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Me and Lyn drove down to PE to meet the team.

When we got there we saw this tall guy walking down the corridor ahead of us, using one crutch and holding the other in his left hand, with a file under his arm. It was Colin - his helper had disappeared for a few minutes and Colin thought what the hell, let me try with one crutch and Voila!. Well we walked around a bit, outside to the front entrance where Colin had been carried in on a stretcher a few days ago, and which side of the hospital he hadn't seen yet, we met the occupational therapist, physiotherapist, social worker, and doctor. They are all very impressed and amazed at Colin's progress and are all in agreement that he can be discharged next week Friday. Colin is managing to dress himself but wont be able to drive for a while and the team have recommended that he takes it easy for a few months so he will probably only be going in to the office for a short while every day in the beginning. He's thinking of taking in a boarder at the house to help with cooking, possibly driving, so if anyone has any bright ideas in that department please let me know. I thought that maybe he could offer accomodation to some backpackers or something like that and could also show them a bit of the countryside. I'll be going down next week Friday to fetch him.

He asked me to take his paraglider harness down to PE, which he has donated to the Hawkwind Flying Club. Me and Lyn spent an hour or so with him before driving back and I must express Colin's gratitude to Cal and all the people from the club who helped him on the mountain. Cal, especially for managing to hold his flopping leg still for so long, and to the guys from the SANDF in the chopper - Colin says he was NOT going to be driven off that mountain.

It's quite entertaining listening to his account of his perception of what was happening to him at the hospital in his semi dream state. People holding him down, tying him to the bed, whilst trying to explain to them that there's nothing wrong with him, and some of them laughing with evil laughs and just tying the restraints tighter. Then there was this THING in his head, going through his brain, invading his head, which he managed to rip out, which he subsequently realised was his respirator pipe, which he did actually manage to rip out, much to the consternation of the nursing staff. He learned also to be quiet when nurses approached because the guy next to him was quite noisy and they would inject him with STUFF to keep him quiet - he would hear him shouting and then the shouts would get weaker, and weaker, and then die away completely, and there was nothing you could do and you couldn't talk to tell them there was nothing wrong with you and if they would just let you of the damn bed and untie your arm you would show them.

I have this feeling that being near death on a few occasions Colin has been to a place that people dont normally go to and has come back with something more than what he left with. Not quite sure what it is but when you spend some time with him I think you will feel it too.

Looking forward to a braai - yes a braai - with Geoff and Rocky this Saturday and thanks to them for visiting him at Aurora, thanks to the Institute for gifts much appreciated, to Antoinette for bringing them and visiting,to Dr du Toit for visiting him at Greenacres and Aurora, to old buddies who he's been phoning and to those who've phoned even though it's sort of against the rules but appreciated nevertheless but they still dont want him to be stressed with too much buzz from the outside world. Thanks to Belinda and Chris and looking forward to seeing you Chris ;)