I haven't blogged throughout the summer as i really didn't feel i could do so without first talking about this, and this is something i've not really wanted to talk about too much.
I'd had a good day out, first at the local beer festival meeting up with a few friends, then off to a pub for until kicking out time, again meeting a few friends.
Walking out of town, taking a few photos on the Canon G9, being a bit arty shooting from the hip in an old street style. Pretty much the last thing i remember was taking a photo, and then a vague figure near me, then a unmistakable, and sickening, feeling of a heavy punch to the face. The cowardly scum maybe saw the camera, maybe just the small camera bag. There's been a spate of muggings in the area late at night, lone people, perhaps a little worse for wear after a night out, being punched to the ground and having property stolen. Small groups of pathetic losers who think it's ok to just hit out and take.
I remember being on the floor bleeding heavily and just wanting desperately to get home. After a few beers and a few blows to the head then three miles seems an awful long way. I vaguely remember ending up on my knees a few times along the way, and wanting lie down and sleep, to give up and stay where i was. I forced myself to go on, but don't really remember getting home at all.
In the morning i woke and thought why the fuck me....again?? Too many times i've been the victim of unprovoked violence. Nobody should suffer it, least of all me when it's happened so many times before. What the fuck have i done??
I looked at my camera and saw it was broken. The lens is damaged and won't retract properly, and the screen has been pushed in and cracked so doesn't work. The bag had also carried my camcorder, this of course had gone. I'd not had it too long.
My hands were covered in blood, my face felt bruised, and my upper lip was swelling up with a nasty cut inside, and a smaller one outside. I realised i had a couple of other bruises to my head, one high up on the right-side of my forehead, the other around my right ear and temple. I got my DSLR out to try and take a few photos of the main damage, the view i got in the mirror!
With the blood coming from mouth and nose then i'd kept it away from my face quite well, and mostly over my hands.
My face was starting to feel a little puffed up, my nose felt very sore down one side, my eye was starting to swell discolour, and my normally thin upper lip was as fat as the lower. I found i had no movement at all in the lip. It was hard to breath with blood crusted inside my nose.
I found i had a bad graze on my right shin and severe bruising. I also had bruising and muscle strains in my back. I later found i had a round cut in my back, the same size as the lens on the camera. I guess i fell backwards during the assault and fell on it. No wonder that wasn't taken. In a way i'd rather it be broken than some lowlife scum get away with it and make anything from their vile evenings "work".
I cleaned myself up and sat downstairs feeling pretty low. Eating was very difficult, but i managed something. Drinking was even worse, but again i managed something.
It took a day or two before i felt like leaving the house, but i had to report it to the police, and so get my second crime number of the year. By this time i had doubts about my vague memories of what happened. Did i just fall over after drinking too much? Of course that didn't happen, the injuries to my face covered a nice fist sized shape, and also i'd fallen backwards, which matches being hit in the face. But you can't always help that confused feeling, and the doubts..........
The police woman was decent about it all, she asked plenty of questions of course, and i answered as best i could, which wasn't too good as i didn't actually see anything. I gave her copies of the photos taken in the morning, and also a few i'd taken at night before it happened to show what i was trying to do.
I had a phone call a couple of weeks later saying that she'd looked at the CCTV footage in the general area from that night, but there was nothing, and also that even if there had been anything, the quality was not really good enough to be able to identify anyone properly.
So it's just another unsolved violent crime. I don't blame the police, they can't be everywhere at once, and it was approaching 2am on a Sunday morning, so a busy time as people come out of clubs and bars. If i'd crawled back into the centre then i would have found the police, and perhaps they could then have caught the vile shits that attacked me. Unfortunately that wasn't in my mind after being knocked senseless.
Anyway, it was a shit way to start the summer. Fortunately things did improve a lot.
A photo taken not long before the attack. A nice steady shot showing at a very slow shutter speed. At least it shows i wasn't falling down drunk and was pretty steady.
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The last photo taken before the assault. This was taken with a VERY slow shutter speed, so a little blurred, and also shot from the hip, so the framing has to be judged from above. The idea was to get the car as it turned into the road. It's pretty much what i was after.
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