SO……..
I broke my leg in November in a post pub electric skateboard accident. This involved breaking both my tib and fib in my lower leg. There I lay on the ground with my foot attached merely by skin and denim. I ended up in hospital and after a lot of drugs the pain was under control and my leg in cast. A week later after climbing to the dizzy heights of the surgery waiting list my leg was operated on and now vaguely resembles a robo cop style limb that’s more titanium than anything else.
Then the email came, “So I’ve heard on the grape vine that you’ve broken your leg and won’t be coming out to France for the winter ?”.
No, no I won’t. And that, is when the boredom started.
So here I am in the middle of February a-mid what is one of the worst runs of perpetual rain and wind that I can remember throughout my entire lifetime of 21 years living on the island of Portland.
I’m bored. And have been since that November day. I had no idea what I was going to do with myself to kill the time and prevent the onset of chronic boredom. I am by nature, very active and get bored easily. I definitely don’t like being confined to the sofa.
This was put to me very simply by my surgeon when I told him at my 4 week check up that I was really pleased I was starting to get up and about and felt like I was making some progress. The reply was “NO. You can’t speed this up James. Sit on the sofa. You can’t do anything.”
This phrase was hard for me “You can’t do anything”. My initial reaction is that it means I can’t be in-control, I can’t influence the outcome through hard work. For me this is not something I’m comfortable with. I was raised to believe that if I wanted something I could work hard and get it. This was only an ideal of how the world works. Every teacher has said to every student, you can be whoever you want to be. However my life from the age of 8-19 is more than enough proof for me to believe in this ideal. Along with the idea that I can get whatever I want through my own hard work is a deep-rooted stubbornness that I inherited from my Mother and her from her Father before that. However this is part of something bigger and sit down I would have to. Because actually sitting down and doing nothing would be something id have to work really REALLY hard at. I’ve definitely had my monies worth out of my Netflix and amazon prime subscriptions having watched more tv in the last 2 months then I had in my entire life. O h, and I bought a playstation. So much for the outdoors kid who’s never owned a games console.
But then finally that glorious day came where I was able to start getting off the sofa, and for more than going to bed or the toilet. I was able to start doing projects, I was able to start stimulating my mind and regaining some purpose.
So since then I have done a whole abundance of things to keep myself occupied and keep away from the dark cloud that is boredom, but not just being on a bus without headphones boredom, the deep all engulfing boredom which seems to make the world stop. I didn't completely avoid this, however managed to get through.
I’ve started a huge overhaul of my beloved VW T4 'Terrance'.
On days when it has been to windy to be go outside working on the bodywork I have been re-designing the interior and then building this in my garage (I knew A levels in engineering and product design would pay off one day). One of my ‘new years resolutions’ besides learning to walk again was too, without making any crazy life changes try and in my own small way become more environmentally aware. To this end I have been trying to use reclaimed and recycled materials for the van build. Luckily I took apart all the old van furniture which provided a lot of the timber for the new build. I also then have tried to use up all the odd bits and pieces we have in the garage.
I have also been learning about the mechanical side of the van teaching myself how to service the engine, repair consumables and some basic fault finding. Not only does this help keep the garage bills to a minimum but also allows me to not be completely clueless if (touchwood) Terence ever breaks down on our travels.
Besides the van I have been doing random odds and ends out of scrap wood, but something I have really enjoyed doing (now I have time on my hands due to breaking my leg skateboarding) is building skateboards. This have been great and allows me to channel my passion for skateboarding and board sports into a new avenue whilst also utilising my woodworking and product design skills.
I’m now just waiting for the all clear so I can get back in the van, go on adventures and ride my new skateboards.
If you’ve got this far congratulations, you've managed to wade your way through my first blog post. Theres probably some spelling errors, definitely some grammar errors and there may be no real flow. However although not by design this is how I want this to be. Everything in the world is edited to death, with people posting the shiny social media version of themselves. Blogs are more like prize winning autobiographies than anything else. Not this one though. I want this to represent my mind which, like this blog goes off on random side strands.
Comments