Night Out
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before but my Mum and Dad run a small business which does local tours and charters around the state.
So last night, we were invited along to one to the Casino with a group of RSL Club attendees, up to the Casino (about an hour away). We accepted, because we don’t go out very often at all, and thought it’d be a bit of fun for the evening.
It was about 7:30pm when we got up to the Casino, so we figured the first thing we should do is have something to eat, before we got stuck into the drinks (which we’d started on the bus on the way up). So we went to the food court and grabbed some food – I had some grilled salmon with chips, and Michael had a bacon & cheese burger with chips. After that, we headed up to the pokies and tables, and had a bit of a flutter on the machines. Michael won $19 on the 1c machines, and I won a grand $8.00 
After this, and after a few more drinks, we headed back downstairs to the lounge, where Mum and I had a Midori Splice cocktail each. Before too long, it was midnight and time to head off – which was an adventure, because we were on a small bus with 20-ish drunk people! It was a good time though, and we got back into town at around 1:30am.
Then there was drama – one of the passengers, an older guy, was getting down off the bus, and during the whole evening, he had been concerned about the steps on and off the bus – we found out later he has two artificial knees. Anyway, we got to the RSL Club (which was the drop-off point) and he stumbled off the bus (just as drunk as the others), and when he got to the bottom, he walked a few steps, turned around, must have become disorientated from the alcohol, and fell to the ground. Behind him was a rendered brick wall. We heard an almighty crack and a scream from his wife. Before I knew it, my Mum was climbing over me, ran off the bus over to him and started to assist him (she is First Aid trained, because of her job). He appeared unconscious, but he was breathing. Michael called an ambulance, and the Paramedics arrived a few minutes later. Dad said it may have been his drunkedness that prevented him from getting really hurt, because he fell limp instead of putting hands out or trying to stop his head or anything.
As they put him up on the stretcher, he started responding and trying to take the neckbrace off, which the Paramedics obviously didn’t let him do. I can only imagine waking up and having something around your neck, though – it must be a pretty ‘WTF’ moment.
So the ambulance took him away to the hospital, and we expect him to be there all night and till at least tomorrow morning. Being an older guy, they might have wanted to check if he had a blood clot or something, or if it was simply losing his balance and the alcohol didn’t help it!
All in all – an interesting evening!!! I hope he’s okay – and if we see him at the RSL Club again, there’ll be an interesting tale to tell him!
