This week started out with a limp after the “Chain Saw” incident at the weekend. The worst part was the commute as people inevitably kept knocking my leg with their bag or case. It wasn’t to bad however as I had it well covered and padded.

My colleagues were very supportive, even going as far as documenting the incident for me (See the post it note to the left). Tuesday morning I had an appointment with the practice nurse at my local doctors surgery. The nurse was very nice, and after telling me that you need to be careful with chain saw’s, looked at the wound. She was concerned that it was still rather macerated and she advised that she didn’t think the stitches would be ready to come out on Friday but wanted to see me and check the wound and at least change the dressing.

Tuesday evening the wonderful “Tube Drivers” decided they were going on strike. Now as I understand it only 1/3 of the union members actually voted for the strike action, but it went ahead anyway as the Union Leaders insisted at the last minute on the reinstatement of two drivers. One of these drivers was / is due to appear in court on charges of theft, and the other is facing disciplinary procedures because he opened the doors on the wrong side of the train endangering the lives of all the passengers on the train (MUPPETS). The action was due to start at 18:59 so as you can imagine it was really busy from about 16:30, and yes every bag and brief case managed to hit me exactly where the chain saw wound was.

Wednesday morning the train from Basingstoke was quiet as expected, but once I hit Waterloo it was anarchy. I hadn’t really thought about it and intended to get the boat from the London Eye down to Tower Hill. However I hadn’t checked the route and spent about 15 minutes trying to fight my way through the mass of people, but eventually gave up and opted for the Taxi share. Well, that was a mistake! The roads were completely blocked and it took an hour and 15 minutes to get to Bank, then I had to walk to Aldgate. That evening Sarah, our wonderful Project Administrator, walked with me to Tower Hill Pier and we caught the boat back to Waterloo via Westminster. The journey door to door took 1 hour and 15 minutes but was far more pleasant, and indeed insightful as the crew provided a guided tour as we moved down the river. It’s amazing I have worked in London for over 9 years and hadn’t seen a lot of these landmarks.

Thursday morning I headed straight for the pier and the boat. I had learned my lesson and what a pleasure it was too. We left Waterloo and were at Tower Hill Pier 15 minutes later. I may have to look into doing this during the summer months instead of the tube! Thursday night I headed straight for the Pier not even thinking about other ways of getting home.

Friday morning I was back to see the practice nurse. See checked the wound and didn’t like what she saw. It was still very macerated and she questioned if the stitches were doing anything. She asked me what I did for a living and asked if it was possible to rest up for a couple of days with no dressing on the wound as it needed to dry out. Commuting isn’t really conducive with an open wound so I said I could work from home and that’s what I did.

Today, after I had showered, I cleaned the wound up and slipped on a pair of shorts and it seems to be doing the trick. It’s still quite sore but they are going to take the stitches out Monday regardless. Apparently by that time there is a risk of them growing into the skin, lovely! So today I am stuck in the house and it’s nice outside, but I have next week off and would rather suffer now and enjoy next week.

[14/06/2009] I have uploaded all the photo’s taken so far to my Flickr account here, or of course you can few them by clicking the Photo Gallery link at the top of the page too.