Last Monday I finally had the surgery on my leg to remove the troublesome Dynamic Hip Plate that has been causing me considerable pain and discomfort for over 12 months now. To say that I was looking forward to having this done is an understatement.
In the last couple of weeks the pain has increased and has made life very difficult and sleep almost impossible to achieve. I’ve tried not to be grumpy but it has been difficult. And I couldn’t go riding, either. Well, yes, I could, but I chose not to. Being a public patient in the health care system means that elective surgery involves long wait times, mostly 12 months or more. I decided that, in the event that I were to have an accident while I was waiting for the surgery, it could delay the surgery even further.
I know that sounds pretty alarmist but, believe me, I wasn’t going to do anything to jeopardise the upcoming treatment.
So, now I am laid-up, resting and trying to do everything I can to make the recovery go as quickly and effectively as possible.
So, no news on the motorcycle front personally, but, of course, I have been keeping an eye on what has been happening in racing. Last weekend’s MotoGp was certainly a cracker and provided a lot of talking points.
Firstly, it gave Marc Marquez his first pole position since leaving Honda for the Gresini Ducati team. Slowly and surely, he has been working on adapting to a very different bike as well as a very different team and finding out what he needs to do to get back to the top. Understandably there have been some “hiccups” along the way but last weekend’s efforts showed that he’s pretty much there. As crash on a wet patch during the Sprint race brought him down while leading the race but many other riders also fell victim to the water seeping up out of the bitumen surface and at least he remounted and finished 6th with a good bag of points.
The Sunday race saw him finish a close 2nd to the reigning champion and a canny ride it was, too. He “could” have pushed for the win, he certainly was close enough but, showing his increasing maturity, he backed off and ensured the 20 points were his, having made the point of being the first rider on a GP23 home. Afterwards he was quoted as saying that he now understands the bike and that it is now time to make the bike adapt itself to what HE wants it to do. Is it any wonder that he is already being mentioned as being #1 pick for a “works” ride next year.
In the other races, Joel Kelso again showed his maturity with another top ten finish in Moto3 and Jacob Roulstone came back from two jolting crashes to work his way up into the points in 12th place and earned yet more kudos from the media and from his team boss who remarked that he believed that Jacob was the best rider to come out of Australia in many years. I could have told him that but it is nice to have it confirmed.
In other personal news I have been unable to sell the VFR through dealer consignment and my dealer is very disappointed as am I. Looks like it’s back to private sale, so if you know someone who wants a high mileage but well looked after 98 model VFR, please contact me.
By dint of sheer good luck I have managed to keep up all my nursing home concert commitments except for yesterday’s and this coming Friday. I don’t like missing them.
Well, that will do for today, I’m hobbling around the place on crutches and everyone is lecturing me about how I need to “take it easy”. I feel like an Eagles track. Catch you next time.
