My friend and I had free movie tickets, and timing wise our only option was the new Rom-Com starring Jennifer Aniston The Bounty Hunter. Now, even though I'm the target market, I've never been that into romantic comedies. Too cliche. Too depressing. Call it what you will, I just don't love them *

So we thought "hey its free, we'll get some pick'n'mix and kick back for a couple of hours...if it sucks real bad, we'll ditch". Sounds like a plan.
About 10 min into the movie, I'm happily kicking back, poking fun at the acting (or lack of it thanks to Gerard Butler), and munching away on my bag of pick'n'mix lollies. Suddenly my night changed for the worse...one of the lollies got lodged in my throat.
Now, it was not a 'little coughing and sputtering' kind of lodged. But like totally blocked airway, 'somebody please give me the Heimlich Maneuver' kind of lodged. Instead of doing the universal sign for choking to my friend (which could have been misconstrued for "this movie makes me want to spew" anyway), I ran out of the cinema into a completely deserted foyer and started turning blue.
Not a good idea.

Luckily a guy/child working as an usher saw me thrashing around and asked if I was alright. What powers of observation! My blue face must have given me away. I pointed to my back to get him to hit me in between the shoulder blades, and instead he gently patted my back like his mum probably does after nightmares.
With no help from the freaked out kid, and as a last ditch attempt, I launched the top half of myself forward and down and on my way down, out shot whatever had been lodged in my throat. Finally.
Gasping like crazy, I sat on the ground trying to keep it together. The back patting kid went and got me a glass of water (good kid), whilst my left eye produced a billion tears and the shaking and gasping continued.
I sat there thinking about what a crap way to go it would be to die whilst choking on a sugary lolly during a Rom-Com. In the foyer. Alone. The irony is not lost on me. And the repercussions: Usher Kid traumatised for life; everyone I've ever met too afraid to ever eat pick'n'mix ever again; all cinema ushers undergoing training for choking victims; my friend in the cinema wondering where the hell I'd gone.
The moral of the story: lollies are evil. No wait...the moral is if you're choking, don't run away alone. Actually, maybe the moral is that survival makes you find the skills to give yourself a pseudo-heimlich maneuver. Or that Gen-Y are slow to react to a crisis.
Who knows. All I can say is that I won't be eating lollies for a while. And that the movie totally sucked (the way I should have done to that lolly instead of swallowing it whole).
Cat xx
* Exceptions to my dislike of Rom-Coms are: Two Weeks Notice, My Best Friend's Wedding, Four Holidays, the classic Goldie Hawn flicks House Sitter and Overboard and I think that's it.


