Friday morning 7:30am and the ceiling is crashing in on me




So there I was, rather lazily enjoying my lie in, pushing the limits of morning routine and wondering how late i really could get out of bed. Without my eyes in i see nothing in the mornings something i rather enjoy, so when i heard what sounded like plastic bags crackling on my bed I was rather confused but figured by morning doziness (that's a word today) was deluding me, i was on the line between sleep and consciousness and i thought my ears were playing with me and then i looked up, before i could say something i shouldn't the entire ceiling's plaster from my corner of the room was crashing down upon me. Luckily I had time to react a little and covered my face with my left arm and when the post-crash silence arrived i ran out the room screaming just a little. All I had to show for it was a sore bruise on my left upper arm and back.
As you can see from the pictures most of the plasterboard fell onto the side of the bed i was not sleeping on. Unfortunately without the morning light the images do not really show the extent of destruction but you can get an idea. The ceiling rose, the only structurally sound thing in victorian ceilings i have since learnt managed to limit the extent of collapse. As a result of this I will be using the room above this, the ceiling of which was plastered just 6 months ago by the landlordand is not 100 years old so should hold for the next 3 months, he reassures me. However my room and possibly the lounge will be getting a new ceiling with plasterboard that is nailed down and not just put up in faith, hoping that no other reenforcement except the grip of the plaster with the wooden slats beneath shall suffice (victorian people had interesting ideas did they not, or they simply didn't think beyond 100 years).
So after surviving that unusual and surprising event and the fact that there was no water in our house on friday morning until 7:45am due to a burst pipe down the road i managed to get to work in a rather grumpy state to say the least however the events of my A and E shift surely put things into perspective as I watched a 70 year old man die unexpectedly and quickly. A father, uncle taken so quickly from a family. Medicine certainly puts things into perspective and humbles me in my grumpy and angry state.

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