More Haste, Less Speed

 

 

So, this is a picture of my skull.

In fact, this is a picture of my fractured skull.

 

 

If you look carefully at my right eye socket (to the left of the picture) you might be able to see that a piece of bone has been broken and pushed in a little bit (circled).

Let this be a lesson to you. Don’t rush things!

Let me explain how it happened.

After I had got my new shed wind and watertight, I set about wiring it up. I ran 2.5mm twin and earth all around the perimeter in a ring, and put in 8 double sockets. I also put in a lighting circuit for 4 fluorescent tubes. Once that was done I set up a bench along one wall for my bench tools – drill press, disc sander, grindstone and vices – along with a few shelves for power tools etc. and I was ready to move in.

I then set about de-constructing the old shed. I had already had the electricity supply cut off at the road (it had its own supply, separate from the house) and so I began de-construction by removing the roof. As I said earlier, the old shed was clad in asbestos cement board, which had to be disposed of in a particular way. I hired a skip with a lid and put the roof panels in that, followed by the wall panels. I was all going so well.

I turned my attention to the door, a spring loaded garage door, which had to be removed from the inside with the door closed. That went well too. With the door removed, I started on the hinges, one of which had sprung up in the open position when I was removing the door. I removed that one first, and then turned to the other one. This was all going so well, so easy and quick. Some people might have stopped to take the springs off first. Not me. Genius that I am, I just ploughed straight on.

 

As I began loosening the fixings to the second hinge however I suddenly felt a sharp ringing vibration in my head and I was thrown backwards onto the ground. No sound or pain, just this vibration pounding in my skull. I thought I’d had some sort of episode, a brain haemorrhage or a stroke or something. Then the pain hit and I called out. My wife came running out, took one look at all the blood and called an ambulance.

 

Long story short, I had been hit in the face by this.

Hit in the face hard. Very, very hard.

 They stitched me up in A&E and, after a few days in hospital I got sent to Southampton Hospital to see some specialists. In the end, they did not operate, but I was left with a broken skull and double vision for a month. That put the shed project on hold for a while.

I’m fine now, but as I said, let that be a lesson to you: Don’t rush things.