.. and I've lost count of the ?40 broken ribs and the ?7 concussions; plus the broken arm/wrist which took 20 months in plaster, the broken shinbone, cheekbone, base-of-brain (twice), the little broken bone in my foot which still hasn't healed 40 years later ..
.. admittedly almost all these were at least partly self-inflicted, in that while sometimes other people did the actual injury, if I hadn't put myself in what I knew was a dangerous situation ..
.. one of the base-of-brain fractures wasn't my fault though, a case of mistaken identity. And I don't feel in any way responsible for a few of the broken ribs, or the bone in my foot either.
Or the cut-off nose (now replaced almost invisibly - my Dad did that, by mistake, with a china rose, when I was about 6 - it was originally stuck back on with sellotape). Broken it a few times since then though.
Is this typical? Anyone else here have that number of injuries?
A full and exciting life is one thing, but ...
I can't think when I have ever injured anyone else with my "recklessness" though, other than a small burn to a finger once, and a few non-physical injuries I won't mention here. Thank goodness.
I nearly did worse once - I threw a knife between my girlfriend's hair and her ear. I was pretty good with knives then, but really, that wasn't safe (she didn't mind, but the Hell's Angels bikers who were there did). I didn't do it again.
I'm trying for quiet times now. Rocketry notwithstanding; I understand rocketry somewhat, and I know and understand that I don't understand it completely.
-- Peter Fairbrother
ps, apropos nothing at all: I used to work with phocomelic (no arms or legs, or only parts of them) Thalidomide kids (they were about 4-6) when I was 14 and stuck in hospital. They were brilliant!
Also my once-flatmate works with the congenitally-blind-and-deaf, they are !Trouble!- in the pub. :) (she talks to them by touching their hands, a bit like sign language by touch - I only know a few of the rude words though)
but the stories probably belong in a blog or somewhere, and not here. Probably like this post.