Cool. Just to follow up my previous post..
Well.. It happens that my uni results weren't so great. Terrible in fact I failed.
Anyhow after two years of doing that I'm out continuing my career.
Progress on my animation has been good. That hefty 1,500 frames is slimmed down to around 600 after some intense background drawing.

I've been sorting through more of my art work to upload here.. Will be doing that in a few days, some sketches this time... Also the other day I uploaded my first Audio Track to the portal. Haha, a little jungle/drum n bass quick thing I made in Garageband using some of my own sound effects n that. It's my first uploaded track so it's gotta pass approval that takes a week or two.

Anyway, here is the story of that time I got by a Lorry (truck)..

This is a 100% genuinely true story. If anything, putting it in writing underexaggerates how closely I tackled fate. This was written about an hour jus after it happened. I will never EVER forget this. Life changing event.

19th September 2008, about 11pm...

Happily cycling back from work since 2pm, I'd arrived at the point where I have to cross the A1. Now, normally, this isn't too much of a problem late at night. The traffic is usually all going one way and, with good timing, it's fairly simple to hop across.

However.
Roadworks
= Contraflow

The A1 now becomes a normal road (as opposed to Dual Carriageway) precisely at the point you have to cross to get to the path on the other side; traffic now going either way near the roundabout area - which was being replaced by a flyover. Anyway, I bike out all calm and casual, instinct telling me to go straight across - as there's a gap in traffic going southbound. Me in the mindset 'this is southbound traffic only'. I get about 2/3 the way across the second lane; turn my head to look to the left and about 25 metres away is a Lorry heading northbound, beeping its horn, at my face. Which is so loud i could hear it clearly over my (full blast) earphones. The speed limit was 50 and I could tell it was going some speed over 45.. Rembering lorries are restricted to 56 and there was a considerable gap in traffic.

I suppose this is where them countless hours of videogames come in useful.
With just a second or two to react I slammed on the brakes and tried to push myself back as much as possible. Kind of a reverse bunnyhop off my front tire (and my mountain bike sure aint no bmx). I landed and once again reflexes calculated some complex geometry which saved my life, pushing me away from the lorry and performing a flat-bank 180 crash landing with a very painful half-tailwhip... Either way I knew was going to get hit, which, might I add... Is the most gut-wrenching feeling I have ever felt in my life. I was bricking it. The lights... The noise... The massive fucking Turners Lorry screaming towards me! The front-right-corner (just above the lights) of the Lorry clips my handlebars and me+my bike are sent flying a good distance. About 5 metres, and the lorry kept going further still. I gripped the handlebars for dear life and just hoped. I was lucky the traffic coming from my right (southbound) stopped as well, when they saw what was happening.

(This part is difficult to explain wirhout a bicycle).
Crashing to the ground, the only damage to my bike is a bent front brake handle and the wheel was unaligned by about 340* (which you can fix by puttin it between your legs an all that jazz), so far round I thought it was normal until I tried to move it - I think the original 170* turn came with the lorry impact, forcing my rear end to spin as i flew, the extra 170* lock with the landing as the the rear end flung me round again; a few scuffs here and there as well. The front lamp also flew off and my bottle of Cherry Coke leaped out the side-pocket of my bag and got ran over (exactly as I was looking for it at that - I watched another lorry crush it before running out to get a punctured spraying bottle, it tasted like heaven) My left foot /big toe is killing as I landed on that and had the whole weight of me and my bike falling on it, twisted my leg at an extremely un-natural 'flat-packed' angle. I think I have a slight cut on my left ear as well. More a graze, from a stone or something. No idea how that happened.

Basically, I landed with my right handle bar on the ground still gripping it tightly to make sure my bike took the shock, which i felt as the front wheel twisted 170*... the force of the ground impact flung my lower half / rear-bike round & over so my left foot touches the floor (as well as my right hand still) and I am now facing the lorry somewhere near the fuel tank, whilst still sitting on my bike. Try to get yourself into that position. It's fucked up, it's painful and you can't stay in it for long. I sprang to my feet in a second, maybe less, and started picking up my bike in a flurry but chilled as both lanes froze momentarily.

Yes, I am very shaken up to say the least.
Anyway... Matey driving the Lorry is foreign. French, Polish... Something.
He stops in the middle of the A1, gets out and starts calling the police!? He also fetches the guy who'd stopped along the southbound side. Guess it was good to see who spared my life. Or my legs at least. Haha, this guy was like some hippy with long hair and a silver pug 306. He stopped n was like wooah, then parked up a little further on then jus asked if I was ok and really brought me back down to earth..

After a good 10 minutes of hanging round waiting for the cops, a Legend of a man from the Flyover project (hence roadworks) comes down in his Traffic Management mobile. This guy was fucking great. He got the Lorry driver to move on down the road to let the traffic flow (which at this point was going right back to the edge of the RAF base), and obviously asked what happened, if I was alright, etc.

Once Matey in the Lorry had gone he told me to chuck my bike in the back (Where the cones/road signs etc are stored) and get in the passenger seat. After that he gave me a lift home and, best of all, gave me a pre-rolled fag; which was fantastic as mine had long ran out at work.

What can I say?

Shit. I am amazed and bewildered that I am even here now. To think I stopped the most major road in the UK for just a few minutes isn't so much empowering than it is mind-blowingly surreal. That alone was disorientating enough. If I'd of delayed just a second longer or been out a foot or two more... Well. I'm not going to say because I really do not know. I can say that I would have definitely been underneath the lorry, that's for sure. I landed with my face jus a foot or two from behind the front tire. Those things look huge close up from that angle.

What have I learnt? Other than to be far more awake when crossing the A1+roadworks...

I will state exactly what the lorry driver said after I had gone out in the road to collect my squashed / fizzed up cherry coke and bike lamp.

"You only have one fucking life"

Take care peeps ~
xx

PS. I told the guy in the Traffic mobile that I will buy him a few drinks if he ever comes in to my work, for obvious reasons I suppose. He said that was "Sound".
PPS. The roadworks are also completed and that flyover is some crazy contraption.
PPSS. The next day at the bus stop, some guy is actually talking about it to his friends. A witness, he said something like "ye he jus got straight back up, fucking amazing" and his friends were mind blown, by his actual account of it. Maybe sub consciously he recognized me, hence bought it up, but like any superhuman... I gave a modest smile and got on the bus to work. I was then subjected to jokes about riding bikes with no handlebars etc etc. Just another fucking day, eh.

WILLJIMB - hit by a lorry on the A1, lives to tell the tale

It wasn't really til I saw the thick black tire marks the following days that this really hit home. A very grave, almost enlightened feeling...

So I got less chance of winning the lotto jackpot hm?

HAPPY CLOCK DAY.

Oh... and a diagram!!!!! because Diagrams are so much more comprehendable.