Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Shoulder Surgery Recovery

It's been far too long since I last posted an entry on my blog; partly due to the lack of photographable events to show off, and partly due to the fact that most of my spare time has been devoted to study (a correspondence course subject on the Old Testament).

The last five months from January to May 2007 have been dominated by a dislocated shoulder, which resulted in surgery and a slow recovery. I got tackled from behind while playing rugby in early February and my collar bone got pulled away from my AC joint. There's a couple of photos on http://picasaweb.google.com/michaelwrathall if you're curious. After two months in a sling and another 2 months of physio, I'm about 95% there: don't have the final range of movement and still a bit weak, but fine for most things.

I've been back playing cricket the last three weeks as captain of the second XI team at West of Scotland CC. My first game back was a dream start: I got my highest score of 122 (off just 96 balls) and we easily won the game. We won the next game and narrowly lost last Saturday, but it's the best start to our cricket season for a team that normally starts very slowly!

In the last few months, I've been fortunate enough to have a few visitors:

- Aussie mates Tim Harris and Steve Kopandy: I visited them along with mutual friend Dave Whitehead (and his growing family) in Berlin for a weekend, and then they popped in to Glasgow for an evening of fun and frivolity.

- A flying visit from fellow study camper Asheetha Chacko, who's been living in London.
- Justin and Susannah Ware: Aussie friends also living in London who popped in for a few days and treated me to some amazing home cooking!

- Harry and Sarah Weld-Forester: the not-so-newly weds popped up from Exeter and joined a group of others including Aussie school friend Amy Nancarrow to go for a walk (and a swim) at Glen Coe.

I also have a new flatmate - an Aussie from the Blue Mountains of Sydney. He's a friend of a friend from the cricket club and has been settling into Glaswegian life by working as much as possible! He works in hospitality, so our hours don't cross over terribly much, but we've been getting on pretty well.
I'll be heading over to India for a week from June 22 to visit Bangalore and Pune on the way back to Australia for my sister's wedding on July 7. I'm looking forward to seeing family and friends again, even if it is only for a week this time. With our family's second wedding within 6 months, this is becoming a bit of a habit!