Hi Ted,

Yep, Malcolms right (but I do drop in from time to time).

Life's been pretty boring lately, with the exception of a near-death experience about a month back....

Got on my pushie to go to shops, on the way home, passing a T intersection on my left a driver coming the opposite way decided he'd turn right into said intersection - I only had time to get out one brief obscenity before I got whacked.

I believe they gave me good marks for the triple somersault with half twist but lost points for the poor landing.

Rather interesting experience though, you're lying flat on your back, bleeding, panting and trying to breathe thru broken ribs and all these ppl rushing up and saying "are you OK?" (well duh) - "do you want us to call an ambulance?" (duh again). Then all these other ppl want to know your name and asking you trick questions like "what day is it?" (don't they know?).

Two ambulances with crews rock up, two paramedics (you really have to worry about them because they don't seem to know what day it is either). Then they cut your clothes off you, cut your backpack straps, cut your key-thingie round your neck off (in future I wont worry about the extra expense of getting things with quick-release buckles and straps - that's all ignored, the scissors come out automatically {seems they have contests about how many things they cut off ppl in a day}).

All this is at 5 PM right near a major intersection and shopping centre and traffic is banking up while the paramedics do a 'head to toe' so there's now 2 or 3 police cars with cops directing traffic around the ambulances and the fire engine (did I mention the fire engine?) - i suppose they're there to rescue my bike off the bonnet of the car if it bursts into flame.

Anyway, off to hospital, and emergency dept doctor sees me (at least he knew what day it was) - says "yep, I can guarantee you got broken ribs" (don't ask for this sort of guarantee when you buy any thing).

Off to X-ray for ribs and right ankle, X-ray tech takes off left shoe before realizing it's the right leg, but then i see big toe on left foot is at really strange angle (no-one had picked this up).

Back to emergency, now i'm farmed out to a brand new doctor (this is a teaching hospital and i'm not critical) with a 'how-to' book in her handbag which i pretend not to notice.

X-rays not showing broken ribs but told X-rays dont always pick them up, (need CT scan to do this) and they dont look too hard anyway cos there's nothing can be done for broken ribs. Interestingly she tells me nothing showing broken on the ankle either - i ask for another opinion cos i cant put the slightest bit of weight on right foot - ortho specialist called.

Indian ortho specialist pops the toe back into place (was broken AND dislocated) has a quick poke around ankle and says "yep - it's broken". He then calls all the junior doctors over to give them all a lesson on diagnosing ankle fractures when the X-rays don't show anything untoward (it's in the joint apparently).

Get me some crutches and say I can go home today if i can get around on crutches. Did this and thinking "yippee", but when I got back to guerney I black out - BP is now something like 50 over 30 - "cancel that, you're staying overnight", and now the physio-terrorists will have the final say as to when I go home (bummer, they're not as easy to fool as the doctors...).

Anyway, six days later I get home and am quietly going stir-crazy, can sit, can lay down, but cant walk - most frustrating.

Got my bike back, it's a write-off. The driver tells me he's got a few bikes at home and I can take my pick of them - he's got to be kidding, this was a custom built racing frame, and not the same thing at all.

A frame-builder in Sydney viewed pics and confirmed it's a write-off and offered to build me a replacement for $2000 (and he's the cheapest). Anyway, after looking at frame I understood why I got hurt on the inside L knee (which was a puzzle) - the top tube has a kink in it where it smacked into my knee.

Anyway, the driver was charged, admitted liability, and there were witnesses so my lawyers tell me it's now just a matter of waiting for everything to stabilise before meeting with his insurance company and arguing/deciding what is a "fair thing" - if I was still working they say it'd be worth about 250 to 300 thou, but seeing I've retired it'll be less...