Ribs

This afternoon the dads are getting together at our place for a BBQ - the first using my new grill - a Father's Day present from my darling wife.

But those aren't the ribs I'm discussing here.

When I first got to the States, one of the first things I tried was snowboarding. Of course, the first thing I did was fall over and crack a rib. That took a month or so to get over. Then I did it again. And again. Then I gave up on snowboarding...

In 1999 I went sailing with some friends in Thailand - towards the end of the trip I was trimming (adjusting) the jib (big sail on front of boat), when the sheet (rope connected to the big sail at the front of the boat) got away from me. I stupidly held on and felt a very weird sensation in my chest - a sort of tearing. There was no pain so I though nothing of it.

A few days later we were sitting in the lounge at Bangkok airport when my whole chest went into spasm - I couldn't move or breathe - everyone thought I was having a heart attack. I get rushed over to the clinic (whilst United were thinking about unloading my bags - yikes!). They diagnosed a separated rib and gave me some nice muscle relaxant which (later on in the plane) went very nicely with the Jack Daniels.

Handily, my traveling companions Deb and Di had convinced United to wait for me, and upgrade me to business class!

I digress.

On Friday I went for dinner with some friends and when we arrived, I nipped into the bathroom. The door has a really heavy spring which I forgot about when leaving the loo. The door smashed into my chest, winding me completely and aggravating some old rib injury. Now it looks like I'm back in one of those month long rib recovery periods.

And I really wanted to play golf today...