No-Gall Gargoyle

OUCH!

Not a pretty sight, eh? But it is all over now, I hope.

Gall today, gone tomorrow...

"Great!"

I realised that this was the worst possible place for this to happen...

There are just over 200km between Karratha and Port Hedland in WA, and I was just over half way! I had flown from Perth to Karratha the day before, then taken a hire car on a short trip to Port Hedland. There was only about 100km where I would have no communication coverage by phone. Pretty safe...

I started to feel the pain that put me in hospital with a suspected heart attack just before Christmas. It was gall bladder pain. It started as an uncomfortable bloating feeling, and then the tell-tale blood pressure headache... Bugger!

The pain was quite acute, sharp but not in any specific area. I stopped driving, jumped up and down, beat my chest, hummed loudly, did anything I thought would dislodge the stone which I knew was stuck fast in my bile duct. Actually, now that I type this, I can just imagine the image people had as they drove bye...

Anyway, I rang the surgeon who had seen me when the stones were first discovered, and he told me to beat a path to his door the next morning. I was bumped up the waiting list hugely. Apparently there is a 1 in 2,000 risk of the complications of small gall stones causing fatality, and only a 1 in 200,000 chance of fatality after the surgery.

So, wish me luck! I go under the knife today!

Thanks Nick...

Meet Nicholas. "Hi Nick!"
Nick is the reason that I have just driven the better part of a thousand kilometres for no reason. I had planned a road trip from Perth, through Geraldton, Carnarvon, Dampier, Karratha, Port Hedland and then down through the centre of WA, a total of 3732km and eight days. It was something I was looking forward to since I got my 4WD vehicle.

The journey was carefully planned weeks in advance, and when I left Perth on Monday, the Weather Bureau was of the opinion that Nick would cross the coast and fizz out rapidly...
Not so! No, Nick continued down the coast to meet me.

I had an "Abandon" clause for my trip which meant that I would turn around if there were any red alerts in the region I was to travel through. This would mean that all roads in the region would be closed. As I got to Northampton a red alert was issued for Exmouth, so I turned around.

Bugger...

Now I will have to plan individual flights to sites all over the state. Oh, well... Frequent Flyer points are being racked up nicely! (Every cyclone has a silver lining.)

Myth Busters Busted...

The video below was on a circular Email forwarded to a colleague of mine. It was presented as a man igniting a cigarette lighter in a tanker and being blown up. My colleague said that a friend of his in the industry said that all the people working in these depots have ignition sources taken off them before they start work. The problem was, that this guy managed to keep his mobile on him, and when it rang, he answered... as you do.
The result was a rather impressive explosion! The story is that he survived, probably as a result of the guy using a fire extinguisher on him.
Enjoy, and be safe! (Beware Graphic Content)

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