were my "friends" started to avoid me. I would hear people talking about me being gay as if I wasn't there. I'd get the usual "queer", "gay", "fag" comments shouted at me. This all continued for the next year or so, and at that point I really did have few friends. As I became older I learnt to ignore all the homophobic behaviour to the point nowadays where I really couldn't care less to what peopel thought. I had to go through the pain of falling in love with a straight guy for 2 years - I just couldn't accept the fact that he was straight and that I never had a chance with him, ever. However things seemed to get better in early 2003 when I met my first boyfriend. It was a long-distance online relationship, however we managed to last 10 months. However even until now I still feel so much pain of what he did to me (to cut a long story short, he was a d**khead to me, and only wanted me for the sex and to look good for having a boyfriend). Not to mention the fact that not long after breaking up I found out he had cheated on me no less than 6 times. I'm still emotionally unstable about the whole subject at times; but nowadays I tend to think to myself "Look Jon, your strong, he was a b**tard, you dont need him doing this to you" and I hold my head up high. But (most of the time) I hold myself above him, I'll no longer let him get to me anymore.
Add on top of these two major problems stress from school; being treated as a "social retard" because I don't follow fashions, and being called "boring" because I'm interested in appliances, my life really has been hell at times for me in the past few years. But what I can say, is that throughout all the bad times, I've always had my interest in appliances there to keep me sane and to keep me going. It lets me forget about the world and it's problems, and enables me to relax. There's nothing better to relieve stress than doing a couple loads of laundry, or going down the launderette and listening to the washers and dryers whirring, winding, hissing, clunking away.
In a nutshell; appliances and laundry have managed to keep me sane through thick and thin. Anytime I'm stressed, I know all I have to do to cheer myself up is grab some dirty clothes, a box of Fairy, and find a washing machine, and away goes my stress!
What's more, is the fact that I know I can come to this board and read about appliances - old and new, as well as THS, and although I don't post frequently, I always get a warm feeling - a sense of community, a sense of being welcome even if it's just to lurk around reading the posts. I have met a few good friends on here - Louis being one of them, that I know I will have for life.
I know this has probably been a tedious read, and nobody else probably wants to hear my problems, but I just want people to know how my interest in appliances has managed to keep me going.
I would like to end by giving a great big thank you to appliances and especially Classic Appliances, for giving me something to fall back on whatever is happening in my life.
Jon
.
