In case of emergency...

Well a little 'emergency' happened last night. I was doing the dishes, putting them on the dish rack when a plate fell out and for some reason (maybe its reflex) I reached out with my right hand to catch it. I wasn't sure what exactly happened but the plate broke into a few pieces in the process and cut the back of my hand. Stupid reflex. It was quite a nasty gash and I sort of freaked out. At that point, Gideon was already sleeping and Mabel was resting in the room. I looked at the cut and didn't think it looked good, so I called for Mabel, she had a look at it and started to panic a bit.

We both agreed that the cut needed stitches but obviously I couldn't drive myself to the hospital and she couldn't do it without dragging a sound asleep Gideon along. Then we started to think who we could call to send me to the hospital. None of our closer friends lived near us (they were at least 30 minutes drive away) so our quickest option was our neighbours. Mabel ran to the first unit directly next to us but they weren't in. Fortunately the family in the next unit were home and in fact the guy of the house is a doctor! I guess some part of our brain knew that, just that it didn't occur to us that they might be home or I could say they weren't programmed in my head as one of the "in case of emergency" contacts.

Anyway neighbour doctor kindly came over to have a look at my hand. He sort of spread the wound to have a better look at the cut, made me move my fingers to make sure it was not affecting movement and also made sure they had strength and sensation. His conclusion: the wound is superficial and doesn't need stitches. Phew. That was a relieve and (I have to admit) a little bit silly that I over-reacted and thought it was very serious. But hey, how would I know? This also got me thinking: thank God it's not a real emergency but what if it was and I had a few young kids at home? To be honest, I cannot imagine and I hope that never happens.

I have to add, even though its a superficial wound, it hurt pretty bad (by my standard) and I bet there's some sort of injury to the nerves or tendon because there's a fair bit of pain in my first two fingers when they move in a certain way. So I am guessing I will have problems doing things with my right hand for the next few days - like cooking, washing and carrying Gideon and maybe driving. Now wouldn't it be great if one of our neighbours is a baby sitter and/or a house caretaker who could help with cooking and cleaning; although we probably couldn't afford it.

The Paralympic heroes/champs

The London Paralympics was a huge success. The coverage on television was good (well, better than the Olympics coverage here in Australia). There has been good highlights and also great stories of the athletes; like this video from CNN about war heroes and how sports has given them a new lease of life:

          

For some reason, I thought the opening and closing ceremonies of the Paralympics were brilliant too, more so than the Olympics. I mean the Olympics was good, but kinda ordinary. But the Paralympics was just so much more interesting. Not to mention the opening ceremony had Stephen Hawking! Just look at some of the photos from the closing ceremony. It's awesome. Alright, maybe I am just a little bit biased towards the Paralympics because my PhD stuff has been quite focused towards wheelchair sports and I got the chance to meet with and do some testing with the Australian athletes. But I am sure that is the case for anyone who has worked with or been involved in Paralympic sports one way or another. Anyway, the Australian team has done extremely well this year and especially the sports I was gunning for: the track events and wheelchair rugby. I like this nice little clip that explains the game of wheelchair rugby complete with some mind-blowing moves, definitely not for the faint hearted:

The Aussie wheelchair rugby team or the Steelers totally dominated the games from day 1. They  played 5 games in total and won every game by at least 12 points. The most impressive thing is that even in the last quarter of each match, when they were already leading by more than 10 points, they were still going all out and making every effort to score the next point/block the opponents score attempts. No complacency. No holding back.

The Oz Steelers (photos from the london2012 website)

Some highlights from the gold medal match:

In the track event, Richard Colman, did an amazing race in the T53 800m. He had a great tactic - drafting for the first one and a half laps, conserving his energy for the final 200m burst. If you pay attention, you could kinda tell that he was staying behind intentionally, braking a little bit at several occasions in the first lap and checking back to see if the rest were catching up. Then he just surges forward at the last 150m and leads for the final 100m. Here's the youtube video of the race and Richard Colman is in lane 3 wearing yellow:

London T53 800m finals

I must say, this Paralympics has been quite phenomenal. The standard of the various sports have increased so much, with so many new world records, sometimes happening even in the heats, and then having another new one set again in the finals. There is a also lot more support and technology invested in the sports; and there is the explanation of classifications during different events which sheds so much light to home viewers and just makes the whole viewing experience so much better. So I think slowly people are becoming more aware of Paralympic sports and more are beginning to see that these Paralympians are not just disabled athletes, but elite athletes serious about doing well in their sport and even in life. They may not have been dealt with the best cards earlier in life but they sure are playing it to the best of their abilities and are all heroes and champs in their own right. Well, that's it for London, until the next time in Rio 2016!