Oh, and if you aren’t following me on Twitter already, please do so

I’ll be posting updates on my shoulder surgery here over the next few days. At pre-admission at moment.
14 Nov

Anaesthetist says i’m scheduled to go under the knife at 9:30 Am.
14 Nov

Such a loving family …

My brothers reply to my telling him I’m going in for surgery tomorrow morning … http://t.co/LZQdGDrD
14 Nov

At hospital waiting room. Sleepy time in 70 mins!
15 Nov

This was posted around 75 mins after leaving the operating room. I think I’d been awake for around 50 mins at this point.

Out of surgery. In one piece
15 Nov

In ward now surgery weny fine. brain malfunctioning due ti drugs
15 Nov

I distinctly remember checking this for errors multiple times, deciding everything was spelled correctly, then hitting “Send” …

When woke up was not aware just had surdgury
15 Nov

Whoa, powerful drugs me at mo
15 Nov

@jmuenster dunno. tnii hhllllfdruhrf :- drugged up
15 Nov

@kiwihabsfan I’m very tired
15 Nov

View out my hospital window …. http://t.co/Q6tGEcbD
15 Nov

@jmuenster half chicken, half egg.
15 Nov

@jmuenster I’m not that hungry right now.
15 Nov

For anyone trying to find me, I’m in room4, McCauley ward (1st floor) at Mercy Hospital, 72 Newington Ave, Dunedin … maps.google.com/maps/place?cid…
15 Nov

@jmuenster My brain is starting to come back
15 Nov

I’m gonna get fixed up with oxycontin later, so will probably be sending nonsensical tweets then
15 Nov

Nice greenery outside my window in my hospital room … http://t.co/AMTWlKJK
15 Nov

@NinjaLikesCheez Yeah, it’s pretty nice here
15 Nov

@NinjaLikesCheez I had a glass of that just now.
15 Nov

@NinjaLikesCheez They’re about to deliver me ginger beer
15 Nov

Wanna see the internals of my shoulder? ryanhellyer.pressabl.com/2011/11/15/sho…
15 Nov

@NinjaLikesCheez I’ll blame that one the drugs!
15 Nov

My shoulder innards attempt #2 … http://t.co/yDS1m3dp
15 Nov

I just took a butt-ton of narcotics on board. If I start acting weird, that’s why
15 Nov

@pgibbs it’s not that. Just some blood anf meaty stuff.
15 Nov

Brain not working well. Struggling to communicate in sensible fashion.
15 Nov

@NinjaLikesCheez can’t feel it. Totally numb.
15 Nov

When I sent the following, I actually assumed my tweets were error free until that point …

@dempsas I’m taking a long to do tweets :p lots of proof reading required.
15 Nov

@randywsandberg thanks the drugs apparently do likme
15 Nov

Typing is really on touch screen when yiou are constantly goimg cross eyed amd losing focus
15 Nov

Does anyone know how long out takes to het tropophol out of your system?
15 Nov

Stupid double vision is getting annoying
15 Nov

@anthonycole I hope it’s closer to 2hrs for me lol
15 Nov

Nearly fainted attempting to get back.from toilet
15 Nov

I am crazy unstable on my feet right noW
15 Nov

@kimparsell yeah I keep sleeping but them just wake uo again
15 Nov

My evening meal in hospital .. http://t.co/XWmA0lAP
15 Nov

Lesson: don’t concentrate so hard on not bumping you shoulder that you bash your cannulated line in hand instead!
16 Nov

Darn it. Feeling pain in shoulder now Nurse gave me some tramadol but I’m not sure that’ll be enough shortly.
16 Nov

@andrea_r Copious amounts of drugs are most likely helping my judgement.
16 Nov

Mid-afternoon I looked like I’d buffed up big time on my left shoulder Swelling’s gone down now though.
16 Nov

@angiemeeker Did I say something I shouldn’t have? Looked pretty tame to me. But then I’m the one drugged, so perhaps not the best judge!
16 Nov

Yay! Almost all numbness has gone from my arm now Admittedly replaced by shoulder pain, but at least I can feel my arm now.
16 Nov

Throwing caution to the wind and posting photos despite my drug induced idiocy …
16 Nov

I appear to have forgotten the link …. http://t.co/cbZNhTO3
16 Nov

My anesthetist is very friendly. Just had an excellent chat about Apple, Jobs and the future of simple computers and Chrome OS.
16 Nov

Discharged and on way to stay with my brother for the night
16 Nov

The pleasant view from my hospital ward (which I’ve now left) … http://t.co/nOQ30Xrj
16 Nov

@gcaat Shave it
16 Nov

Ouch. Pain relief is wearing off Just took a dose of oxycontine and paracetamol. Hopefully they kick in soon.
16 Nov

@five15design Good old Schrödinger’s cat eh. That maths hurts my brain!
16 Nov

Woke up feeling like someone rearranged my shoulder, ohhh wait … they did!
17 Nov

Oxycontin and codeine should kick in soon hopefully.
17 Nov

Wow. Was in a lot of pain only 30 mins ago. Downed combo of codeine and Oxy-contin … now much happier.
17 Nov

My chest makes a weird squealching sound when I poke it. It’s like air or liquid is squirting between bits of meat.
17 Nov

I think I should probably stop poking my chest.
17 Nov

@jmuenster I feel slow. Drugs slow me down. Everything is slow.
17 Nov

Home sweet home. Don’t feel good though
17 Nov

Waiting for my dinosaur to come look after me for the night
17 Nov

Awww man. Stupid pains kicking in. My mind is just starting to come back too
17 Nov

@jmuenster turned out she stood me up anyway not happy. Found replacement though.
17 Nov

@jmuenster nah, new one is a cooking teacher
17 Nov

Urgh, woke up feeling sck. Hope nausea passes soon so can get back to important sleeping.
18 Nov

I haven’t taken any pain in relief in four hours and it doesn’t hurt yet Freakin’ sweet!!!
19 Nov

@five15design I like that I have a public record of my thoughts during the week. I most likely would have forgotten otherwise.
20 Nov

After feeling a rather large earth quake at 4:38am, I decided to bust a move up to Swampy Summit, about 9 km from my home in Dunedin. I’ve had a theory for a while now that some of the small ponds up there would freeze in the winter months. We didn’t have any major frosts this winter so I didn’t bother inspecting, but last night there was at least a chill in the air so I figured I’d go check it out to at least confirm if there was any ice whatsoever and if so, how much there was. There was absolutely no sign of frosts anywhere in the suburbs, even up on the hills, so signs were looking highly unpromising for any ice. After dodging a few trees which had presumably been knocked over during the quake, I made my way to the bottom of the access road to Swampy Summit. Unfortunately it is not possible to drive all the way there, so I had to walk up the hill. The walk should have been 4 km in and 4 km out, but I stupidly took a few wrong turns and it ended up being about 13 kms instead! If you make the trip yourself, ensure you take plenty of water as although it’s not a steep climb, you will gain about 650 m in altitude, so it can be a little tiring.

The view from the top was terrific. It was still very early when I arrived (~7:00am) and my cheapo Canon camera struggled with the low light conditions. The temperature was zero degrees Celsius, but there must have been a heck of a wind chill factor as it was blowing a gale up there.

View towards Mosgiel from on top of Swampy Summit

The largest ponds at the summit had no ice on them unfortunately. This was entirely expected though as the temperatures hadn’t been all that cold lately.

The largest pond on Swampy Summit.

However some of the smaller ponds did have sections of ice on them. Not a lot of ice, but enough to at least prove that there is serious potential for skating to be done on the summit (when the conditions are right). The maximum thickness of the ice was about 5 mm, but even the best frozen ponds had only 30% of their surface frozen.

Edge of one of the smaller ponds on Swampy Summit

Ice, but too thin to be useful.

So … there was no chance of skating today, but I’ve at least shown that there is promise of potentially skating up there some time in the future.

The first section of terrain was also one of the trickiest. We actually got stuck a few minutes before I took this photo but thankfully Pierre-ems skilled driving (ie: he planted it while in reverse) we managed to get it un-wedged

The driving was much more leisurely from there on and despite a few bangs and bumps going over some of the bigger crests it was all smooth sailing

And here’s a short video clip from the end of our journey and back onto a real road!

Original picture is available here.

A week later we headed to the top of Mount Cargill to see the city, but in typical Dunedin style a cloud came through and blocked the view

Except this time it happened to my flatmate, and by ‘it happened again’, I mean literally. Mary was mowed down by an evil man at exactly the same corner, on exactly the same side of the street and going in exactly the same direction! Conveniently she also wasn’t too badly injured either, just some aches, pains and bruises.

Visit the original post

I tested out this new device this morning. I placed it in my backpack and headed off to work, then whilst crossing the road a crazy women crashed into me from behind, sending me tumbling across her bonnet. I landed splat on my back on the road. My trusty Dell took the brunt of the impact and I was able to stand up unscathed The only injury I have is a sprained ankle which wasn’t protected by my computer. And guess what! The computer is still working and I’m posting this message on it right now

Apparently the little green man was indeed flashing when I crossed and the lady who hit me is in a whole lot of trouble. She will probably be charged with careless driving or careless driving causing injury. My computer will live for another day – and thankfully so will I!

EDIT: Thanks to my cousin Alison Petrie for the following photos (she saw it happen).

There were two ambulances, a fire truck and two police cars. Kinda overkill for an itty bitty test of a new safety device, but anyhows …

The woman on the right is the one who drove into me.

EDIT: It also turned out that I was badly bruised behind me knee. The woman who hit me lost her drivers license for six months and was fined for $250 for her failed efforts to remove me from the gene pool.

EDIT 2: It happened again! Lightning strikes twice.

Aggression

Here are some demonstrations of why NOT to play soccer on a sand turf!

First up, Graeme trying to get the ball by running through his opposition.

Next up, a girl from the opposing team wipes out quite spectacularly trying to change directions.

This aint track and field …

Graeme … WTF?

The next photo is a demonstration of why being spectator is not safe either, this blindingly quick curving kick from Becky almost hit me.

Rules?

You can get away with a lot more in soccer than I realised …

Levitating ball

They were playing with a special levitating ball. If you don’t believe me, here’s the proof …

Goalie Extraordinaire

Nigel Alefosio did a stunning job in goal.

This kick was …

… 4 m too high … but Nigel tried to stop it anyway

The opposition team were quite a bit smaller!

But they could still kick! This one didn’t get in.

But this one when Nigel subbed off did …

Brooker bunch

Here are some pics of my lab mates Frederick from Germany and Worku Gobeze from Ethiopia.

Stunning ball handling

Some of the players are apparently as skilled at juggling a ball on their feet as they are round bottoms with their hands …