Travelling along the M62 today, we passed a pair of old Mini Coopers. “Oh look, a brace of Minis”, I said. (A brace being an old hunting term for a pair, or two).

“Here comes another unlikely pair”, Karen, said, glancing in her mirror. We were then overtaken by two stretch limos.

(Maybe you had to be there…)

All of my staples are out now, not too painful. The staple removing tool was like a flat version of the legendary BT No. 81 long nose pliers, although I doubt that a Telephone Engineer ever had his tools sterilised!

I’m back to see the Consultant in five weeks, no obvious complications at this stage. As of today, I’m also going to be able to have a proper bath or shower, albeit very gingerly. I’ve had both with the aid of a limb cast cover fitted with a large “O” Ring, a device known as a LimbO that I bought online. However, my right leg still has an orange tinge from the iodine used in surgery (as well as looking rather battle scarred.)

It seems that the one thing I won’t be able to do until late in my recovery is to return behind the wheel- having to do an emergency stop would be very dangerous.