I am finally feeling grounded. After 5 months of not jetting ard, I can finally feel my feet on the ground. Great that i no longer have to get up at unearthly hours for work, no more death hazards and uncertainties abt safety looming at the back of my mind when i'm up in the air; i always wondered if i was going to lose my life that way, on a takeoff or landing accident, or some incident resulting from a cumulation of human errors. Not impossible. I blame visuals and real life survival and doom stories on National Geographic's ' Air Crash Investigations' but more so, on my own accident.

You see, I had a really bad injury from flying in November of 2006, it was a bad turbulence, so grave that all the food trays went flying up the ceiling and came crashing back down onto the floors of the aisle, leaving and assortment of food and juices smeared on the aircraft celing, religious passengers took out prayer beads and young children and babies cried. I was strategically standing at the back of the aircraft where the bumps were the worse. The aircraft literally made sudden drops of many feet in the air, and i was thrown up like a ball, and floor of the plane hit my ankle as i fell, before the nature-laws of gravity could land my body in a natural fashion on my own weight. Nope it was the impact of the aircraft against my very human body, aluminium, metals, against my bones.

SO the end result of that, deep trauma and me lying on the floor, when its over, wondering if my leg was broken since i felt a sharp sharp pain when it hit me, needless to say i was tearing from a mixture of fear and pain and confusion. I was taken off the aircraft in a wheelchair much to my embarassment , when we landed in Manila.

Our trip pattern was to stay there for two days, and i had to stay on my own in my room, since i knew no one, i had wait for medical professions to come to my room on top of the trauma. i called gilles crying, glad that i could still call him, and hear the voice of someone dear. I never tried to call home, dont wanna freak mum out since she is already very adamant that i shouldnt be risking my life flying. I was really scared too since i dont know if my ankle was broken or not, the area swelled up so much that it looked like an elephant's leg, no shapely contours, all really bloated and tender like an inflated balloon, i couldnt even place my feet gently on the ground as that will induce waves of sharp pain. I tried to go to sleep but my mind was still in trauma mode and my subconcious is in shock. when i finally doze off, i remembered feeling the up and down plunging motion of the plane in severe turbulence as though i was still in it, and i woke up to a man's deep raspy voice screaming into my right ear, 'Braceeeeeeeee Braceeeeeee' ( something that the attendants have to say when the plane is abt to land in an emergency before the real impact). The voice was so real and scary i had to slap myself to snap out of it. I wasnt dreaming since my eyes were opened and looking at the TV console when this raspy voice came shouting in my ear. Thats the first time i heard the voice of my traumatized subconscious, not a nice voice i dare say.

That episode dragged on for a good 4 to 5 months, i had to go on clutches, make regular visits to the physio-therapists, do a zillion xrays and MRI scans, gosh i hated every minute of it, also the fact that i had to stay home and not go anywhere since foot was in constant pain.
The injury itself lasted much longer, up till now, my ankle isnt fully recovered. I get hurt when i walk more a long time, i had to wear flats mostly and i am afraid to be as active as before because of this injury. If u ask me im suffering from a little bit of injury related depression or fear.

Well i paid my price to see 80 cities in 33 countries.