This page is to aid my memory for topics that often crop up in conversation. The photo is of the religion sufism, whirling dervishes, I once tried to whirl. Below are lists to be developed over time, my beliefs about some things. Also an old page ‘help’ is copied below as I’ve redesigned this site and didn’t want to lose content.
Music
When young I played bass and sang in a band, ‘The Silent Reach’, our recordings below:
Released on vinyl in 1987
Released on CD in 1991
Released recently online, recorded around 1994
Favourite Music
- Madradeus
- This Mortal Coil
- Craig Armstrong
- Max Righter
- Mahler
- Bach
- David Sylvian
- Ryuchi Sakamoto
- Art of fighting
- Tinder Sticks
- Crime and the City Solution
- Joy Division
- Groove Armada
- Died Pretty
- Pete Murphy
- Nick Cave
- Steve Kilby
- The Church
- Bauhaus
- Djivian Gasparyan
- Durutti Column
- Duraffle
- Faure
- Michael Nyman
- Low
- Sigur Ros
- Dead can Dance
- Gavin Bryars
- GB3
- Johann Johansson
- Handel
- Tan Dun
- Schubert
- Gorecki
Books
- the Trial – Franz Kafka
- the Castle – Franz Kafka
- Our Hearts, my Face, as Brief as Photos – John Berger
- To the Wedding – John Berger
- Here is Where We Meet – John Berger
- Narcissus and Goldmund – Hermann Hesse
- Siddhartha – Hermann Hesse
- Steppenwolf – Hermann Hesse
- The Last Temptation of Christ – Nikos Kazantzakis
- Zorba the Greek – Nikos Kazantzakis
- Nausea – Jean Paul Sartre
- The Age of Reason – Jean Paul Sartre
- One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Fictions – Jeorg Luis Borges
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Milan Kundera
Film
- Space Odyssey 2001 – Kubrick
- Solaris
- Eyes Wide Shut
- Nostalgia
- Prosperous Books
- The Wings of Desire
- Franny and Alexander
- Koyanisquatsi
- In the Mood for Love
- Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
- Powaquatsi
- Dogsville
- Transcendence
- Babette’s Feast
- Coffee and Cigarettes
- Ex Machina
- Ghost in The Shell
Travel
My passport states I’ve been to 56 countries, 10 since coma. The accident might have happened in Thailand but I’ve been there about 6 times since. From photos and my appalling memory I list the countries I know below. The Australian passport office told my sister that I’d been to 56. My family wanted to know where I’d been before my accident.
- Deutschland
- Singapore
- Australia
- France
- England
- Morocco
- Egypt
- Turkey
- Norway
- Sweden
- India
- Thailand
- Cambodia
- Laos
- Phillipines
- Greece
- Vietnam
- Bali
- Italy
- Japan
- China
- Spain
- Ireland
- Yugoslavia
- Czech Republic
- Croatia
- Scotland
- Taiwan
- New Caledonia
- Myanmar
- Peru
- Pakistan
- Syria
- Venice
- Iceland
Help
Read the posts on this blog for many thoughts that might help coma victims scattered amongst my blog or just click the link coma from categories on the coma page. From my personal experience I would say getting off the institutional drugs was the most important thing. Many of the prescribed drugs perpetuated my displacement, the most troubling was Olanzapine. Medicine is really good for breaks, cuts, and obvious physical damage but doesn’t really understand the complexities of the brain. Sure we know the brain controls our organs and physical bodies but when it comes to it’s nuances and how the brain handles thought and memory we can only try. Victims have already experienced coma so try not to displace the brain further with drugs, try being as natural as possible and just work on your memory, try and remember. Most of all try to relax, I’ve had setbacks frequently. If through recounting my experiences through coma I can help others that would be great. Several trips overseas have definitely helped, I write now from Thailand but still type with my left hand on the iPhone, I was right handed before coma. For the non physical effects, consciousness, don’t force memory but encourage it, just try to be yourself again. Only yesterday I was again taken for a stroke victim in Thailand. It happens to me quite often. A practicing French nurse holidaying in Thailand thought stroke. Also another person in Thailand took me for a stroke victim. When I was in hospital too staff thought stroke. Perhaps I can help all others who have had Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) by recounting my experience of it. Even standing in the shower is difficult for TBI victims, we have a problem with balance.
