Christmas and New Year 2014

Hello everyone who reads my blog!  Happy New Year and all that jazz.  We are less than 48 hours in, but I hope it's already shaping up to be a good one.

I'm currently sitting on my sofa resting as I'm very battered and bruised, but more about that later... :)

My Christmas kicked off with my work Christmas party; much frivolity was had with a dressing up box containing various Christmas themed attire including a full Santa outfit, various beards and a turkey hat.

Secret Santa!

Three days later on Christmas Eve I travelled from Norwich to my parents' house in sleepy Lincolnshire.  It's an incredibly dull drive due to a lack of duel carriageways and inevitably slow moving lorries and farm traffic.  I arrived home at 8pm realised I had forgotten most of my toiletries, (still in my wash bag sitting on my bed in Norwich), and my mother and I had to go on a crazy Fast and the Furious style drive around the town to try and find a shop that was open. 

Christmas day was the usual.  My family always open "Santa's" presents in the morning, followed by the family presents under the tree after lunch.  I'm not really into "What I got for Christmas" type posts and videos so I'll keep it brief but I got some very lovely bath products from Lush, loads of Liz Earle skincare stuff, ( one New Years Resolution is to have a better skincare regime), far too much chocolate for one person, money and some other general knickknacks.  

I love Lush gift boxes! 

Back in Norwich as of late afternoon Boxing Day I entered into that weird period between Christmas and New Year where you don't really know what day it is and if it's socially acceptable to still be eating trifle for breakfast.  I was back at work so that helped somewhat.  

New Years Eve was eventful as I spent much of that day time in A&E at the local hospital.  I fell off my bike due to some ice that had formed under a hanging basket; it had dripped down and frozen into a death trap.  I couldn't see how big the ice puddle was either due to the sunlight in my eyes or just the fact that the ice was so clear, and my bike just went from under me. It went one way, and I went the other.  I've never been in a situation where I've been so badly hurt I've not been able to move, but let me tell you that when it happens it's absolutely terrifying, especially as a healthy 23 year old.  So I was on the concrete floor having fallen, either in too much pain or shock to get back up again.  Thankfully someone I know was nearby and he came to my aid and phoned an ambulance as I could neither get up myself, remember falling or say with any certainty that I hadn't hit my head.

In the end the paramedic concluded I had put my elbow out at a very awkward angle to protect my head.  I can't remember consciously doing this- it was a reflex I suppose.  However my elbow, forearm, shoulder, hip, knee and ankle had all taken the blow.  Basically my entire right side was bruised and swollen to fuck.  We thought at this point that my arm was broken, (news I was absolutely distraught by because I'm right handed), so I went to A&E to get X-rayed.

To cut a long story short the X-Ray came back showing nothing was broken so I could go home.  The doctor gave me some drugs for the pain, and I spent the next few hours in a drug induced euphoria which was actually rather pleasant. 

My bones!  Thankfully all still whole! You can sort of see where my arm was swelling up on the right hand picture.

It's amazing firstly how resilient the human body is, but also how painful not breaking anything can be!  I have a bit of a swollen and bruised elbow now, sore neck and an incredibly swollen thigh, knee and ankle but I'm thankful for no broken bones or a head/spinal injury.

The smallest bruise I have!  I won't show you my leg.   It ain't pretty.

So, that was my Christmas and New Years.  Hopefully that's all the injuries out of the way for this year, because I can't deal with another trip to hospital(!).