Wednesday, 28 November 2012

Two flats and a Pre-Raphaelite show

Astarte Syriaca by Rossetti - poster
image for the Tate show


I don’t know what it is with my children, none of them can be relied upon to look after cars or motorcycles.


Tom will be gnashing his teeth in anger at that statement and will be able to cite multiple repairs and improvements that he has made to vehicles in his ownership.

In turn, I could cite a number of occasions when failure to add petrol to a motorcycle left him stranded and me riding to the rescue with a petrol can balanced between my legs.There was also that incident when he rode to Brands Hatch and (almost) back with only a cup-ful of oil in the engine.

Sam has a zero maintenance policy when it comes to four wheels, although he is now the proud owner of a foot-pump.

They were always very keen to get behind the wheel of a car, but less so to get under the bonnet and eschewed all attempts to interest them in oil levels, tyre pressures and washer fluid.

Latest car crisis came on Wednesday when I visited Max for a drink and some dinner. Driving home from school that day, he’d pulled up into his car park and felt a clunk at the back wheel. His tyre was flat. I said I’d help him put the spare on and so, after pints and pasta, we got busy by the light of a sodium street-lamp and a head torch.

Had a bit of trouble with the locking nut, but we got it off in the end, only to find that when we let the jack down, the space-saver spare tyre was almost as flat as the one we’d taken off.

“Do you ever check your tyre pressures?” I asked.

“Of course,” lied Max.

He couldn’t remember when he last checked the spare - probably not been checked since 2000 when the car was built. Next morning, the spare looked even flatter and so Max was on the bus and a trip to Halfords beckoned. The space-saver spare was pumped up and the punctured tyre replaced. It was pretty worn so two new tyres were needed on the back.

I had arranged to meet Max at Balham Bowls Club, which I much prefer to The Bedford, and I was quite late as I’d been to Shepherd’s Bush for a meeting which made me late setting off and had then gone straight to Balham from there. Normally, I catch any number of trains from Victoria and it’s a 15-minute journey. From Shepherd’s Bush, I had to catch a branch of the North London Line which went across the river to Clapham Junction and change there for a train that went through Balham.

The station at Shepherd’s Bush was rammed and when the train arrived that was also rammed!. Fortunately, quite a few people get off there (presumably to get onto the Central Line) so I managed to squeeze on. By the time we got to our last stop before Clapham Junction, the train was packed - worse than the Victoria Line on a bad day. People were left waiting at the stations, there just wasn’t enough room to get on the train.

Clapham Junction is an astonishing place. There are almost 20 platforms (twice as many as King’s Cross) and I had to get from platform 3 to wherever a train that went through Balham could be found. Fortunately, there was a large board with all destinations listed in alphabetical order along with the platforms to use. Balham said 15-17 so I made my way through a long connecting tunnel, shuffling along with the crowd and cursing the ‘idiots’ who chose to ignore the keep-left signs and pushed against the flow of people. I’m glad I don’t have to do that every night!

Inna joined us for dinner. She’d been late at work because they were filming a quiz for their Christmas party. Some of the questions were “guess the film” with the staff acting out well known scenes. There was the James Bond “no Mr Bond, I expect you to die” scene recreated with a laser pen and a few others. It sounded like good fun. We went to my favourite busy Italian on Bedford Hill Road and I had pasta with broccoli, chiorizo and cream. Max and Inna surprised me by saying they had been thinking about children’s names. I thought a big announcement was about to be made, but no, they had just been thinking about children’s names. Inna liked Chloe for a girl (she has a uni' friend called Chloe) and for a boy, they thought about a Russian name - Artem. That would be the first Artem in the family tree.

On Sunday, I took pictures for my project to record our garden through the seasons. I’ve been taking four shots of the garden from the same position once every month to show how it changes. There’s often a dog (generally Holly) photo-bombing the shot! It has been a fairly mild November; we’ve had some frost, but not enough to fully kill the dahlias or geraniums, although it has seen off the begonias which have provided so much colour this year. The main feature, however, has been rain (and lots of it). 2012 was the wettest summer for many years. A drought and hosepipe ban was declared in spring and, basically, it hasn’t stopped raining since! The ground is sodden and more rain has been falling. In the west country, Wales and parts of Yorkshire, there has been severe flooding and the washes road to Whittlesey was closed this week. We drove across it on Saturday and the water was well up. It shut on Monday and several drivers who had ignored the ‘road closed’ signs and tried to cross got stranded in the flood. I remember Max and I driving through the flood one year in the VW Sharan. I thought we’d be fine because the engine is positioned quite high, but in the deepest part the car started to rock and I think we were briefly floating. I decided to come back via Guyhirn! Apparently police have been prosecuting motorists who ignore the signs, which is a little harsh - a big bill to tow you out, dry your engine and then a fine and three points on top!

On Friday, we went to the Haycock at Wansford for a taster night. The idea is that you have a meal, comprising lots of small courses and there was a different wine to try between each course. A jazz singer in the Elkie Brooks style (Lesley) crooned away during the meal and she was quite good. The food was good, nothing too challenging, but there was a particularly nice rhubarb crumble to finish. It was a bed of thinly sliced just-cooked rhubarb topped with ice cream and with baked crumb sprinkled quite generously over the top. A thin slice of (I’m guessing) oven dried rhubarb was pushed into the ice cream. The flavour was intense in the dried rhubarb - a really interesting dish.

The wine waiter was an amiable Geordie who not did let a complete lack of knowledge dampen his enthusiasm. You’ll have to read this in a Geordie accent to get the best from it, but he told us that he didn’t know much about wine; he’d been on a course this week and this was his first night.

The first wine was an Italian white which he told me was “not too bad”. I asked him what grape it was and he was completely flummoxed (I hadn’t meant to make him so). He didn’t know, but started reading the bottle: “It’s a light, fruity wine ...”

The next was a Merlot which was described as “a bit better” followed by a “cabaret savvie-non” which was his favourite “aye, it’s all right is this.” The final wine was a sweet pudding wine. A sauternes? I enquired. He started reading the label - "no it’s a Gironde." We finished our wine chat at that stage. I don’t think he has a great future as a somelier, but he was a thoroughly nice chap.

The previous Friday, I’d gone to see the Pre-Raphaelites exhibition at The Tate with Lawrie, Davina and Laura from work. Margaret was supposed to come as well, but hadn’t felt like it on the day and so her ticket was wasted. I enjoyed the show, there was a lot to see and it was busy enough to have some atmosphere, but not so busy that you couldn’t comfortably see the works, which included tapestry, carpet, wallpaper and painted furniture as well as paintings.



File:Sophie Gray.jpg
Portrait of Sophy Gray

The art isn’t challenging or technologically ground-breaking, much of it is shamelessly romantic and rather sugary, but nonetheless there were some stunning paintings, most notably (for me) a portrait of a young girl Sophy Gray by John Everett Millais. She was the younger sister of his wife and he caught her at about 14 with a youth and innocence combined with awakening sexual awareness that resulted in a painting with the power to look straight through you. If I were Millais' wife, I'd keep a close eye on young Sophy!

I liked A Vision of Fiammetta by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber) and his other stunning work, Astarte Syriaca, which was the cover shot of the exhibition. It looks much better in reality than on the reproductions.

I’d seen a few of the paintings before, but great to see them again and to see so many well-known works of art in one place.



Dante Gabriel Rossetti, A Vision of Fiammetta, 1878
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, A Vision of Fiammetta (owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber).

Tuesday, 27 November 2012

Meet old camel lips ...

I’m currently reading the history of the Ottoman Empire - Osman’s Dream by Caroline Finkel. It’s a different dimension to my previous historical knowledge, which has a distinctly Christian perspective. Standing on the side of the Ottomans is quite interesting.

The Ottomans were at war with (or had conquered and subdued) all their neighbours that were worth conquering. On their western front was modern Yugoslavia (conquered) and Hungary (part conquered) and Austria, which brought them nose to nose with the Habsburgs.

There were numerous wars, which took the Ottomans to the gates of Vienna. After one spat in 1664, the Ottomans suffered a serious defeat involving the Danube, a makeshift bridge, some wood and a bog (and a few thousand Austrians). The Habsburgs were too weak to take advantage of their victory, but they did conclude the Treaty of Vasvar. The book has what I thought was an amazing account by Evilya Celebi (cheleby) an Ottoman historian and chronicler who accompanied the second vizier Kara Mehmed Pasha (black pasha) to Vienna to conclude the treaty.

There, he met Leopold I, the Holy Roman Emperor, who had succeeded his father six years earlier at the age of 18. The Habsburgs were famously ugly, partly as a result of centuries of marrying cousins to keep the money in the family, and Leopold was clearly not in the same league as Charlemagne - the Frankish first HRE [also see].

I loved Celebi’s description of Leopold. I guess it was written for a Turkish audience, so it will be exaggerated (a little, perhaps):

He is of medium height with a slim waist and neither corpulent, nor solid, nor skinny; a youth as hairless as a self-sacrificing young brave.

God made his skull in the shape of a bonnet of a Mevlevi dervish or a gourd or a water bottle. His forehead is as flat as a board. His eyebrows are thick and black, but there is a decent space between them. His eyes as as round as an owl’s and reddish; his eyelashes are long and black; his face is as long as that of Mr Fox; his ears are as large as a child’s slippers.

His nose is as large and red as an aubergine of the Peloponnese; three fingers could fit inside each nostril and from these extensive nostrils protrude black hairs like those of the beard of a 30-year-old brave, which mix in confusion with his moustache, which reaches to his ears.

His lips are like those of a camel (a loaf of bread could fit in his mouth) and his teeth are likewise - huge, white camel’s teeth. Whenever he speaks, saliva pours from his camel’s lips and the many servitors beside him wipe it away with red cloths like towels, and he combs his beard and moustache continually.

His fingers are like cucumbers of Langa (a market garden area in Istanbul) ... all his dynasty are as ugly as him and his hideous image is found in all churches and houses and on coinage ...

A handsome chap - Leopold I, known to his friends as old camel lips
Poor old Leopold! If this was posted on Twitter, it would amount to cyber-bullying. The one complimentary thing Celebi is able to say about him is that he has a decent amount of space between his eyebrows!

Tuesday, 13 November 2012

Illegal hunters, Bellowhead and Remembrance Sunday

What am I thinking - a poppy wristband
It was Remembrance Sunday at the weekend with this year’s commemoration actually falling on November 11th, Come Saturday morning I still hadn’t bought a poppy and I’d decided that I wasn’t going to. There was no great reason for this, just that this year’s poppy campaign had annoyed me.

I get annoyed because people wear their poppies too early (it should just be the week before Remembrance Sunday in my view), I get annoyed at the television presenters and politicians who clearly get a dictat from on high saying “everyone must wear a poppy from 9am on October 21st” - it has all got a little too corporate. Wearing a poppy is a tribute to those killed, an act of remembrance and a statement that such horror shouldn’t happen again. It’s a personal thing, not a corporate statement.

I get annoyed at celebrities who wear glittery poppies (it’s not supposed to be jewellery) and I also got annoyed because this year’s campaign seems excessively aggressive, somewhat against the whole ethos of wearing a poppy. At times it almost seemed the equivalent of giving a white feather to able-bodied males who were not fighting in the First World War. Poppy sellers at King’s Cross on Friday were shouting: “Get your poppy here. You’ll look ‘sad’ without one in London this weekend.” I felt judged when I walked past a poppy seller without wearing one and I also felt the Royal British Legion has wasted money on poster campaigns - they were all over the tube and must have cost a shed-load of cash. Do I want to give this organisation a tenner to waste on PR and posters?

Also, I feel that there’s a real pressure to buy this year and chavs have taken over poppy day with a “support our boys” type of attitude. Recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have created a relatively small number of disabled and extremely disaffected people who are very ‘in your face’ about their plight. My school friend Peter Roberts had a grandfather, who volunteered to fight in the First World War and was blinded by shell fragments in Mesopotamia. He spent pretty much the rest of his life in the front room of his house next-door-but-one to us in Lostock Gralam. Now I’m not saying that’s a good thing, but it’s probably preferable to standing at Victoria underground station shoving a poppy under my nose and rattling a Help for Heroes bucket. I used to feel that Poppy Day was an act of remembrance, but also a statement that war was dreadful, abhorrent and shouldn’t be allowed to happen again. Now we’ve been (and are) embroiled in fighting unwinnable, interventionist wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in support of dubious USA foreign policy. I don’t feel we’ve learned our lessons. The people disabled and hurt by roadside bombs who are demanding recognition, gratitude and financial support are the same people who were killing local civilians with misdirected bullets and bombs. Tony Blair has a lot to answer for.




Well, Friday came and I still hadn’t bought a poppy and on Saturday morning I was explaining my reasons (see above) to Margaret on the way to do the shopping at Whittlesey. When we got there, Whittlesey was invaded by poppy sellers, there was literally one at every street corner - a much higher presence than other years. This should have hardened my resolve against the over-commercialisation of Remembrance Sunday, but perversely, it didn’t. I went completely out of character and not only gave them a tenner, but got myself a poppy wristband! This from the man who has taken the leaf off his poppy in years gone by because it detracts from the pure, symbolic simplicity of the poppy flower as a poignant emblem of remembrance.. I might make the excuse that I was wearing a cagoule with no buttonhole and not a garment you’d want to piece with a pin, but it still doesn’t fully explain this irrational behaviour.

On Saturday afternoon, the morning rain had gone and the sun was out so I took the dogs for a walk across the fen. When we dropped down from the village boundary onto the flat fen, I could see three people at the other side of the big field some 300 yards away. They had a dog and I thought it was perhaps Michael Sly doing a round of his crops or perhaps some people pigeon shooting.

As I came into view they moved off, keeping as far away from me as possible. I didn’t think anything of it except perhaps that they didn’t want to get my dogs involved with theirs. I could see they had a dog, but couldn’t see what sort. I walked out along the footpath and then back again by the same route. Coming back, I could see some people in the distance walking towards me and I thought it was this group completing their inspection. It turned out to be Janet and Andrew out for an afternoon walk and they asked me if I’d seen the hare-coursers. They had bumped into them along the hedge marking the start of the fen and they’d scuttled off pretty quickly.

Hare-coursing, a favourite pastime of travellers, especially the Irish ones, is now illegal as it falls under the act banning the hunting of mammals with dogs. I think the Labour government saw it as stopping the toffs hunting foxes, but it’s also stopped gipsies catching hares, except it hasn’t. We saw Janet and Andrew at Bellowhead that night and they said there had been a police car and a van on Sandpit Road as they’d walked back into the village. I’d never thought that the people I saw might be hare-coursing and it wouldn’t have occurred to me to call the police if I had. It was funny seeing Janet and Andrew on the walk, I’d been describing the route to him on Thursday night, so they must have decided to give it a try. I didn’t see any sign of the illegal hare-coursers on the way back, but there were some people in a boat on Medicine Pond. They were fishing out dead carp. There have been a few found floating on the surface and they were taking those out in case they caused a problem for the remaining fish. Medicine Pond may have been a fish farm from hundreds of years ago when Thorney was the site of a large abbey and the monks would have farmed fish as a food source.

There’s no clue as to what’s killing the fish, but there is a covering of green weed on the pond surface. It goes right across and I’ve never seen it like that before. It could be that the fish dying means they haven’t been around to eat the weed or it could be that the weed is starving the fish of oxygen. The dead fish were quite large, well over a foot in length.

In the evening we were going to watch Bellowhead at the Corn Exchange in Cambridge with Janet, Andrew, Laura and her new fiance Chris Crane. Their wedding is set for 2014. Laura and Chris met at school and he was in the same year as Sam and would have played rugby with him.

Andrew was very keen to be there early and so we set off at just after 5pm for an 8pm start and were queuing outside at around 6pm. Everyone was very excited, especially Margaret, who famously grabbed Jon Boden the lead singer at Beverley Folk Festival because she “just wanted to tell him how much she enjoyed his performance.” Jon Boden was saying “Thank you, I’m just trying to find my children” while Margaret had a firm grip on his arm and had to be prised away. Very embarrassing for us, but Margaret doesn’t have any recollection of it.

Anyway, we were among the first dozen people into the concert hall and managed to bag a place right at the front against the crush barriers. The sound wasn’t as well mixed as it would have been further back, but the view was excellent. It soon filled up and we had to wait until 8pm for the warm-up act to start and 9pm before Bellowhead came on. The warm-up act was a French trio - guitar, squeezebox and drums - playing Cajun music and they were pretty good.

Bellowhead got an enthusiastic response. I really like them, but I do find their live performances a little loud and frantic. It’s almost as if each instrument is trying to play louder than the others and I long for a little light and shade, a couple of softer songs to punctuate the full-on stuff. Having said that, they are wonderful entertainment and have re-introduced a folk rock sound that’s reminiscent of the Albion Band, but with their own stamp. It’s animated and good fun, so we had an excellent time and they played all the favourites (except Amsterdam) and most of their new album - Broadside.

The Corn Exchange is a good venue and there’s a big multi-storey nearby, so it’s easy to get to, although Cambridge traffic leaves a lot to be desired - as does my sat-nav which wanted to send me down a taxis-and-buses only lane! Andrew was a few cars behind us coming out, but clearly Laura had a better knowledge of Cambridge streets than my sat-nav (she did live there for a couple of years) because, although they started behind us, they ended up in front and we caught them up just outside Peterborough.

Saturday, 10 November 2012

Ian Hutchinson - closer to the edge


WARNING: this posting contains some pretty horrific images.


In 2010 soft-spoken Yorkshireman Ian Hutchinson won all five races at the TT.

It was an incredible achievement, caught by chance in the film TT - Closer to the Edge, where Hutchinson’s mounting successes formed a steady counterpoint to the disappointment, crashes and injuries to Guy Martin and Conor Cummings; also the death of New Zealander Paul Dobbs, borne with such dignity by his wife Brigit.

No-one has ever won all five races at the TT and I would have said it was nigh impossible to do. Plenty of great racers never win a single TT, so many things (skill, technology, luck) have to come together to allow you to win that to take all five is incredible.

Hutchinson was on fire that season. After his success in the TT, he took Superbike, Superstock and Supersport wins at the Ulster Grand Prix and then won the Scarborough Gold Cup, breaking Guy Martin's record of winning the race each year since 2003. It was an incredible season for Hutchinson, but perhaps he’d used all his luck because, one week later, it all went wrong during a British Supersport Championship race at Silverstone. On the first lap of the race held in wet conditions, several riders, including Hutchinson, came off. Hutchinson was struck by another rider as he lay on the track and suffered compound fractures to his tibia and fibula in his left leg.

A compound fracture, of course, is where the bone is completely snapped and often tears through the flesh to stick out of the skin. Hutchinson had two of these horrific breaks above and below the knee and it looked as if the leg may have to be amputated. It wasn’t, but you don’t recover quickly from an injury like that.

Despite 16 operations and skin grafts, he missed the start of the 2011 season, and had to withdraw from the North West 200 and the TT. I’ve followed “Hutchy’s” progress (or lack of it) partly because I was so impressed with his riding in that 2010 season and partly because I admired his guts and determination. Nothing unusual about guts and determination in a motorcycle racer, but the massive high and incredible low Hutchinson suffered in 2010 is Greek in its epic scale.

There have been reports in MCN, but the best way to keep in touch with Hutchinson’s story has been by following him on Twitter @tweethutchy, but it has not been an easy ride or read and these tweets from one evening this week give you an insight into how he feels now:


No sleep again!! Wish I could be put to sleep for 8 months and wake up with a brand new leg! Sickofallthegreif.


Imagine only getting out of bed in a morning for one thing,only thinking about one thing all day, life is all for one thing then it's gone!


I won't lie I'm finding it hard, yes I'm strong yes I'm very determined but I live to race a motorbike and I feel like I'm in prison!


No matter what your situation there's always someone worse of than you, and there's always someone will tell you that, but it don't help you


Thank you and good night my friends

There’s a lot of rubbish on Twitter, but I don’t think I’ve read so few words that tell you so much about the pain and suffering that one man is going through. You can almost see him reaching for the whisky and the pills.

It’s now over two years since that crash at Silverstone and you’ll gather from his tweets this week that it hasn’t been a great couple of years for Hutchy.

On the back of his TT success and, in the expectation that he’d be back fairly quickly, he signed a two-year deal with Swan Yamaha for the 2011 season and was to spearhead the company’s road race campaign in their 50th anniversary year. But there were continuous set-backs and, although he did attend the 2011 TT, it was only to ride some exhibition laps.

In the winter of 2011/12 he had to undergo further operations when he was injured when he twisted the broken leg awkwardly while riding an off-road bike practising for an appearance at the MCN show at Excel in London. He had an external fixator fitted and began yet more recuperation to try to race this year. He did indeed come back and rode in the North West 200. Tom and I saw him at the TT on the Swan Yamaha, but he clearly wasn’t anywhere near fit. He was 8th in the opening Superbike race, 9th in the first Supersport 600 race, 11th place in the Superstock and 6th second Supersport race. Those placings would be viewed as pretty good if he hadn’t won all five two years before and, like I said, he clearly hadn’t got that extra 10 per cent needed.


The injury flared up again and this summer and autumn he’s had further agonising treatment and will now miss next year’s road racing season, including the TT.


This is Ian’s experience as told on Twitter. If you want to follow him, you can do so by finding @tweethutchy. Just don’t tell him to pull himself together:


August 13 (good luck message - one of many - from a fan):



@tweethutchy - hope all goes ok with your op today, we need you back on top form for 2013 IOMTT dude! #KingOfTheMountain
Retweeted by Ian Hutchinson

August 15:


We have no way of knowing what lays ahead for us in future,all we can do is use the information at hand to make the best decision possible!

August 19:


Had to make a few adjustments to the cage today, sick of holes in tracky pants! 


August 22:



Ok I'll build you up, this is where shaving of skin was taken! Nowt but a scratch pic.twitter.com/44jOqUEr

Then this is where the full thickness flap graft was moved and part of my tibia bone removed 😳 pic.twitter.com/Ee1mYv3K

Last but not least this is where the flap was taken and the shaving placed, yummy 


August 26 (Ian had a trip to MotoGP in Brno):



@ValeYellow46 it was great to meet with you today vale, there is always an amazing buzz around you! Thank youpic.twitter.com/GyEbBauP




Thank you @Ukjake1 monster uk for an awesome time at Brno moto gp congrats @calcrutchlow was nice to be there for your first podium mate




August 29 (Dougie Lampkin is a multiple world trials champion):



@dougielampkin: Jesus Hutchy you tweet some belting photos to remind us folk were soft as sh1t !!!! Haha I'm been hard on here I cry really!




Seems everyone struggling to work out which part of me it is here you go pic.twitter.com/VTKuDwKZ




Had the stitches out today all looking good,puts a whole new meaning to its no skin off my back!! Graft came from back pic.twitter.com/YiQXYbp9


September 3 (James Whitham shows his concern - he is a Yorkshireman, well they both are! Tom and I saw Whitham with his pelvis held together by an exterior metal frame at Donington Park):



@Jimwhit69 how yer doing Hutchy lad ? I'm good mate how's you ?


September 8 (bit mean Donington!):



On way to donington Bsb still on crutches so need a vehicle pass, organisers won't let me have one! I don't really miss Bsb


... but Ian had a good time:



great day at donington with team and friends,also thank you to everyone's well wishes amazed and privileged at how much support you give me


September 18 (was the birthday of Dave Jefferies [DJ], another Yorkshire rider and TT winner, sadly killed in a practice crash):



DJ's birthday today I wonder how many TT's he's of won by now!! Shit loads miss you mate! pic.twitter.com/GstYXrcZ


This wasn’t an announcement he wanted to make:



I can finally confirm my future plans and unfortunately I will not be racing next season or at the north west or TT i will fight until I can




Thank you to all my fans for supporting me now I will work hard to come back fully fit and show you the hutchy you want to see out there




I'd like to thank Shaun Muir,swan,Yamaha,moto direct,Arai and my personal sponsors for all your support and committing to me when I return


September 24



Early start, Coventry hospital here we go again !




My second home, well prob my first home, op 27 today to break leg, it's going to cracking, like what I did there! pic.twitter.com/YJYmutKn




Anyone got any good jokes? It's gonna be a long night and I can't stop spewing up


Some people stepped up to the plate on the jokes front. I quite like the princess one ...



@tweethutchy 2 Thai birds asked me to join them in for a Threesome. It was just like winning the Lottery...We had 6 matching balls


Retweeted by Ian Hutchinson








@tweethutchy My girlfriend said she wanted to be treated like a princess.So I took a picture of her tits and put it on facebook.


Retweeted by Ian Hutchinson




@tweethutchy Hi I’m hosting a charity disco and raffle on Sat 2 raise money 4 people who struggle 2 orgasm. If you cant come let me know thx
Retweeted by Ian Hutchinson

September 25



I had this stupid thought that having your leg broken under control in theatre would not hurt! Hammer chisel bone it's just not right!


September 28 (some advice on pain control from Stuart Easton, a rider who has had his share of injuries):



Sore as fuck today no sleep bed all day for me need bikes on tv@charliehiscott pic.twitter.com/QTBrQ2PZ




@Stuarteaston3 can't cope with yacking up on morphine it's 2 years today I got rode over brrrr I just wana race my bike god ?





October 1:



@NeilScubaDriver yes mate the inside of leg looks ok the back and out side is like a combine harvester been round 😝I'm growing bone now




@IceValleyRacing I start the bone transport today got to move it 90mm down leg so I've get the wooden spoon ready to bite on 😝


October 2 (Michael Dunlop writes a column saying Ian has retired. That doesn’t go down well):



Just want to put something straight!! Been reading Michael dunlops column and he says I've retired from racing ????




And that it's the right thing as the game would have moved on too much by the time I get back!!! Well I can assure you I have not retired




And as far as the game moving on noone has got close to the lap speeds that won me all 5 in 2010 so for now I'd say you wish I was retiring



I wasn't "fired up" about the comment just I've done a lot of fighting and I'm gonna keep fighting so I don't want to read I've retired

October 14:

The end of another season I've missed today, it's difficult knowing I've got another whole season on the sideline I really miss racing


October 16

In for another dose of radiation !! I'll have a good leg but shrivelled up knackers

October 31

@Scarey02 yes all going to plan thanks just a bit short at the mo!! Started lengthening 1 month down 8 to go pic.twitter.com/cbemA6Sr

And this week:

No sleep again!! Wish I could be put to sleep for 8 months and wake up with a brand new leg! Sickofallthegreif.

Imagine only getting out of bed in a morning for one thing,only thinking about one thing all day, life is all for one thing then it's gone!

I won't lie I'm finding it hard, yes I'm strong yes I'm very determined but I live to race a motorbike and I feel like I'm in prison!

No matter what your situation there's always someone worse of than you, and there's always someone will tell you that, but it don't help you

Thank you and good night my friends

Good luck Ian, I hope you are able to ride again.

Update: I am pleased to be able to write that on 15 March, 2014 (three-and-a-half years since the accident at Silverstone and almost four years after his amazing 2010 TT), Ian Hutchinson posted the following:

Ian Hutchinson ‏@tweethutchy: After 3 1/2 years of operations, intensive care, blood transfusions, X-rays, MRI scans, CT scans, Physio therapy, I got discharged today

Ian will ride a Milwaukee Yamaha in British Superbikes and also contest the 2014 TT on a Yamaha with Josh Brookes as his team-mate. It's great that Yamaha (and team boss Shaun Muir) have stuck with Hutchinson during this time.

I'm looking forward to seeing him at the Isle of Man this summer.

Footnote, June 9 2015: the above blog was written in November 2012. I'm pleased to say that today, almost three years after I wrote that blog and five years after his TT clean sweep, Ian Hutchinson won the Supersport race at the Isle of Man. What a comeback, what a man! 

Footnote June 12, 2015: In 2015, Hutchy won three TTs - both Supersport races and the Superstock, on a Yamaha YZR6 and a Kawasaki ZXR1000. It brought his total of TT wins up to 11 and counting ... It also seems to have awakened a certain interest in Ian Hutchinson. I get lots of people reading this post and the stats shot up this week. Most people finding it by doing a search h for the terms "Ian Hutchinson" or "Ian Hutchinson leg injury", but this week there have been a couple of new search terms. I've had "Ian Hutchinson topless" and "Ian Hutchinson is he married". Clearly someone has an interest in the softly spoken Yorkshireman that's nothing to do with road racing - watch out Ian!