Sunday, January 18, 2009

Apparently I'm almost 60

The bottom line of the scans I had last week - I'm not in the best of shape. At the tender age of 40, my backbone is looking like the left over prop from the curious case of what's his name....

I'm scheduled to see a physio in the next week or so and a surgeon in April.

I'm guessing nothing will come of any of it as I don't hold a lot of hope that a physio will fix anything and I'm not having surgery unless absolutely necessary. I've seen physios do some miraculous things with rehab but I'm not in rehab - I'm just wearing out.

On the possibly good news front. I got a phone call from my old editor this afternoon. SA50s+ hasn't contacted me since she left which isn't surprising. I wrote sports articles for them and they're changing format and content which will result in no sports articles in forthcoming issues. So in the reshuffle, it seems I've been axed without comment.

But my old editor wants to become my new editor on a different project. The launch isn't due for a couple of months yet so I can't go naming names or anything, but I am once again going to be the sports writer - only I'll be covering international sports events - well, passing journalistic comment on international sports we in Australia are interested in. I'll be writing on a wide range of things on the international stage such as: tennis; formula one; the world game (soccer, or football as everyone outside of Australia and the USA call it); rugby (league and union); major sporting competitions like the Olympics and World Championships; and many many others.

In short, I'll be surfing all the sport news feeds I can find and gathering the most interesting ones into one place. I'll also be writing opinion pieces on them and giving in depth analysis and explanations.

At least I think I am - or will be. I've only had the one phone call, and though it all sounds exciting, I'll have to wait and see how it all pans out.

If nothing else, it will work in well with the diploma again and build more credits in the writers bio.

The news about my crapped out body was a bit of downer on Friday and so I haven't done any reading or writing over the last few days. I have some work to do for the AHWA which I'll get to tomorrow, and then I want to finish reading "The Art & Craft of Feature Writing" which has more significance given the above news.

So I may be nearly 60 on the inside, and nearly 41 in real terms, but I feel much younger in my heart so who cares what the doctors say. You only live once (unless you believe in reincarnation) so there's no point in dwelling on things. Time to get back into the swing of things.

Speak soon.

BT

4 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear about the results of the scan. Hopefully the coming months bring better news and good results.

    Good luck on the possible sports writing project, too.

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  2. A doctor once told my mother that the body isn't supposed to last past 30 and everything starts to die from that point on. It was good to hear when I was almost thirty. :)

    Good luck with the sports writing.

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  3. Good luck. It would be interesting to see how outsiders view American sports. I know I view foreign games a little more scrutiny but I truly enjoy Rugby. We used to play something like that during recess. We called it 'kill the man with the ball.'

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  4. Top be blunt - fuck the doctors. I'll continue to do what I want until it hurts - and then I'll rest before continuing anyway.

    The sports writer gig should be interesting and hopefully finacially rewarding (eventually).

    Adelaide is a bit of a backwater - and that's a good thing. I like the quiet, but it makes for boring sport journalism. Working more on an international bent will open up a lot more doorways.

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