Comment February 2023

 

It has been a difficult time since Christmas with health issues not being on my side drifting from feeling under par to being just not well. I managed to get to the Wey Valley meeting in January on the eighth but was working in the garage the next day working on a brake calliper and had a trip. I landed on a hard bit of the bike and winded myself. I had a very tender spot on the back of my rib cage. I have never encountered such a painful injury. I could not breathe properly and sleeping could only be achieved laying on my back laying on my right or left side just pushed air out of my lungs and I could not breathe. This stayed with me for about three weeks slowly improving but I did not feel right for about a month. In between I experienced the delights of A&E for five hours. That was a visit to record. I could empathise with the nurses and the pressure they are under. All they say is true. It is an accident waiting to happen and I think their skill and dedication avoids the disaster. I was examined behind screens with no bed. The bed was in use in the corridor. As soon as I was decent the screens were whipped aside and another patient was wheeled in on another bed. Patients were lined up on chairs nursing injuries. This conservative government has caused this with years of cut backs while lining their own pockets. All of the public services are failing through lack of funding. Now is the time to revolt. In the film Oliver the simple cry “More” was responded to by an unsympathising Lord or in this case Prime Minster. They need to go now before everything is gone.  The Nurses are not the bad guys here. We should join them on the picket lines to protest. The Work house mentality still exists with our Tory leaders it has filtered into every corner of our lives. Every little bit of help for the needy has already been removed from our society replaced by greed from those who have more than enough. My last thought on the political scene is that if we are doing so well as a country why are there so many food banks? Unheard of ten years ago! All of this along with an infection that would not go away made most of January an half of February an experience to forget. I had a break with the family at Centre Parcs, great for the kids, but not so sure that experiencing the water features there was a good idea for me. Swimming for me is slow drowning and the rapids experience left me a little battered and the flume left me stranded in the middle. We did a lot of walking that I felt better for doing. When we got home the Buell was taken in for service and a fettle as it had not been used much over the last year and needed a few things for the MOT.

You may think that all is not well and you will be close to the mark there but there is a ray of sunshine to brighten my world. It arrived in the post and it is the MAG magazine “Open Road” In it I have two articles “ The roof of the world” an abridged version of my trip up the Himalayas in 2019 edited expertly by Mutch the editor and the London Classic off road and racing show. This has now been passed on to those courageous guys who looked after me on that trip.