Escaping Death

There are times in your life when you look back and realise how lucky you are and the 22nd December 2010 was one of those days.


I was driving home late in the evening after a long day and was about to make a detour as someone had left their phone in my vehicle. I gave them a quick call and said I’d be five minutes as I was literally around the corner.

The five minutes never came as whilst driving down a main round on my normal route, my car was hit directly in the side by a car travelling at 50mph.

There are something’s in life that you look back on and say as much as it was a bad experience, I’m glad I experienced it. This isn’t one of those things.

Whilst travelling listening to my music, what I didn’t know was that on a side road to my right, the police were chasing a car. To add to that, the roads were icy, and the car had no lights on.

The first thing I knew of the impact was the pain. It’s amazing as everything happened in slow motion – yet I missed so many details.

I had never been in a car crash before, so the pain I felt I had no idea whether I was dying or what the state of my injury was. What I knew for sure was that I was in pain.

I’d never forget this, but there was a guy walking past with a bike at his side. At that time I was trapped in the car and our eyes made direct contact as by this time I had no window as this had been smashed in the impact. I couldn’t speak at that time, but the look in my eyes told him I was in pain. He looked at me and walked right by.

In front of me I could see the car that had hit me in the side and thrown me onto the pavement. I could also see a police car, but for some reason no one was coming.

Seconds or minutes later, a police officer came to my car and asked if I was ok. What I know now is that they had got out to chase the people that were driving the car that had hit me. I initially thought that maybe they were involved in the crash as their car was also in the middle of the road.

The officer was in a panic, “oh my god – are you ok”? I said I want to get out the car, “I want to get out the car”. He asked me if I could move my legs of which I replied yes. The problem was that I was being pinned in my car so couldn’t get out.

I needed to get the seat belt of (The fact I had it on was amazing as I was only driving my car for probably less than a minute. I usually put my seat belt on once I’m in motion) and asked him did he have a knife. He did, and after a couple of cuts I managed to pull myself out of the car through the roof that had flown of with the impact.

I wanted to sit down in the back seat of the police car at some point, but they encouraged me to keep standing until the ambulance came. The emergency services where there within minutes; both paramedics and fire brigade.

After a quick examination I was told I needed to go to hospital as after looking at the state of the car and taking onboard the speed of the impact, they were amazed that I was firstly alive and secondly on my feet.

Of to the hospital I went on the blue lights as they called in the trauma. Like an episode out of ER, when I arrived the doctors were waiting for me to check me over. Worrying stuff! Even though you feel ok (in pain of course), you’re hoping that they are going to say that everything is ok.

Thankfully it was excluding some bruising. I was kicked out a few hours later and went home to email the pictures of the accident that had been taken of the scene to some of my closest friends and family.

I guess it was my way of showing them that I was ok, but also a reminder that things can change so quickly. I had been in contact with my cousin and a co worker within minutes before my accident. They could have easily been the last people that had spoken to me alive.

The accident hasn’t changed much for me apart from I know it cannot just happen to someone else, but those horrible things you read about can happen to me also.

I have been very thankful of life over the last few years, and every second I remember throughout my day, I often say thank you god for blessing me.

I used to wait to see something bad happen, and then say to myself I need to make changes. I’m thankful that in more recent years, I’ve actively been trying to be more productive in my life, and overall continue to be positive.

Treasure today as you don’t know what tomorrow or the next hour/ minute may bring. Make good those things that are on your mind, whether they be friendships, relationships with family or just areas of your life you’re not happy with.

We are a temple, but a fragile one at that. Be thankful as no matter how unlucky we are – things have the potentially to get a lot lot worse.

Student Demo London

There are some that have the courage to stand up and fight, and there are some that do nothing.


As much as I don’t know the in’s and out’s of the current demonstrations, I know that many great things have happened in this world by people taking a stand.

Take for instance Mr Nelson Mandela; went to prison for 27 years and then came out a hero. Why was he in prison? He was in prison because people didn’t like he’s approach or what he had to say.

I have to say that to a certain extent; we’ve got to take what comes to us. We gave the government the power to do what they are doing. Yes, many of us were unhappy with Labour, but then if we were not happy with Labour, we should have taken our chances and not re-elected them when they took us to the Iraq war.

I don’t know what the outcome will be or if our voices will be heard. What I do know is that there are going to be many hard times ahead so we have a choice to put up and shut up – or be heard.

There's a few bits I want to share. .

I'll be back. . .

Barclays Bike's - 'hazardous or hazardless'?

I'm very much a fan of the 'New Barclays Bikes'.

Saying that, I'm yet to work out if they are 'hazardous or hazardless'.

I mean the driver's in London are vicious enough - but now more bikes in the way. . ..

Ms Mad Max driving around on her phone and you so happens to be the one she nearly knocks over as she was enjoying her conversation. Now she is going to be extra upset! The London Taxi Driver; now
they have more people using the bus lanes they love - could it be a recipe for disaster?

Most would think if you are going to add so many new bikes to the traffic system, that some thought and expense would have been put aside for bike lanes. Saying that I have noticed a few new blue lanes once I've gone south of the river. Still with no barriers separating the general traffic lanes from the bikes, you have no protection from the angry driver.

The bright side I guess is that we had a good summer so there has been a lot of usage. I can't quite figure out what is going to happen once the winter kicks in. Do all or some of the bikes get stored away? If not - what happens if you crash or injure yourself in the snow? Is there a special insurance included in the bike hire premium?

Conclusion: As much as I like the scheme personally, I think I'll reserve judgement until summer is here once more. For now, I'll stick to my current transport. I do think that so little of us in the UK invest in our fitness, so this can be an additional option. Rather than joining the gym in the summer, we can now enjoy a nice bike ride home - or can we?

Sorry for the delay. . .

I haven't posted for a while - but promise - I'll have something for you to read shortly. . . blink. .

In The Bin

For some this may be alarming, whist for others a response might be "no surprise there".

Whilst conducting some research and in particular looking at recyclenow.com and recyclethis.co.uk, I noted that in the UK approximately 60% of what the average house hold throws away has the potential to be recycled.

The fact is - the majority of the time that we throw our waste into the dust bin, the option to recycle is vastly diminished. For this reason I started to research companies that come and collect your waste and recycle.

Having looked more extensively into the recycling of our waste, I do know firsthand that some London councils are not taking their waste directly to landfills, so the figure above does decrease. Still, what more could we do and how much do we know about what happens to our rubbish once it leaves our door?

Not for one minute am I saying that recycling is cheap, but at the same time I do know it can be profitable.

Whilst living in North America nearly twenty years ago I took the liberty to collect plastic bottles. I took them to bottle banks which in return gave me a fee. Sometimes this was even enough for me to buy a meal.

Fact: If we just recycled our tin cans, we'd have 14 million fewer dust bins to empty each year. My question was why was there so little information when you looked into recycling tips on the internet in the UK.

Why are we so quick to throw away and why do we know so little about our options in regards to recycling?

Conclusion: Not necessarily always the cheapest option, but rather than just throwing into a bin or skip - I'd much rather give my waste to a company where the waste is going to be given a chance.

Going GREEN

How ironic.

I had the day of today so decided to spend a little time looking at the latest methods and strategies people were implementing in order to be a little more friendly to the environment. In other words - going green.

Well I went to Google as you do and typed in Go Green. As luck would have it the first site that popped up said going green.

Can you imagine I got my note pad out and thought to myself - yes, a few more ideas I can share and hopefully show my customers that I know what I'm talking about. After all I do work in the waste transfer and recycling industry.

OK - moving on. Click on the site. Advert for a new electric car. Hold on a minute. Surely this is some government funded site that is going to provide useful information to someone like myself who wants to make a difference.

How wrong I was - as the full content of the site was in relation to buying a new or used electric car - as long as you buy it from them I might add. Not a mention in relation to the environment. I mean I can't grudge someone capitalising on a good URL in relation to the environment - but at least give something back.

I guess if I want to learn a little more about how I can contribute to looking after the environment - I'm probably going to have to dig just a little bit further. . .