tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post927294286477977410..comments2024-03-25T09:56:16.164+00:00Comments on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure: Comfort from Strangers - Michelle LovricUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-42545170724397739282010-09-20T08:45:04.905+01:002010-09-20T08:45:04.905+01:00Anne, would you stay seated in Michelle's seat...Anne, would you stay seated in Michelle's seat once she comes and gives you a 'look'?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-66787155480960438622010-09-19T07:28:09.230+01:002010-09-19T07:28:09.230+01:00Writers as a superbug is a brilliant idea! Maybe C...Writers as a superbug is a brilliant idea! Maybe Cambridge A&E is not always so busy because it's a city full of clumsy people with too large a budget for DIY tools but because it's packed with writers vulturing off the few real patients. [is it 'vulturing off' or 'vulturising'?]<br /><br />I was wondering already if your seat *was* the haunted seat - BL-style, but true. Maybe there's a story that anyone who sits in that chair doesn't leave the hospital alive?<br /><br />I was working in the medical library the other day, which is on the hospital site, but it hadn't occurred to me just to go and work in A&E instead...Stroppy Authorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16560035800075465845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-53779032084655096912010-09-19T07:10:11.036+01:002010-09-19T07:10:11.036+01:00I know, Anne, you've had even more time than m...I know, Anne, you've had even more time than me at A & E and for much scarier reasons, and in foreign hospitals to boot, you poor thing. Not surprised that you didn't sit there working. And perhaps all your expertise as a medical writer served you ill, allowing your mind to wander through the darker tracts of medical history?<br /><br />Re my seat, perhaps there was something wrong with that chair that I didn't realize and everyone else avoided it like the plague?There are seven in that row outside Majors and no one ever challenged me for mine.<br /><br />If i had been a favoured patient, I might have hoped for the treatment certain readers used to get at the British Library ... the assistants used to stop other people from using the favourite seat of their favourite reader by telling other applicants that it was 'haunted' if they tried to get books sent there.<br /><br />I have not taken any actual incidents from A & E - trying, as I do, to stay hermetically sealed in the ms - but I admit to stealing a few facial features here and there for characters. And certainly adverbs for voices of those in distress. <br /><br />Is this a horrid kind of morbid parasitism? Could writers become a new kind of hospital superbug?michelle lovrichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01026972300195225090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-84798398071559078692010-09-18T21:25:44.378+01:002010-09-18T21:25:44.378+01:00Michelle, as you know, I've spent a good deal ...Michelle, as you know, I've spent a good deal of time in A&E over the last 12 months as well, but all of it far too frenzied and terrifying to work on a MS (or even have time to grab one on the way into the ambulance). I did manage to read in A&E in Croatia last month... But I'm impressed that you managed to get the same seat each time. Do you phone ahead and reserve your seat, or do you have to evict whatever drunken and bleeding victim is sitting in it when you get there? <br /><br />Have you ever directly taken an A&E incident and slotted it into a book?Stroppy Authorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16560035800075465845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-22441925525331162912010-09-18T12:23:57.972+01:002010-09-18T12:23:57.972+01:00This comment has been removed by the author.michelle lovrichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01026972300195225090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-57323488248555040102010-09-18T12:23:52.086+01:002010-09-18T12:23:52.086+01:00Thank you all for your concern and interesting com...Thank you all for your concern and interesting comments! I am fine now. But just this spring alone, I had a head injury, pneumonia and a houseguest who collapsed with a seizure. All unrelated, but all leading to many visits to that same chair outside Majors. <br /><br />Andrew, perhaps my research is hereby exposed as shallow, but I admit I've not tried the Tasteless Chill Tonic.(Not knowingly, that is. As it has no taste, anyone could have adulterated my porridge with it). Perhaps, somewhere in the North Wing of St Thomas', facing a cold clear light, there is the Writers' Block Block, where the patients are all hitched to intravenous ideas drips ... ?<br /><br />Kath, yes - Groves won't be challenging Beecham's Powders this century. But it's no more ridiculous than some current advertising will look in a hundred years' time. I've written several quite cross novels about Victorian quack medicine, hoping to make a point about modern times - because the 'wellness' industry is STILL peddling unnecessary palliatives, persuading us that we are perfectable, and that all we need is a bit of nutrileum or the latest wonder-extract, to be beautiful, glossy, thin and wise. And unblocked, of course. <br />Mmichelle lovrichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01026972300195225090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-61642736736679648662010-09-18T11:20:52.631+01:002010-09-18T11:20:52.631+01:00Can the hospital cure writer's block? Does the...Can the hospital cure writer's block? Does the Chill Tonic act as an expectorant for lucid prose? If not, you've got a secret recipe hidden somewhere. A beautiful blog, Michelle.Andrew Stronghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04875188855955154864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-66238920494503782042010-09-18T11:06:02.401+01:002010-09-18T11:06:02.401+01:00I don't like to ask why you spent so much time...I don't like to ask why you spent so much time in an A & E, unless it was purely to 'get in the writing zone', but I hope you're well now. <br />Were you ever tempted to recommend any of your tonics to your fellow waiting-room?<br />There's always a notebook for writing in and a book for reading lurking in my bag in case I end up in a place where the background needs to be tuned out.Savita Kalhanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07977368691995933130noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-27086282332918625532010-09-18T10:20:53.770+01:002010-09-18T10:20:53.770+01:00Dear me, nothing dates quite like advertising, doe...Dear me, nothing dates quite like advertising, does it? IKatherine Langrishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12529700103932422873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-17033757574129787602010-09-18T07:48:38.259+01:002010-09-18T07:48:38.259+01:00Ow!Ow!catdownunderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06959328192182156574noreply@blogger.com