Thank God for evolution and opposable thumbs

Summer is drawing to a close and my return to St Andrews is getting closer (excitement!). My last few weeks at works have come to rather an abrupt end as I am now sporting the latest in medical fashion - my right arm is in plaster! (Actually, if you squint it almost looks like the new fashion for elbow-long, fingerless gloves. You have to really squint though).

So, how did I acquire this latest injury you ask? Well, having taken up figure skating in a big way in Canada thanks to the free rink near my apartment, I decided to continue my new hobby on my return. I've been having lessons in Blackburn for a couple of weeks now and I absolutely love it. Don't expect me to be landing double axels any time soon, but it's impressive what a difference proper tuition can make. Of course, pride comes before a fall, and fall I did. Had I not stuck my arm out to stop myself (silly thing to do) I wouldn't have injured myself at all. As it was, my wrist bent backwards, all my weight went through it, and SNAP!

So, after X-rays and MRI scans, I'm all plastered up for a while, and it's making life somewhat difficult. In the grand scheme of things, the small everyday tasks I am no longer able to perform are little more than an inconvenience, put into perspective with starvation, floods, mass destruction, etc. etc. However, you don't realise just how much you use your thumb/wrist/right hand in general until you no longer can. Like anything I suppose, you don't realise what you've got until you lose it.

However, minor setbacks like a broken wrist haven't put me off skating. On the contrary, I've been carrying on with my lessons regardless! Some people just never learn, clearly. This week I learned backwards crossovers (for anyone that's interested, they look a bit like this: Backwards Crossovers on Youtube). I can't do them forwards yet, but I can do the more difficult backwards ones. Go figure!