The Grand National

I've spent the last five days telling this story to about 15 different doctors, 20 nurses, a dozen patients and that's just the beginning now I'm home, so you understand I'm somewhat over it.

I was helping run a tour to the Grand National in Liverpool and I got crushed by our tour bus.

What happened is that the bus driver asked me to direct him when he was backing the bus in the parking lot. He must not have had the best vision or stopped watching me but he kept going despite me telling him to stop. He wasn't just backing slowly and carefully either, there were definite bursts of speed.

Anyway it happend so quickly that I didn't have the time (or good sense) to get out of the way. He crushed me between the bus and a parked car. It took a passenger running up the bus yelling at him to before he stopped. So there was a fair bit of continuous crushing.

They called an ambulance and took me to hospital. I got a few shots of morphine and the doctors paniced about whether my spine was damaged (despite being able to wiggle my toes etc). They x-rayed me and eventually moved me to a ward.

In the ward I shared the room with 5 delightful elderly ladies. Them and the nursing staff (and the drugs) made the next 4 days of boredom ok. They kept me there cause they wanted to run a few tests and scans to make sure there was no internal damage (which there isn't yay). I progressed from complete bed rest, to an A frame walker (ironic with the old ladies there), and now I'm on crutches.

But they finally released me yesterday and my boss drove up from London to pick me up.
I'm pretty bruised and sore but that will all heal quickly. I have two broken bones in the right side of my pelvis.

So that's it. It sounds a lot worse than what it is - getting crushed between a bus and a car seems pretty horrific. I'm really lucky I didn't damage my spine and got away with the injuries I do have.

If you're in the neighbourhood I'd love company so pop in for a visit. I'm planning on going back to work after Easter as I can tell I'll be sick of sitting around at home by then. I'm perfectly able to work, walking's the only obstacle. But there are buses I can take, and the crutches get me around so all's well.

p.s. my doctor was INCREDIBLY hot. I just wished I'd shaved my legs when he was checking my reflexes.

Video from Valencia

My fireworks antics were caught on camera (thanks Alison!). Me and Vegas were trying to blow up a roadcone - much to the annoyance of the people sitting behind it. Watch them jump!

Lets blow some shit up: Las Fallas Festival in Valencia

The Fallas:

The flower virgin

Tapas

Pre burning

Fireworks

Kaboom
More burning

The tour group

Photos from the road: Bath

Busy Busy

I've officially started work this week and it's keeping me pretty busy. On my list of things to do is blog about Valencia and Bath and put a few pics up. In brief they were both great and life is pretty fab.

Today is my 4 week anniversary of being in the UK. It's amazing how quickly time has flown by, but yet it feels like I've been here forever. I guess when it comes down to it London isn't that much different, people are generally the same, they just talk with different accents.

Work is great. It's always hard getting your head around a new job but everyone in the office is making it easy for me to slide in and become part of the furniture.

The flat is pretty much the same, I feel like I've been there forever and I'm not the newbie.

Well four weeks down, checklist time...

• Job - check
• Flat - check
• Travel - check
• Doing the London thing - check
• Meeting new and interesting people - check
• Meeting potential husband - not yet ;-)

Blakesley Court

The lovely street, something out of Coro st:

Blakesley Court (not quite as picturesque as the rest of the street)

And finally, our flat (we're on the left - but just the first two floors)

My room is the window above the door!

Inside my room... the word cosey comes to mind :)

An address

Howdy!

I have an address! For sending letters, gifts, CDs, wedding invites (I'm actually expecting two different invites!) and other snail mail related items.

Email me for it :)

So it's been a few days since my last update, and as I managed to get the job within a week of arriving in London, it seemed my great London Luck didn't run out there (or careful planning and determination as my mum puts it). Yesterday I found a great flat. I move in tonight (thus the purpose of the blog- having an address...) I will be living with 3 other kiwi girls (keep it local) in Ealing (keep it local again - all the people I know in London live in Ealing). But it's perfect as I work in Acton Town, which is a 5 minute bus ride from Ealing.

I have a lovely snug room (read tiny) and the flat is modern and has a great lounge. The girls keep a spare mattress in the corner for visitors, so if you're in need of a floor to sleep on in London I have one! They seem very friendly and social so I don't think I'm going to be lacking activities over here. I'll take some photos tomorrow and put them up here. The street is something out of Coro St!

That's about all the news - though it's been a pretty action packed two weeks. Thanks so much to Chris and Sal for putting me up while I job / flat hunted. I really have had the dream run over here.

Take care

x Laura