The Biking Incident (Injury Story)
It was a warm sunny day in Hanmer Springs, it was also the last day of school camp and my class was mountain biking, we were divided into two groups - advanced and normal (I was in the normal group). Everyone was over the moon excited, this was mainly because of how the guides exaggerated the activity. However this day hadn’t been the best for me, earlier we were hiking up Mount Isobel and I had made the mistake of wearing all black and packed too much, getting straight to the point I nearly passed out from exhaustion and had to wait in the car.
We were about 15 minutes away from the camp when we had to stop so that a few people that were going (extremely) slow to catch up. After what seemed like forever they caught up, it was mainly parents.
“The next part of the ride is the best part in my opinion” our guide grinned to all of us.
“But you need to be careful because it is a steep hill with a few sharp turns and there are a couple of tree stumps on the sides of the track”
Everyone was excited for this because everyone had been enjoying going down the couple of hills we had come across but groaned at the idea of more pesky tree stumps. We had to wait a minute gap in between everyone to go down so that we could avoid a crash. I was fifth last to go, as I went down the hill everything was going fine, until I came across a sharp right turn still going down hill.
I tried to slow down but the breaks had stopped working. CRASH, My bike went straight into an old tree stump and I had fallen on the ground on my front. My knee felt sore and I could feel something cold running down it, I rolled over onto my back and looked at my knee, there was a stone stuck in it. I pulled the stone out and started to cry from the shock, it didn't really hurt, there was just a lot of blood seeping down my leg. A few people went past me and asked if I was okay but didn’t stop to help. Luckily the guide was behind me and she stopped to help me.
The guide stopped to ask me if I was okay, just as she said that she noticed my knee and moved her bike off the track to bandage up the bleeding wound. Her attempts to tidy the wound and bandage it were a bit useless considering the fact she only had a few plasters with, and they were either too miniscule to cover it or so big that it couldn’t stick to my leg (we ended up using the bigger bandage). I had to continue biking back,as I was the bandage kept falling off and blood kept trickling down my leg. When we got back to the campsite instead of listening to the end of camp speech I went and sat down while a guide cleaned out the wound with salt water and used butterfly stitches to close it. They gave me two packs of extra butterfly stitches and I headed back to where the rest of my classmates were, they were all bursting with stories about funny situations that had occurred during their rides. I was then told by my dad that we were allowed to leave earlier (an hour earlier) and we didn’t have to take anyone back with us in the car. I relieved by this news because I really didn’t want to hang around in the scorching hot weather with my loud classmates.
To this day I do not often ride bikes because of an irrational fear that I will be injured when riding one.
My Favorite Place
Bright different tones of green foliage litter the outdoor part of the building, at first it’s overwhelming but then the colors dull down. Each individual plant in either a black or brown pot sitting on the speckled gravel or a faded wood stand. The air is thick with the heavy scent of dirt. Most of the plants are sprouting flowers on their extended stems. Little bonsai trees sit neatly in their decor pots surrounded by fancy pebbles and little rocks. Trees that stand near the end of the property have their arms spread upwards, embracing the few hours of warm sunlight they get.
In a side room is my favorite part of the whole building, in this room little succulents and cacti varying in sizes and shapes sit along the shelves. More plants droop from hooks in the ceiling, their vegetation overflows from the pot. The radio is quietly humming on the speakers, usually on a channel that audio books are read. Walking out into the main foyer garden ornaments, compost mixture, gardening tools and other things relevant to gardening take over most of the side where the exit to the outdoors is. On the other side is the register and pet fish supplies. My other favorite part is the tanks with the bright gold fish swimming around in an endless loop. This is my favorite place in Greymouth, the Garden Nursery.
Summer Subversion
Summer is the worst season. Everyone says it’s fun because the sun is shining and it’s warm, however there a annoying flies and sand flies buzzing around everywhere you go. You sweat profusely every time you go outside, even if you’ve only been outside for five minutes. If you have long hair it sticks to your face from the sweat. You think to yourself,
“Oh I think i’ll go to the pool to cool off”
Well guess what, everyone else has the same idea, and the swimming pool is full of people. You could be thinking why don’t you just go down to the beach, well I hate the ocean so no way am I going there. All of your friends are busy, away on holidays or hanging out with other people. The outdoors is the worst during Summer.Having hay fever is a pain in summer, the pine tree needles cause endless watering eyes and stuffy noses.This means endless hay fever tablets and medicine. So I avoid going outside and avoid summer all together and stay inside, in my cold room with the curtains closed in the dark. On my computer doing digital art and watching art tutorials, procrastinating having to do chores so I don’t have to go outside.
