Brush With Death

I met with an accident yesterday. Don't worry, I'm fine; no bones broken, just a few superficial abrasions. The blog continues as normal ( as normal as it could possibly be! ) I was on my way back from work. At a crossing the lights weren't working, I started to turn right and I failed to see a bus coming from the left, turning to its right, a path that carried it right in front of me. As soon as I saw it, I braked hard and since I was leaning into the turn, I skidded and fell. The bus passed really, really close, it slammed into the handlebar of my bike and bent it out of shape. I could see the rear wheels heading for my head. Fortunately, it missed me and my bike, most of it anyway.

You know how you're supposed to see everything in slow motion? And your life is supposed to flash in front of your eyes? And you think of all you've left incomplete and all that? Well, nothing like that happened. I wasn't thinking anything. I could just see the tyres rushing at me and then the bus was gone. There wasn't even an adrenaline rush! No thumping heart, nothing!

And after I got up, my first thought was, 'Oh no! My bike!' and then I checked my good trousers, my nice jacket, my phone, iPod and my new shoes. How much more materialistic could I be? And after that, on the way home, I was agonizing about the fact that it was going to cost so much; fixing the bike, buying new trousers and looking sadly at my scraped shoes. The bike got repaired for pretty cheap and that pulled my sagging spirits up, and I was much more cheerful after that.

Sometimes I wonder, if I've got my priorities right.

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