Wednesday 30 January 2008

Blood, Lust

I had a couple of errands to run before my appointment at the Blood Donor Centre yesterday morning, which is how I managed to realise ahead of time that my car, Heathcote, is kaput. So that was good. It meant I could still get to the blood bank on time using public transport. But it was also bad, as it meant I’d have to pay someone to fix Heathcote, which these days is tantamount to carrying a sign into a garage which reads ‘Bend me over and give me a good swindling’. I hate not knowing how to fix my own car. Bloody experts. They’re all such crooks. So with rage in my belly – as well as a good breakfast of eggs and bananas; it’s important to eat a good breakfast before donating – I boarded the number 3 bus to Oxford Circus just before 9am.

Now, it’s been a long time since I took a bus anywhere, as I’ve been driving for quite a few years now, and it really took me by surprise. What really amazed me was how intimate it all is. The intimacy of the whole experience, the proximity of the other human beings, many of whom – and I feel like a colossal pervert even mentioning this, but if you catch the bus yourself you’ll know it to be true – many of whom are women.

Good God in heaven. All I wanted to do was give an armful of blood, maybe save the lives of a few desperate children. But things are never that simple. Instead I was forced to bear witness to a cavalcade of young ladies, getting on the bus, getting off the bus, brushing past me with their clothes and their flesh and their smells. Obviously it wasn’t love that I felt coursing through me as we pottered through Kennington. But it felt like adoration. Or, I suppose, just lust. But just lust seems so demeaning.

No, like Charlie Kaufman in Adaptation, one of my all-time favourite movies indidentally, I was sick with adoration. I was reminded of that scene at the Orchid Show, when Charlie is trying and failing to concentrate on the orchids he must write about…


‘One looks like a school teacher. One looks like a gymnast. One looks like that girl in high school with creamy skin. One looks like a New York intellectual with whom you'd do the Sunday Times crossword puzzle in bed. One looks like a Midwestern beauty queen, One looks like Amelia. One has eyes that dance. One has eyes that contain the sadness of the world….’



That’s exactly how I felt. Exactly. One looked like a Polish waitress. One looked like a human rights lawyer. One looked like that girl on Grange Hill who had a brief career in pop. One looked like a New Cross intellectual with whom you could go to the Tate Modern and kiss passionately in the Turbine. One had eyes like a cavern under the sea in the deepest darkest dead of night. One has large hoop earrings and a saggy-faced dog in a bag.

Seriously. I snook a picture. See for yourself…



The one with the black eyes sat opposite me at one stage. She looked like Natalie Wood. Aaaaaaaaaah, Natalie Wood. Never did a human being have such an appropriate surname. God in heaven, help me…



All in all the whole trip reminded me what it was like catching the bus or train as a teenage boy, and the scourge of the PTE. The Public Transport Erection.

It also made me think about the Japanese. People point to the Japanese, with their weird cartoon erotica, their soiled knicker vending machines, their obsession with schoolgirls and their pixellated private porn parts, and they think, ‘My oh my, what an inscrutable race of smiling, damned perverts they are’, and yet, and yet…. Any race cunning enough to have commuter train simulation rooms in brothels, you have to admit, are way ahead of their time. You might find it offensive, but it taps right into a lot of men’s fantasies. And hopefully not just men’s.

Anyhow, I must confess that my journey was filled with thoughts of this nature, and by the time I arrived to give blood, most of it was lodged in my nether regions.

So it amused me greatly when I noticed that the donation centre was right next door to The Cock pub.



How I chuckled.

Inside, everyone was exceedingly lovely. (And I’ve moved on from prurient mode here. Although the lovely Gloria could pump my blood any day of the week.) (Sorry.)

First thing they have you do is fill in a form, just to make sure your blood isn’t likely dodgy. Do I have HIV? No. Do you have hepatitis B? No. C? No. Have you ever received payment for sex with money or drugs? I wish. Have you had sex in the last 12 months with any of the following: needle-wielders, chocolate startroopers or African travellers? Sigh. No, no, no.

Then they take a drop of blood from your finger to make sure you’ve got a bit of iron in your blood, then, minutes later, you’re lying on your back opening and closing your fist. Then, with a negligible amount of pain and next to no discomfort, the needle’s in your arm and the blood’s out. The whole thing took 45 minutes maximum. And it’ll be even quicker next time. Piece of cake.

Blood Fact #1: apparently, at the West End Donor Centre they have a hundred people a day opening their veins and it’s simply not enough.

Blood Fact #2: apparently only 6% of those that can give blood do.

Can you give blood? Do you?

Blood Fact #3: apparently most people don’t even consider giving blood until it directly affects their lives. So you probably won’t think about it seriously until your boyfriend or girlfriend or mother or father or one of your kids or your nephews or nieces or cousins has some horrible catastrophe befall them and survives thanks to someone else’s blood. Or maybe it’ll happen to you.

Why not pre-empt the catastrophe?

Wow. Look at how self-righteous I’ve become. This is great!

Go on, don’t be put off by Gordon Ramsay telling you that a blood transfusion saved his life. Do it.

Outside, on the way back to Oxford Circus, I was approached by a pretty young chugger. ‘How would you like to help a deaf child?’ she asked.

‘Pardon?’ I said.

I chuckled. She must get that all day.

Sweet though she was, and sympathetic though I am to deaf children, and indeed deaf people of all sizes, on this occasion I had to decline. I think one good deed is enough for one day, don’t you? Besides, I have a car to fix.

Oooh, I feel good.

Join me.



Share on Facebook! Digg this

8 comments:

Autolycus said...

I can't give blood (too old now and I've had Hep B), so I'll go off at a tangent and tell you that the site with the Heathcote Williams poem told me I was selected to enter a draw for... an Audi A3.

Keep up the good work...

La Bête said...

Ha! Excellent. That's great. Thank you.

Musical Midnight said...

This may be a little delayed, but I hope you'll forgive me as I've only just found your blog.

Blood donation is a passionate subject of mine. Not because anyone in my family has had to receive a blood transfusion, but because most of us are blood type O- (the universal donor). Anyone who goes through the emergency room usually gets O-. Which is all well and good, except for the fact that O- types can only receive O- blood.

I used to give blood quite readily.. and I generally hate and despise needles! But anything to help save someone else's life.

But my cursed high metabolism currently prevents me from being able to donate. So I'm probably the only woman on the planet striving to add 3 lbs of weight.

Good for you for donating though! Your blog is turning into an interesting read, I think I'll have to pop back again!

La Bête said...

You are forgiven! Good luck with the weight gain, although to be honest, you could probably put on 3 lbs in one sitting, couldn't you? Piece of cake. An enormous piece of cake.

Musical Midnight said...

*chuckle* Don't hate me please, but no, not even cake will help me. The last time I tried to give blood, I ate a HUGE breakfast, put on the heaviest sweater I own, and off I went.

The nurse there however, eyed me with some suspicion when she asked me I was SURE I weighed the minimum weight, and I said "fairly sure"... yet she still put me on the scale.

I was still 2 pounds too light, plus felt sick from eating all that food. I like to think I have a healthy appetite, but I have learned that there certainly is too much of a good thing!

I believe with time and light weight training, the muscle will come. That's what I need more than just body fat, muscle--since it weighs more.

La Bête said...

I think you have to eat more than a big breakfast a couple of hours before you go in. I think you have to eat more in general. I recommend a daily diet of cakes and bacon and fizzy pop and crisps and beer and more bacon and more cakes. And you'll be saving lives in no time.

Brigitte Bordeaux said...

...chocolate startroopers...
And nobody picked up on that?
Honestly, Bête...

I am slowly working my way through your archives as a kick start to my day. You make me laugh so hard I'm almost at peace with the world again. Thank you, you brilliant witty beast! x

Mary said...

Does that mean you're not allowed to donate if you have anal sex full stop? Or is it just unprotected?