Far far away

One week since the Taliban took Kabul and I’m still getting so many messages from people desperate to get out. They’re trying anyone and everyone they know, and I would do the same in their situation, There’s nothing I can do but pass on information and as in any crisis, accurate information is hard to come by. The fear and desperation is heartbreaking.

Closer to home Tom and girlfriend Sasha went out for a belated 21st birthday dinner for a friend in Oxford. Part way through the meal their friend’s girlfriend had an epileptic fit and was taken to hospital by ambulance. Early this morning we got a call from another of the birthday ‘party’ from a young man whom - through some miscommunication - everyone thought was with someone else but in fact had spent the night in A&E after being seriously assaulted last night.

Outside a nightclub, trying to find his friends he was punched twice and knocked unconscious and then surrounded by five young men kicking him. Thankfully the police were close by, called an ambulance and arrested his attackers. It could have played out very differently.

Around the same time, Tom’s friend, Will, who has a growth disorder and is disabled, was abused by a woman in the street.

I don’t know what was going on in Oxford last night by two young men abused, one seriously assaulted (black eye, bruised all over, fractured cheekbone, impaired vision in one eye). Another disabled young man verbally abused. I feel ashamed that they came to my adopted town and this happened to them.

In other news Josh’s fractured foot is not as bad as initially feared. He managed to hobble his way through a first date too.