June, let the (mis)adventure begin..

I have not blog for good while, reason for this is that I was on holidays, which ended up with a stay in a French Hospital..

Thursday, June 3rd, took the boat from Rosslare to Roscoff,  Blackberry phone died, & no micro USB cable to recharge phone!

Friday, June 4th, drove down to south-west (6 hours drive), along the way stopped few times @ different hypermarkets & other specialised shop to buy the USB cable but no luck, looks like in France you cannot get a micro USB cable unless you buys the phone with it!!

June 5th, 6th & 7th, spent 3 days to try to get WIFI working from site where our chalet was, a holiday site which advertised “free WIFI”…

Tuesday, June 8th, finally got a work around. After ringing several people in IBM, my friend Colm, found the solution which he dug up from the IBM intranet, some AT&T VPN settings that needed changing..! (THX Colm ;-)).

I finally got into my mail, to discover that “my silence” cost me few nasty mails & lost of few IP opportunities. Great! And you think things could not go worse, external IP Lawyers wants prompt detailed reply from me ASAP. so more nasty mails flying around, oh yeah I am loving it, NOT!

Wednesday, June 16th, (2nd last week of my “holidays”, 2 days before going back) weather was not great, so we decided to go & do some acro-branch (going from trees to trees through cables & nets in the air). see “the start, middle & end” pics on right & below.. 

In meantime it had started to rain but we’d managed to do most of the circuits, I had one last “obstacle” to do to reach the ground, just one little tarpaulin slide to go down.. 

Well, the landing was not what I had in mind, the left ankle slipped to the left but the leg did not follow, there was a “Cracking” noise, followed by some howling & moaning noise (pretty much same injury as in the “misery” movie!;-)).. So the adventure ended in the fire engine truck, which rushed me to hospital, where I was diagnosed with a dislocated ankle & a fractured fibula.

 

 

 

Thursday, June 17th, I was  operated during which they performed a ligamentoplasty with insertion of screws, & topped that up with a lovely blue cast (on left pic).

Friday, June 18th, my wife & kids drove back up to Roscoff to take the boat back to Rosslare..

During my stay in hospital, I had no mobile phone & no WIFI, but again with the help of my friend Colm, I was able to inform all relevant IBMers of my current situation (some did not really registered it till my return!?). Prior my holidays I had planned a visit to EDF in Paris, so my airplane tickets & hotel were already booked for the following Wednesday week, so I had to get out on Tuesday the latest..

Monday, June 21st, after a lengthily discussion with hospital doctors, they’ve agreed to let me out on Tuesday afternoon. A point to note: For any airlines to take on a passager with a broken limb in cast, they need a clearance form filled by hospital certifying injury with “fit to travel” as well as having an “open cast”.

Tuesday, Jun 22nd, Hospital filled all relevant forms & opened the cast with a pretty little circular saw & Tuesday afternoon I took the train to Paris (Saintes –> Nior –> Paris), 5.5 hours after I arrived in Paris worn out by the journey..

Wednesday morning, John & I went to EDF, met with Samuel to discuss Project & PoC demo Lab, all went good. 17:30 took taxi to Paris CDG airport. spent 20mins in airport walking around on crutches & with my heavy bag pack before I could get to the wheelchair that the airline had promised me, after that all went smoothly & I eventually arrived at home around 22:30. Took me few days to recover from those 2-day trip.

Today, apart from still being on crutches, it is pretty much all back to normal, still need to catch-up on some undo work but hoping should not take too long. the cast will come off end of July, Screws end of August then physio, I am hoping to be back on my two legs for the 2-day Extreme Blue Expo that I am currently preparing due on the 14th & 15th September..

I would like to say thank you to all people that have helped me to get through the last few weeks, acting as my personal IT, secretary, chauffeur, Porter, Guide, etc.. I hope I will be able to return the favour some day. THX all! ;-)