Tyrolean Knockabout, 22 February 2014

Nick writes:

It is with great regret that due to me having sustained a quadruple fracture of the right shoulder and a fracture of the left wrist, the HMHB bike tour known as Halfmanhalfbikekit will be experiencing an enforced hiatus over the coming months.

On Saturday 22^nd February I succumbed to a rather nasty skiing accident, best described as a Tyrolean Knockabout. Indeed, the irony of me having sustained the above injuries in a HMHB destination is not lost on me, although the idea of such places being cursed is something we’d already begun to explore.

Only two hours into a brief bout of skiing before a work trip in Kitzbühel, I was happily moving along with images of goading D-List Paul Ross in my head, when I took a severe tumble.

This was followed by a full week’s residence at Innsbruck Medical University , where I was very well looked after indeed, although during the night after the operation, a malfunctioning automatic pain relief delivery machine made me seriously consider taking the train to Zurich (not the TGV as I was in Austria) and throwing myself off the roof of Dignitas. Come to think of it, the hospital in Innsbruck is many floors high and would easily have sufficed. (Does anyone know how high the Dignitas building is anyway?)

I’m pleased to report that I’m now back at home, although having already booked train and B and B accommodation for the April 11^th Leamingon Spa gig and following tour of Nortons Chipping and Brize, Uffington, Wantage, Aylesbury and Stoke Mandeville, this is all most frustrating. Given the rest and rehabilitation I need, I fear it’s going to be at least two months before I’m back in the saddle.