...my arm stopped working, I was SO embarrassed...

...my arm stopped working, I was SO embarrassed... ...I dropped the chips, just handed over the counter to me ALL over the floor and wished the floor would open up and swallow me, more concerned with how it looked than the fact MY ARM STOPPED WORKING! It was an icy cold November night in 1989, we'd gone to the famous 'Bert's Cafe' in East street to look for friends we were supposed to be meeting and I was SO focused on my irritation that the buggers weren't there, that I hadn't actually noticed I was beginning to feel VERY unwell. So, gathered the chips up, apologising profusely, we made our exit toward the chaps house. In retrospect it was quite a long way away, his father was also a school keeper, of Walworth school which was situated (at the time) around the back of the infamous Thomas A'Becket pub. As I walked, my leg started to drag, heavily. There was a shop sign I barely remember what it said, something like 'Pistons inc' It is now a Chinese restaurant, but I clearly remember looking at the dark green sign with white writing and ACTUALLY thinking. "It's my brain, I AM GOING TO DIE!" I also remember clearly, the wave of fear that washed over me. This wave of fear is significant because it was the first time in this part of my life I felt that fear but even more significantly, it was THE LAST. Eventually, I collapsed, in the little road, opposite the junk yard behind the Thomas A'Becket in a doorway. A have a few vague memories of immediately after, falling into the back of my dad's car. My mum crying and asking me what I had taken. Her argument with the GP when he said it was a reaction to the cold weather and they should just put me to bed, my mother arguing that cold weather doesn't cause paralysis, then HIM asking HER what they should do and SHE suggesting calling an ambulance. Then I woke up, asking about firework night the following day and being told that it was several days earlier. I'd missed it. I also had a hole at the base of my neck, was hooked up to machines and had suffered a cerebral haemorrhage at FIFTEEN YEARS OLD! and I WAS PISSED!