Falling off the bike

Yesterday was our annual work Sommerfest. This basically means that instead of the way a usual day in the work in an academic research environment ends - with tears and alcohol - we get to end our day in a much better situation - with BBQ and alcohol! I had brought a bottle of Langmeil's Three Gardens with me (all the way from Adelaide!), as well as a bottle of Polish hazelnut vodka and the crocodile for relaxed drinking games with my colleagues. As the heatwave was continuing, it was far too nice a night to leave the campus when the last bus headed off at 8:53pm. Instead, at around 10-something, I was persuaded that I should not walk the 3km to the closest u-bahn, but that I should instead ride a campus spare bike to the station with everyone else.

Having ingested an entire 750ml of some of the Barossa's finest, a few shots of vodka, and never ridden at night in the dark before, you'd think this was a recipe for disaster. It was :D About 2.5km in, we turned a corner and I remembered thinking *I'm going to fall* and then I fell :D

Picking myself off the ground to the horrified reactions of my colleagues and some random guy cycling in the other direction, a check of my various hurties found that while I was bleeding from my knee, elbow and mouth, nothing seemed to be broken and I still possessed all my teeth. In fact, I was laughing at the entire thing and someone, I think Laura said, "Well she must be okay if she's laughing." Random guy gave me a tissue to stem the mouth bleeding, and despite my exhortations that I could cycle the rest of the way to the u-bahn, we decided to walk our way there.

At the u-bahn, my mouth had stopped bleeding and after being examined by my friends under the lights, it was agreed that nothing looked particularly wrong (i.e. broken), and other than the fact the dried mouth blood made me look like The Joker, with a shower and a night's rest I should be good as new. I agreed with this assessment as I tucked myself in for some well-earned slumber.

But now I'm awake at this ungodly hour because once the alcohol wore off, I am now beginning to feel all my sore muscles and bruises. It should be an interesting day at work today!