I looked up at her with what must have been a look of blind panic across my face. I had absolutely no idea where I was, what the hell was going on, or indeed who she was. Why is everything blurry?

Mr Hodgson? Are you OK?
Erm… wha?

I can see now. Oh, hang on. I know this place. You’re a nurse aren’t you?

Um, I think I must have passed out.

You see, about five minutes earlier, they’d taken that fetching blue plaster off of my hand (mmm, yellow and smelly) and handed me a leaflet explaining what might happen. The first thing in there?

You may find you feel faint or nauseous — don’t be alarmed — this is because your limb has been in a cast for some time.

I wandered out into the waiting room, then almost immediately got called into another room to wait for the doctor to get around to me. So I sat down to wait for a while. Next thing I know, I’m looking up at the nurse, wondering what the hell was happening. They moved me onto the adjacent bed and put an oxygen mask on my face.

I was feeling relatively normal after about ten minutes, so the doctor came back. He said it’d continue to hurt for a while (he’s right, it does) because I haven’t used it for weeks. No bat or raquet sports, pneumatic drills or power-tools for the time being. Jogging or swimming is fine though (boring!). Come back in a couple of weeks for a check-up.

I asked about mountain biking and he said I ought not to for a little while — but my commute on the road ought to be OK. That amused me, given the state of Cheltenham’s roads. I may also have neglected to mention I have a tendency to hoon off speed bumps and and down flights of stairs en-route to work. I might have a spin on the Cove tomorrow and see how it feels.

Oh, I still appear to be operating left-handed. What gives?

So I went to see the fracture clinic today.

I explained to the doctor how it happened, obviously telling the whole story, because I’m starting to feel a bit silly every time I say “I fell off my mountain bike“. He took a look at the x-rays and frowned. “Hmmm” he said, before going to get the other doctor.

Ooooh-kaaay then. What the hell does that mean? I’ll just sit here and worry for a while then.

They returned and had a short dicussion before deciding that they didn’t need to operate after all. “We’d like to, but only because it’s more fun. These heal up perfectly well in the vast majority of cases.”

Phew.

So they gave me this shiny blue plaster. I go back in three weeks to have the plaster removed and a bit of physio on my fingers. Hopefully it’ll all be fine…

Later on, at work, Maxine commented that it looked rather festive. Maybe I should have asked for red?

Well, my busted hand didn’t seem to be getting any better, so I took a trip down to casualty to see what they thought. Obviously I was armed with stories from friends along the lines of Oh, there isn’t much they can do, they’ll just strap your fingers together or something.

Some hours later, I emerged with a cast from my fingers most of the way up to my elbow. Great. Still, the break looked ace on the x-ray. I’ve snapped the outermost metacarpal (I think) good and proper.

It’ll be interesting to see how I cope with work for the next few weeks. I guess I’ll have to become ambidextrous with the mouse…

I’d been fighting with my own imagination all day. I was trying to get my head in the right place to design something and it just wasn’t happening. Photoshop was sat there, wide open, but nothing was happening.

I spent some time answering people’s questions on the SitePoint forums. I doodled for a bit. I looked at the various CSS gallery sites. I even read A List Apart’s stunningly well timed new article, Designing Through the Storm to no avail. I read through some of my RSS feeds but there was nothing that grabbed me.

It just wasn’t happening. My mind was in the wrong place.

I stared at the blank canvas in Photoshop. I stuck our corporate logo on there and suddenly it wasn’t quite so blank anymore. Now, what if I was to run the nav down there this time…?

The next time I looked up it was 7 p.m. and everybody else had left the office. I had the beginnings of a nice mock-up in front of me now though. That icon looks out of place there, though… nope, leave it, the cleaners have started hoovering, time to get out.

I bet when tomorrow rolls around I’ll have lost the thread again.

Today I reach the grand old age of 28. Feel free to buy me cakes and other assorted gifts (mmm, subtle).

Apparently, I share my birthday with John Leguizamo (Spawn, Ice Age), Willem Dafoe (Platoon, Spider Man), Don Henley (The Eagles), Gustav Hertz (Nobel-prize winning physicist) and Rev. William Archibald Spooner (invented “Spoonerisms”). Exciting, huh?

What goes Peyow! Duga-duga-duga-duga-duga-duga-duga-duga?

Just a quick note to recommend Arirang. It’s a Korean BBQ restaurant on Barrack Street – complete with the barbecue in the middle of the table. They bring out the meat and you cook it yourself, before eating it out of a lettuce leaf (as if it were a tortilla). Not something you see everyday and as a bonus, the food’s really good aswell. The puddings get a special mention too – my “peach fantasia” was a replica peach made from chocolate, ice cream and a fererro rocher as the stone (I dare you to make the “really spoiling us” gag). Brilliant.

Yes, that means I’m in Perth, Australia and yes, I’m feeling smug. G’night mate.

Don’t send out an email that starts:

Dear XX XXXXX

…then continues with:

Thank you for recently entering our North Carolina Sweet Potato competition in conjunction with Sainsbury’s, Onlinetravel.com and American Airlines.

You what? I entered a Sweet Potato competition!? When?

We received an incredible number of entries and on this occasion we’re sorry to advise that you weren’t one of our lucky winners.

Now you’re just being mean :-(

If you would prefer not to receive this type of information please click here.

You complete numpties. There’s no link to click! GAAAAHHH!!!