White Out

Our village of Val d'Isere can be seen at the bottom of the valley.

Rather than waste precious electrons on the 'printed' word, I will let the photos do the talking here. One week snowboarding in the French Alps, right near the Italian border, with a good friend of mine from Australia, equals an awesome time, great boarding (for me, as an Australian, but I'm sure more fresh snow wouldn't have gone amiss), awesome food, lots of pains, and best of all, no fractured scaphoid!

I'm baa'aack

Finally, after a 6 month hiatus I am back in the air. And not just any air, but the freezing air of Southern Sweden. After much mucking around and trying to figure out how to go flying in Scandanavia, I settled on Sweden and the Sturup Aero Club outside of Malmö, just across the Øresund from Copenhagen. Although I don't have a European pilot license, I am able to validate my Australian license (for private, daytime flying, for up to 12 months) in Sweden at no cost. Sweden also has the bonus of having cheaper aircraft hire than Denmark, even if it means a slightly more complicated and expensive trip to the airport. If I end up staying here longer and decide to actually convert my license to a European one (as opposed to say, simply get another 12 month validation by changing my flying location to Denmark instead and going through the Danish authorities and Danish planes), it looks like I will only have to do a couple of written exams and a flight test, nothing too serious.

View Larger Map ('A' is where Malmo-Sturup Airport is)

I've received the all clear!

Almost 5 months since the accident.
Almost 3 months since surgery.
Around 6 weeks since I've started physio.

And the good news is: my scaphoid is healing well and both the physio and doctor have given me the all-clear to go snowboarding this winter! Not something I was expecting, and not something I will be doing immediately, but good to hear the news!

A Handy Update

I've had enough of this broken hand saga. There is no novelty in it, no fun at all. As of today I have started serious physiotherapy, aka torture. It turns out that most of the pains I am experiencing are as a result of not moving the joints for so long, rather than the fracture (general pain versus sharp pain at the scaphoid) and therefore I need to push things to the limit. Well, it's bloody tiring!

Using my arm muscles I can bend my wrist forward around 30', and backwards around 40'. Add a few degrees if I push using the other hand. It's very frustrating when your body doesn't do the simple movements it has known its whole life and you experience pain when you try to do such basic things. On the other hand, when I look at my left hand it still looks rather awkward (I try to capture it in a photo but it just doesn't come out). Unlike my right hand which is effectively 'flat' on the top-side between the wrist and my knuckles, my left hand is concave. The effect of this is when I do bend the wrist, the curve is entirely at the wrist and then flat between the wrist and the knuckles (as opposed to the right hand where the curve stretches a lot further towards the knuckles). It looks rather weird actually and makes me wonder whether my hand will ever return to normal. The physio assures me though that normal rehab time is 6-8 weeks. Can't wait.

On an unrelated note, winter is finally kicking in here. With temperatures around freezing point and some crazy strong winds, it's time to start wearing my beannie on my walk to work! Also, I have done a bit of touring in Copenhagen and surrounds and will put some photos up soon...

Ah - a quality medical system

Fine, although I haven't quite yet been indoctrinated into the Danish public health system (I am currently awaiting my CPR number - which serves as a national ID number which just about everything in this country relies upon), I have seen the edges of it and I've had a taste of the private health system here. And boy is it good! There is definitely something to be said for good ol' socialist ideals!

Yup, I've been screwed

I now at least have some evidence that something useful was done in surgery a couple of weekends ago. The 2 screws in my hand actually look a bit larger than I was expecting, but oh well, as long as they do the job.

The good news is, my orthopaedic surgeon has cleared me to fly to Copenhagen at the end of the week and start work. Thankfully Denmark is a nice western country with all the trappings of a quality medical system, otherwise I would potentially be in Perth for a lot longer. So I leave Perth now on Friday afternoon and get to Copenhagen on Saturday morning, all ready for work on Monday. I have an apartment to stay in for my first 10 days there - a very trusting neighbour of a colleague-to-be is renting their place out to me while they're away for a couple of weeks. Once there, I figure it shouldn't be too hard to find something more permanent.

So after spending, what feels like many many hours, filling out medical forms, spending time on the phone to QANTAS and various other places, I am finally heading off. Although it's a little frustrating that my adventure starts with only one working hand, I can't wait to begin it!

Mini-Herbert Screws

Unfortunately, 2 mini-Herbert screws is not as fun as it may sound....

CT scan of my left hand

These screws are actually pretty neat little pieces of hardware. They have 2 different threads on them - the thread at one end has a larger pitch than at the other end. So when the screw is fully contained within a solid (or two solids in the case of a broken bone), as the screw is tightened, you get a tensile force within the screw and consequently a compressive force longitudinally through whatever the screw is in.

In my case, the substance is my left scaphoid. And in my case, I think I'll end up paying slightly more than what Bunnings may charge for these things!

How to NOT transition between jobs

Hypothysis

• That if I want to 'try something new' in terms of a job and location, the hard part is getting the job. The rest should be simple.

Inputs & Raw Materials

• 1 x job offer that sounds like a fantastic opportunity
• Appropriate leave from existing job
• 1 x shed with just enough space for all my personal belongings
• Plan to spend 2 weeks with my family interstate prior to flying overseas
• 1 x snowboarding holiday in New Zealand