Trial By Running Gods

I suspect that with my flurry of activity lately the Running Gods decided to test my fairdinkumness - bastards.

On my last night in Hobart I pushed out a pretty brisk walk in the hills - I don't know what I did but as I cooled down I began to notice some EOCBS (Early Onset Crook Back Syndrome) - which after a night in a hotel bed turned into AMCBS (Agonisingly Miserable Crook Back Syndrome). So I wussed out of running and walking for a bit.

Long story short - I was about to start again this Tuesday just gone but when I woke up I felt decidedly "off" so I hit snooze and went back to sleep for a bit. Went to work but left early and by 4pm I was glued to the dunny - I'll spare the details but I've been home sick for 3 days - pretty unusual for me.

I'm off to Bathurst on the weekend to visit the HP so I might give myself another couple of days to fully recover and start fresh next week.

In other news - I made a corker of an attempt at self-immolation on Mothers Day (long time readers might remember I've a bad habit of this). Another long story short - the hose on a new 8.5kg gas cylinder came loose and started to spew gas into a BBQ - I killed the flame on the burners and then attempted to turn off the bottle but the glow of the plate must have been enough and whooshka up she went.

I was extremely lucky as witnesses say I appeared engulfed in flame - I had my head averted so I avoided any real damage - lost all the hair on my left arm and a significant portion of both eyebrows and some singed head hair. I just had some very minor scorching on my left hand and my left cheek - so minor there was no real visible evidence - just a bit red.

The real conundrum then started because the flame was bouncing off the BBQ back onto the gas bottle making it impossible to turn off - just as I was about to run for the hills and dial 000 Mrs 2P (bless her) appeared with a fire extinguisher which my brother-in-law quickly unwrapped from its plastic covering and passed to me - I pulled the pin, pressed the go button and held it on the gas bottle while I turned the tap shut with my other hand - disaster averted.

So I suppose you could say we had a flaming good Mothers Day :)

PS if ya don't have a fire extinguisher near your barbie - get one!