Vaguely Urgent Stuff - Please Read This Now

[Scrybe]

I've just given a stranger my bed for the night. No joke, no lie.

Okay, I was in town photographin a friend's jazz gig. We finished, headed up the road to another bar and met a few other friends. On our way home, a young guy (I'm mid-20s, he's maybe about 3 younger than me) passed out - hit his head on concrete in front of us. One friend is a nurse and checked him over. He's ok. But the place he lives is a £30 taxi ride away and he just split up with his girlf who lives down the road. So, I insisted he crash at mine, in my bed, for the night. I'm now sleeping on the sofa, and it is now 4am my time and we got in 30 mins ago.

I judged him not to be a threat to life, liberty, possessions. And I always felt, in principle, I'd do a thing like this if I had to. I just never thought that day would come - I feel safe about it, though, so that's okay. Just putting it out there (here and a few other places) for some 'safety'. I'll post tomorrow afternoon to confirm I'm safe (there's no real doubt, I just don't take stupid risks). If I don't post by 3pm tomorrow (uh....however many hours that is from now.......like maybe 11 hours or so...basically, if I don't post within 24 hours, you'll know to hit the panic buttons. But I'll be safe. I can read him well enough to know, he'll just wake up feeling a bit of a prat and probably a little grateful to get breakfast and a cheap n easy way home tomorrow.

Fuck, I've just been a good samaritan. No bullshit. No fancying the guy and wanting to take advantage of the situation. No underhand motivation whatsoever. Just pure unadulterated, "I would like someone to help me if I was ever in that situation" kinda vibe. He's asleep in my bed now, and I'm on the sofa.

Weird stuff happens in life sometimes, I guess. Purely spur of the moment call on my part. I feel kinda good, in a weird "I'm growing older" kinda way. Sorry for posting this here, but I've texted a few local friends I know are up right now, and have posted on FB, just covering my back here and also sharing.

(Please don't delete this at least until I post back tomorrow - within 24 hours from now - appreciated). I don't like having to burden people with looking out for me, and I really don't think this is any worry whatsoever, just if it were someone else doing the niceties, I'd recommend they do what Im doing right now in putting it out there, so I'm trying to play by own rules for once.

Thanks for reading. Seriously.

[RonD]

Scrybe, good for you! I'm sure everything will be fine. We need more of this in the world!
Cheers,

[musicalbodger]

Scrybe, what you did, have done, is very worthy if a little rash. I've found that most people in this world are good and if you have any street smarts at all it doesn't take much to pick up on those that are a threat. There are always tell tale signs, if you are aware. The only problem I can see is that you'd been drinking and maybe you're judgement could have been a bit off. Just make sure he doesn't take your "good samaritan' caring for a come on and you should be ok.

Let us know you're fine sooner than this afternoon if you can.

If the guy hit his head on the concrete he should probably get himself checked out at the hospital before he goes home. Complications can be pretty dire and he's only been checked out by a nurse on a night out.

[billkath]

I must admit-I do stuff like this all the time, and haven't been "caught out"....yet. However-I'm not a single girl, alone in a flat with some drunk bloke with a head injury. Sleep with a carving knife under the pillow!!!(too late!) And-Don't listen to Maxwell's Silver Hammer-you'll never sleep again!
p.s.-I'd definitely given him the sofa.

[Scrybe]

(c&p'd from an email just sent, cos I'm lazy and a bit tired and need food)
Just a quick line to say I'm safe, alive, and completely unharmed. All my stuff is accounted for (no, my sleeping on the sofa wasn't complete charity at all, but a rather astute decision based off my guitars being in the back room and me wanting to put myself between them and the door.....). Thanks for looking out for me, though - it is massively appreciated.

The young cad is safely on public transport back to Maghull, and I am gonna have some lunch and go do some practice. I don't normally do things as charitable/stupid/delete as you wish as this, but I was convinced it wasn't at all dangerous this time, and if I'd had even the slightest doubt, there is no way I would have done it. But, you never know for sure with these things, so I really appreciate being able to give people heads up just in case I mysteriously vanished and then later turned up on an episode of Missing Persons as a case study. Glad that was avoided.

Sometimes, I amaze myself. (Even if it was primarily because I really didn't feel right about just leaving him in town on his own with no cash, yet was also far too tired to go through with staying up much longer making sure he was safe or having to accompany him to the hospital or something - I don't think it really counts as full on good samaritansism, but close enough I guess).

muscialbodger - I hadn't been drinking, so that wasn't an issue (trust, I know well enough to factor in my own drinking when relevant in judging situations), and yes, I do have enough street smarts to generally avoid trouble, but thanks for the concern.

billkath - the sofa decision definitely wasn't charity, but rather me just valuing my guitars/mics/etc and putting an extra safeguard in there!

[Dad3353]

Good afternoon, Scrybe...

Glad everything turned out fine, and that modern 'paranoia' is not always justified. Precautions, fine, but really, common sense and 'humanism' deal with most calls that life makes on us. Well done.

[Scrybe]

Thanks, Dad3353. And RonD, also.

I did think I'd be fine and this was unnecessary but, I'd also fleetingly remembered lots of "Met a stranger, didn't tell anyone, and wound up dead" stories I'd read/heard over the years, to which I generally thought "the least you could do is tell people on facebook, etc., what's going on". For once, I decided it was prudent to live by my own cynical observations.

Plus, at 4am, I didn't want to wake anyone up with texts/phone calls, so I figured posting was a politer way to let people know without waking anyone up.

[musicalbodger]

Glad all worked out well, Scrybe. Wise of you to let people know. Enjoy your practice. There's news of Mike Walker's tour next year on the MW thread.
Bodge

[Scrybe]

Thanks bodge, I'll deffo be catching Mike's next tour (still can't believe I had to miss them this time....) - he seems pretty stoked with the album, so I can't wait to give that a listen when it gets release.

[RonD]

Glad all is well Scrybe. Good Karma for ya!

[musicalbodger]

Originally Posted by Scrybe

Thanks bodge, I'll deffo be catching Mike's next tour (still can't believe I had to miss them this time....) - he seems pretty stoked with the album, so I can't wait to give that a listen when it gets release.

Apparently he's got the go ahead to record his Ropes piece with quintet & orchestra next year too, so it looks like some positive things are happening for him now. Well deserved — as RonD said about your night of excitement, 'good karma', that and positive thinking pays off eventually

[Scrybe]

Nice! I haven't heard Ropes yet, but I've been digging the other tracks I have heard. Tasteful, and has that knack of not being predictable but in a good way.

Right, back to practice...