Baltic Adventure
The incident took place on my stag weekend.

Being a civilized crowd, we decided to go sea kayaking in the Baltic off the coast of Estonia. For the evening before the expedition, my Best Man had organised accommodation, and dinner in a medieval style restaurant, in down town Tallinn.

On the way back from dinner we decided to partake in a karaoke evening at a local Irish bar. I gave a powerful rendition of ‘Light my fire’. On the way back, at about 3am, my bother vaulted over a metal litter bin. My other brother followed him. Then, not to be out done, I followed suit.

And gashed a hole in my wrist.

As we staggered back to the hotel, I kept whining that as blood was pouring out, I really should be taken to a hospital. The others politely told me that it was my fault and I should stop bothering them.

Back at the hotel, I was still oozing blood, so they decided to fix it themselves. They obtained some vodka (to sterilise it), tissue paper, and selotape.

So I drank the vodka, and let them tape the tissue paper to my wrist to staunch the flow of blood. Then I fell asleep.

Next morning, I pressed a friend who works for the Red Cross to help me find medical attention. I can testify that the Estonian medical services are extremely professional, and cheap.

So we went on our Baltic kayak adventure. A photographic record is available at www.cix.co.uk/~gmiddleton/Kayak.htm

Unfortunately, Baltic seawater isn’t the best antiseptic. Back home I went to the hospital to get it checked out, and ended up lying on a bed surrounded by about six doctors wearing masks saying the equivalent of – Oh, you had better watch that, if the infection spreads you could loose all your tendons.

Later, I got married to a lovely lady called Christin. In addition to my ring, my wrist is now adorned with a large ‘C’ shaped scar. Forget piercing or tattoos, I have scarification.
(woodchopper likes chopping wood, Tue 7 Sep 2004, 11:23, Reply)