Calum vs Concrete

Yesterday I spent probably the longest time I've ever spent at church. We had church service in the morning, and because the Waitakere fireworks display was taking place across the road at the Trusts Stadium later that evening, a few of us just stayed behind at church to have a BBQ in the evening and then watch the fireworks after.

As most people left, Hamish and I stayed behind while our mum went out shopping with some others. Soon it was just me and this girl Jessica playing with my iPod until she had to go as well and I had to help someone out with a survey.

Soon it was time to get the BBQ set up and the food cooking! We had some sausages, meat and salad for dinner. Now this is where things started getting interesting...while we were eating, I jokingly challenged Joylynn (the minister's daughter) to eat a piece of meat in under 30 seconds, which...she failed!

As the day got darker, more people started arriving to have something to eat or just to see the fireworks. Because we had already eaten, we weren't doing much and so I light-heartedly challenged Joylynn to a sprint race in the car park. I thought this would be an easy way to beat someone, especially a 13 year old girl! It'd be easy, no sweat!

She accepted the challenge, and we lined up at one end of the car park. Hamish shouted

'GO!'

and we were off...although not for long for me though! I started to lean too far forward and lost my balance, ending up sliding on the concrete! I quickly got up to try catch up to Joylynn but she had already won. When I walked back to church, Aonghas looked at me in horror and when I got to the bathroom, I could see why..

 I had grazes to my face, arm, hands and legs! I had no idea what I was going to do! When I came out of the bathroom, fortunately Nadine, a pharmacist and Emily, another lady at church helped bandage me up with what they could find in the First Aid cabinet. They put antiseptic and saline on my wounds and then covered me up. I'm someone who can't stop laughing when in pain, so I was trying not to laugh!

I ended up watching the fireworks from outside the church foyer with Jireh, Joylynn's sister, who was also slightly injured from the indoor soccer game he had just returned from.

It was funny and a little embarrassing because people would come up to me and ask what happened, and I'd tell them that I had a little fall! I also had some kids who asked me what happened to my face!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCpeXheXZWc)

Anyway, the fireworks eventually started, which is what we were there for! The fireworks were quite big and loud, but I'm not too sure if there was as much as last year? I can say that the fireworks were powerful enough to set off one car's alarm ten times though!

So it was an interesting way to end the fireworks season. Hopefully my injuries and my face will clear up by the Completion Ceremony without any scars left behind!