My God. Two years ago all this was just around the corner….
When I came round I was in Hell. I was shouting and screaming. I didn’t know where I was. I couldn’t feel my legs; my right arm was in intense pain, and I couldn’t move it, either, from the six hours of tight pulsating blood pressure control it had been under in the operating theatre.
The lights in the corridors were ferociously blinding and disorienting as I was led back, blurring and jolting, to my room. Faces in masks whirled above me clamouring in Japanese, and then, suddenly, incomprehensible, assailing my drugged, tampered brain, there was the nauseating and overwhelming smell of No 19 parfum assaulting my senses from all angles – foreign, unwelcome : like a block of pure unwanted evil.
Screaming to get it away from me, get that smell oh god I need water so badly my mouth is so dry what have I done I’m going…
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The Black Narcissus 
I can’t believe it’s been two years either. I remember so clearly your subsequent struggles – truly very sorry about those, but so glad you have recovered now. I am completely surgery phobic. Am sure I died in surgery without anesthesia in a past life. But what I wanted to say in case you ever see this is that I am positive Water is your primary element in the Chinese Five Element system. It’s not just because of your issues with water, but your brilliance with words and your whole attitude towards life and also the distaste of cold weather. Oh, and I know you’re a skeptic from other posts you’ve written, but I’m going to put in my vote that you died from dehydration of some sort in another life. My husband of 30 years is a fervent atheist (a childhood in the repressive, hyper moralistic American South left him deeply scarred), so I’m quite OK with different views. 🙂
I ordered your book the first day you wrote that it was out, but it’s *still* not here! Impatiently waiting! However, this post is such a clear example of why you should write a novel. I remember reading this post two years ago. It was so powerful that instead of rereading it just now, I could probably have recited it from memory. I would love to see a character in a novel (or autobiography?) who had a severe case of dehydrophobia – it would make for incredibly compelling reading. Or maybe a travel book with a compilation of your posts about adventures on the road with Duncan? I simply do hope that you continue to publish books, as well as write on this blog. You’re the quintessential Water Element novelist/artist.
I am honoured to read this. The perfume book definitely doesn’t flow like water as it is aimed for a commercial market and is deliberately bite size, being a guide – but I have already started writing my book on Japan. It might be too extreme to be published though…..