MOOMINS M.C.

A couple of weeks ago I went off to get a dose of high octane $8 dollars per litre rally action at the last round of the Australian Rally Championship with one of my former colleagues Brad.
Last year I was confined to a wheelchair with limited one legged + crutches action.
I even managed to get both my wheels locked up and was sliding on a collision course with a parked van on a dirt road at one of the spectator points, at which point my mates grabbed a hold of the runaway wheelchair in time to avoid yet another smash with another automotive form.
This year my ambulatory skills were much more honed and I was able to get some better pictures, especially after I scored a Media Pass for myself and Brad who spent the time taking photos with his disposable camera and phone whilst climbing trees for better viewing, fretting about the snakes, spiders and bull ants in the bush ( he's a Kiwi ) and trying to protect himself form the incessant dust in the dry conditions.
Here are some shots from boy's petrol head weekend out:












Good news all round I say.
After having my surgery cancelled at not quite the 11th hour I now have a confirmed date of December 7th.
I received the letter on Monday with all the information, which is much further than I got last time.
It still doesn't mean it's a definite as there is the possibility of getting bumped off while I'm lying there in my hospital issue arseless gown contemplating life without most of my internal scaffolding, but at least a positive step.
Recovery is always a bit of an unknown, but it could be anything from 3 days in hospital then home, to a week or two in the rehab hospital that was my home for 6 and a half months, to complications which could render it a much longer and more testing time.
I'm well fit physically and mentally!
Bring it on I say!!!

I've also started a new role at work helping in the spare parts department and later in the week will be making inroads into my main position as the warranty claims clerk.
It's not the most challenging work but it does get my away from the freak show circus that is the service department.

Teh 'Hoff has developed an issue with the lens, it won't allow me to use more than 2 aperture settings, it'll have to go in for repairs and service.
There have been a few more rolls of film put through it with varying results, but the good thing is I'm learning more and more with each roll, so to me it is time and money well spent!
Not got much to show digitally except for one photo I had blown up and printed for Snorkmaiden.
So here for your enjoyment is a little Melbourne street action:




The household is taking new shape with interviews finalised tonight and a new candidate chosen.
Rebecca is a 27 year old from Bris Vegas ( Brisbane ) who's come back from 2 years overseas and will be replacing the former non bill paying feller who had the social characteristics of a mute Indian hermit swami.
I think she'll fit in nicely with the three of us and the two blood thirsty hens.


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Day three: I found I'd had the Melbourne truly knocked out of me and was contemplating finally attempting a walk of some description, whilst following the exploits of our little sailing craft in the Grampians Regatta Mark II.
This time we decided to use gum leaves as sails for their waterproof qualities.
Once again Jade's modest craft performed best and afterwards the little boats were taken home as souvenirs of the event.
My original plan was to spend the days in the Grampians going on short bushwalks and gradually building up the difficulty and lengths of the walks, but the two days of rain kind of killed that idea.
So I found myself with one full day left and no walkies having been achieved.
I made a decision to tackle a familiar walk, found this little description on the web by a pommy couple, it provides another opinion / version of the hike.
Having only one walk to choose, I picked one that would be challenging, rewarding and true test for my battered and still recovering body.
My trusty sidekicks Gino and Geoff C. accompanied me on the trial and this time we we took 600ml of water each, smart I thought.
I knew it was going to be hard, but I figured that knowing the walk would help mentally get me through it.
So I packed the 3 water bottles, my camera, a medipac consisting of two small bandages and a bandaid and set off.
I spotted a pack of jelly snakes on the table, just bursting with sugar and told myself not to forget them, good little energy snack those.

The ascent was hard.
The initial sandy 1/4 mile out of the valley lulls the unknowing into a false sense of security, but suddenly the path turns markedly more vertical and more scramble like.
It then follows the base of the cliffs for quite some time, never straight, never flat, never easy, always going up or down, then makes another major ascent towards the top where there is some more up and down before the final little tilt at the summit

The lack of strength /control in my right leg meant I was having to use my arms more to help and also plan my steps with great care.
I didn't realise until this point just how behind my forearm is in the recovery stakes.
Being forced to use it to pull myself up and brace myself when going down I felt the flexing in the ulna, which is only held together with the metal plate and is due to receive bone grafts in the next surgery.
The level of strength in it was noticeably less than my uninjured left arm and the pain only made it more difficult.
The left arm wasn't too bad apart form some discomfort from the back pack strap rubbing on the collarbone plate.
The knees, especially the left one that sounds like a pop corn machine, were giving me grief as was the right hip.
A few times I was forced to stop and consider the best options to get across certain sections because I'd found myself trying to take the most 'normal' path, as I would have last year.
Many a time I would stumble and catch myself, somehow managing not to fall or roll and ankle or do myself some other harm.

Nearing the summit Geoff proclaimed his hunger and enquired as to the availability of any food.
That was the moment I realised I'd left the bag of jelly snakes back at the camp!
Doh!!!
Like starved desert island shipwreck survivors we started fantasising about food.
Geoff had a hankering for chocolate covered licorice bullets, all I could think of was a fat juicy peppered steak and Gino in true wog style was preoccupied with images of dripping souvlakis.
Quote: "What we really need is a souvlaki joint here and another joint that sells beer 500m down the track."
I couldn't agree more.
We pressed on and made the summit where we sheltered from the bracing wind behind the summit marker rock pile and enjoyed the sensational views going out to the flatlands as far as the eye could see.
After sending some text messages ( there was a brief moment of reception, so why not? ) we headed back down.

I thought the going up was hard, but the lack of energy and the constant assault on my joints on the downhill sections made for a very painful experience.
The stumbles became more frequent and the orthotics I have been forced to wear in my boots were starting to squeeze my toes like a WWII Japanese Colonel with a bench vice in a Malay P.O.W. camp.
Many a time pangs of pain would shoot through my joints as stepped the wrong way, or had to hop onwards to prevent gravity and momentum from taking me down like a South Central gang member.
Towards the end I found myself getting more emotional than a gay man finding out his favourite Laura Ashely pillow case had been ruined in the wash.
Whether it was the exhaustion or the fact I'd made it in one piece, or the realisation that my planned 3 day bushwalk in Tasmania was pretty much out of the question as I had trouble with such a light pack, I really don't know.
The fact that I'd managed to complete this walk, as painful as it may have been, was a definite marker in my recovery, especially when you consider my state at the camping trip one year ago.
I'd managed to get something I did before the crash, back again.
That was really the ONE thing I wanted to get out of this weekend.
We made it back to the car and drove back to camp where we were greeted with the fine smell of bolognese sauce simmering over the fire.
After much more alcoholic consumption I turned in for a well needed rest.
I slept very well that night and the following day we packed up all our belongings and headed back to Melbourne.
Another successful Melbourne Cup Camping Trip ticked off.
AND!!!! I won the grapple with gravity!!!!! Yes!!!!
I felt sore but good for the rest of the week, until I received the news that my surgery had been cancelled, with the next available but unlikely date being 21st December, failing that January sometime.

poo
is all I have to say to that now

The next morning brought some well appreciated dryness.
It brought the very pitiful sight of our crucified chicken that was sooo tantalisingly close to being done, yet had to be abandoned due to the torrential downpour.
By the time we attended to our forlorn avian offering it had its arse chewed out by a currawong.
Snorkmaiden and Melissa took advantage of the drier conditions in taking their leave for the more civilised pastures of the farm and Melbourne respectively.
The precipitation eased progressively during the day, just enough for us to hold the inaugural Grampians Regatta.
I imparted some of my childhood skills and knowledge to the 11 year old Jade and mentored him in the construction of a pine bark sailing craft.
It was to start a whittling trend that lasted for two days solid.
At one point Keli, Jade and myself were engrossed in the shaping of miniature boats, employing a Swiss Army knife ( Jade ), a kitchen knife ( myself ) and a cane knife ( Keli ), completely indifferent to the rest of the campsite's goings on.
And we all sported cuts on our thumbs, a mark of true dedication to our craft.
The first boat I helped Jade create was an utter success.
We put it in the creek and it sailed true upstream, against a strong current for 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour!!
So unheard of for such a small craft of simple construction!
The rest of the day was spent going off for short sojourns around the surrounding bushland, discovering old steam powered mill engines and generally relaxing with the aid of some ice cold alcoholic beverages, appreciating the lack of rain and eating some fine food.
That night we constructed a lean to made of tarpaulin to shield the fire from any potential rainfall, which never eventuated and spent the evening celebrating the dryness of the night with some fire stick twirling ( thanks Jade ).
A much needed day of rest and recreation after months of pent up Melbourne angst and stress.











To be continued..............



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The last couple of weeks have been very eventful and a bit of an emotional roller coaster.
They will take a few installments to document and will hopefully make for some slightly interesting reading.
Long and short of it, my surgery has been cancelled and therefore all the plans I'd made for the coming months / next year have all gone out of the window.
Poo....

So, the Grampians Gonzo Grapple With Gravity Melbourne Cup Camping Spectacular has come and gone and not without its mishaps.
I managed to fight gravity rather successfully, although it did it's best to bring me down.
Keli on the other hand lost the grapple on a couple of occasions and at one point had to get escorted back to his tent by his girlfriend and son.
It was always going to be a bit of a test of man and the new machine, but just how literal that was going to be was another matter.
The 1st of November was to be when I planned my departure to the Grampians Mountains, but not long after I hit the freeway the car started running hot.
I drove on for a little while trying to sus out what the outcome and cause could be.
It turned out that my dodgy radiator was more than dodgy, it was proper stuffed.
It just couldn't dissipate the heat generated by the engine working harder on the freeway.
So I turned around and headed back to Melbourne, full of dismay and frustration as I planned to get up the next morning and take some sunrise photos.
The next day I was hoping to be able to get the radiator replaced and to continue on my delayed journey.
I pulled a favour with the people who do our radiator repairs for work and managed to get back on the road the following afternoon.
Snorkmaiden and I drove to her folks farm near Navarre where we enjoyed some of her mum's down home farm cookin' in between driving the boundary fences in the diesel ute, checking out the alpacas that guard the sheep from foxes, rounding up stray lambs, á la Mcleods Daughters and watching Sex and the City on pay tv.
That night there was nearly as much rain as they'd had on the farm for the previous month and it was a precursor to the next couple of days.
Saturday we met up with the rest of the crew and started to contemplate just how wet this camping trip was going to be.
I'd picked out a beaut spot I'd been to on New Year's Eve nearly 2 years ago and it turned out to be the only spot not reopened since the fires that had ravaged the area just two months later.
We ended up going to a different site way up in the mountains, right up in the very clouds that were drenching the rest of the Grampians.
The fog ( read clouds ) was so thick we had to crawl along idling in 2nd gear at times.
The downpour abated just long enough for us to pitch our tents, set up the big communal tarpaulin and cook some dinner over the fire.
We managed to get a chicken crucified and started the cooking process.
All was going well until the rain came down again, only this time it was torrential!
It ended up being two and a half inches of rain that day and the bottom of my tent felt like the top of a water bed, luckily I had an air mattress so I figured if we got flooded we could just sort of float on top.
The entire night was spent huddled in the tents, listening to the lashing rain and the thunder claps, counting the seconds between the blinding flashes and the deafening cracks.
Even had a tree come down a couple of hundred metres from the camp site the next morning, thankfully it didn't hit anyone, although a falling tree did kill a camper in his tent in another part of that state that night.









To be continued.........


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