What seemed like half an hour ran to an hour and ten minutes’ worth of weight training – Adam’s inventive nature dreamt up pulleys, belts and lateral thinking at its’ best. 

Afterwards I needed sleep badly, yet sat thro the double whammy of Wales losing badly and England winning impressively. 

I may need to dredge up my English heritage this year, at this rate…. 

I’m looking forward to being ‘beasted’ by Adam on a regular basis in the coming months, all in aid of regaining some small semblance of my former upper body at least. 

Watch this space 😉

Cherie planned to spend Friday with me, observing my routines and physio etc. 

Instead, 3 and a half hours to drive 45 miles, through the local floods and closed  roads, and the poor girl practically missed the whole lot. 

Hopefully a decent lunch somehow compensated in a small way, but I’m not sure, given she then had the dubious pleasure of taking me back to London. 

Anyway, Cherie delivered me back safely and soundly ( is that a word ) into the arms of my family. 

Thanks so much. 🙂

( Next time allow yourself 5 hours to get there! )

X

I talked to all of them, mostly for the first time, and what a great bunch of girls and guys they are. 

They’ve signed up to be punched and punished physically for 10 weeks, essentially for me. 

What they will get in addition is possibly fitter than they’ve ever been, leaner, meaner, more confident in themselves and, well, quite famous around West London. 

I was also there to help with the eyesight part of their medical forms ( aided by my colleague, Irinder ), as this event is officially sanctioned by the Boxing powers that be. 

No one failed the eyesight/ health part, I’m happy to say. 

Once I’m discharged, I do hope to be a regular at training sessions – obviously not fighting. 

Extraordinarily , Dan told me that he’d seriously been asked if this boxing night was principally featuring a fight between him ………..

….and me?

I’m not at liberty to say who asked him or whether she was a female 

😉

It was also bloody great to see my school buddy, Dominic ( last seen 30 yrs ago ) who’d driven down from South Wales to spend the evening with me. 

Aren’t people incredible?

Russ,

 

I would never underestimate the changes you are having to adapt to, but some are permanent others are not. Take your old self. Take him off the river and put him in a hospital out of the sun and full of infections. I imagine the old you would like the new you be struggling to fight off the infections. Take the new you and get him out of the hospital and home with his family. Get him eating properly again, let him get some sunshine on his face and some fresh air in his lungs and I suspect in six months you will be no more sickly than the old you.

 

As for saving anyone a lot of problems by staying on the mountainside in France. Who would be there for your girls when they come home upset because the boy they like has been unkind? Or the boss has been a bully? Who is going to give the speech at their wedding? Or rock their babies to sleep on his lap? That’s going to be you my friend and they would have given everything they had to make sure you left that mountainside alive and came home to them.

 

I hope you are feeling much better soon. I know you have a lot of visitors, but are you less busy any nights this week or next? (can’t do this Thursday)

 

Kind regards,

 

 

Paul

 

Never had so much Doctor attention. 

Not sure when I’ll be encouraged to get out of bed. 

Possibly not til Wednesday.

But I feel a lot better today than yesterday. 

Spent last night sounding like a had a baby’s rattle in my chest. 

I truly hate this new sickly existance. 

To go from never being ill to being in a wheelchair and pathetically vulnerable to every ailment is not the path I’d imagined. 

Negative thoughts are now filling my head once more. 

I see the limits of my potential  progress starkly in front of me, always needing help to do most things. 

I don’t want to be like this. 

I don’t want Dani to have to live her life in a modified way for my sake. 

I fear not seeing my children enough, limited by what I’m able to do with them. 

My head’s in turmoil again. 

My life, 7 months ago so incredible, has ended, replaced with a half life of frustration, condemned to being an observer of the world around me. 

I do really hope you all realise how amazing ‘ normal ‘ life is. 

10 am. As I lie here I’m now shaking violently with a nebuliser on my face. . 

Hardly type 

Death on that road above Toulon would have saved an awful lot of trouble. 

Selfish perhaps, but you try this life. 

1 pm. Slept. Hot now not cold. 

May be moved ‘upstairs ‘ – intensive care. 

Think I’m def on the mend tho. 

It’s up to the doctors, not me. 

I feel bad for saying I’d rather have given up than fought on. 

All the people out there that are helping me haven’t given up on me. 

I apologise to all of them. 

It’s so hard to see a positive whilst you’re trembling violently ( but only from the waist up ) alone in a hospital bed. 

The little room TV is on, full of beautiful people doing stuff involving legs. 

I know everyone that reads this does think of my situation and feels very sorry for me. 

Before this, I of course have had friends and family that have found themselves in very unfortunate situations. I’ve tried to recall how much actual time I spent thinking about them daily  – a few minutes maybe? The rest of the time I’d be getting on with my busy life .

It’s what you do, right. 

And rightly so. 

When you are the person in the situation of course you can’t just step out of it, and get on with the other stuff. 

Or can you? 

I guess that’s the secret to getting on with life. 

As I may be put into a more ‘intensive care’ ward later I cannot go to Acton to watch and meet the boxers who are fighting do my charity , as planned later tonight. 

Sorry all, for not coming. 

Instead I’m here on bed fester for another day. 

It would seem that when they confine you here, that’s it. 

Ticket sales are going well, but quite a few still available. 

It’ll be a hell of a night, so don’t miss out.

For tickets call the Park Club on  02087434321 

Ok, Plan A is to get a lot stronger, in as much as I can, given that over half of me can’t. 

I’ll spend a lot of time in The Hogarth Club, in the gym there, or in the Bar ( but not drinking )

I’m going to escape to Portugal for a few weeks of ( hopefully ) sunshine, my body having been deprived of UV light for 8 months. Before this I spent 2 or 3 hours every day, rain or shine, outdoors, so I know I’ve been deprived of the beneficial effects of fresh air in a big way. 

I hope that whilst there I can push myself around a lot on the smoother roads, plus the trails if I have a Mountain Trike, plus do a bit of canoeing if I get lifted onto a boat and have a fellow paddler with me to save me if I fall in..

I hope to get a car by May, and maybe around then be able to work in some regular capacity too. 

The government Access to Work scheme  should be able to help fund adaptions to my workplace, plus help with a special wheelchair that I get strapped into that can actually elevate me to a standing position, enabling me to work more easily. 

I won’t be able to go upstairs at work, so that’ll limit to a degree what I can do, but I know I’ll be able to make a positive contribution nonetheless. 

So you could say that whilst I’m

about to get out, the real work is about to start. 

Plenty of challenges ahead, for sure.