It was a perfect saturday, it really was. I was looking forward to this weekend the whole week, 3 days with my beloved family, on the nearby lake. it was insanely hot last week, with temperatures up to 36°C here in austria, and right after work on friday, all i was thinking about was jumping in the cool lake. Friday went by, we had a chilled out evening at my parents place, life was good. until this particular saturday.

Saturday saw us leave early to the lake and i had a fantastic time, mostly concentrating at the waterslide that is next to the lake. me, my brother and a friend were sliding down at least 30 times at that time, and we had the fun of our live. It was simply amazing, extremely hot, very humid, but the lake and the slide were just perfect to relax. well, and then at around 3pm ..

What happened?

It was the damn waterslide, and my own stupidity. Our goal was, to slide down on our belly, headfirst, with the hands at the back, to get even more speed, and then smoothly slide into the water and “glide” on it. I was a pussy first, always turning on my back around before hitting the water. well, what can i say, i better should’ve stayed a pussy. When i went back to action, i had a fresh layer of sun protector on, not even to protect myself from the sun, but also to get a bit more acceleration. I thought i’m gonna do it this time, and also hit the water belly first. I threw myself on the slide, made quite some speed and hit the water, belly first. What i didn’t do though, was stretching my head and chest back, but rather staying in the normal sliding position..

…which resulted in me, hitting the water, directly diving into it, and after a 1,25m dive to the ground, hit the ground of the pool head first. If you check out the size of the slide, you can quite imagine that 1,25m deep water does not exactly help. the crash was horrible. excruciating. and painful. Luckily i didnt lose my conciousness, even exiting the pool on my own feet. I’ve later been told, that i wasnt exactly a pretty sight. My face was a bloody mess from a gash i had on top of my head. I also noticed that i didnt feel parts of my tongue anymore and that i had small chips of teeth in my mouth. But the worst thing was, i had a hard time standing upright, something just wasnt right with my spine. To stop my head from bleeding, i laid down to the ground and also to try to ease the pain on my spine and neck area a bit. My mum thankfully tried to stop my head from bleeding until the ambulance arrived. the guys checked on me, and luckily i still felt my feet and all other touches.

They rushed in the hospital with me, where i was checked, x-rayed and also a few days later, they did a big magnetic resonance examination, to check if my spine had any further damage.  The wound on my head got glued together instead of stitches, and filled with painkillers, i had to spend some days in the hospital. My family took good care of me, bringing me some stuff to kill my time and waiting until my release. Netbook, X6 for music and my HTC desire as main phone were also brought in for some entertainment.

The final results have been a severly compressed and bruise spine in the neck area, 3 damaged teeth, a heavily swollen tongue and a gash on the head. great.

5 Days later, i was released from the hospital, with at least 2 more weeks where i need to stay at home, further recover, and get back for more x-rays in 2 weeks. I also got a stylish necklace, that i need to wear as often as possible. It’s slowly, slowly getting better, but i’m still, a day after my release, far far away from being 100%. I can’t drive a car since i’m not able to move my head quick or in certain directions. My back still hurts from the crash. My tongue finally gets a bit better, so i actually TASTE stuff again. The gash on the head is healing along nicely. I’m on my way, but it’ll take some time. The scary thing is, and i normally prevent that, but the doctors told me, that if i did the crash in a slightly different angle, i might roll around in a wheelchair now. I cant tell you how lucky i feel, even with the pain i’m in right now. My parents, most of all my mum, is taking good care right now and makes sure i get back on track soon again. It feels good to spend some time with the parents again, i can completely chill out here.

To finish up my recap of being an idiot, i wanna say “Thank You” to a few people:

The Doctors, Nurses and Staff from the hospital in Amstetten: You guys were amazing. Everyone was friendly, very obliging and absolutely correct when it came to the health of your “customers”. You didnt take any unneccessary risks and i always felt very well. The hospital itself was refurbished, very clean, with all new furniture and even the food was great. Thank you for taking care.

Sloan Bowman: My friend Sloan did something that totally caught me off guard, but it meant the world to me. Sloan is doing a nice series of drivecasts, where he basically drives around and tells some opinions on youtube. well, and one video (check it below), he dedicated to myself, wishing a speedy recovery. I didnt expect this, and even if its just a small video, this made my day. This shows what a great Person he really is. I’m stunned Sloan, thank you so much.

WOM World Nokia: What can i say? everyone who follows the things i’m doing knows, that WOM World Nokia are not only great supporters of what i do, they also became very good friends in the 3 years i know them. Good ol’ DHL guy arrived today with a package from them, with some gifts from them. A “i love london” coffee mug, some candy and a “get well soon” card, signed by the whole team. I seriously had tears in my eyes when i saw this, you guys are just amazing. Thank you so much.

I also wanna thank each and everyone of you, who were rooting for me, wished me luck and supported me in those hard days. I’m lucky that i’m okay and will be 100% in a few weeks. You guys cheered me up everyday and helped me in keeping my good mood and a smile (even a small one) on my face.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you everyone.

Michael Hell

Tags: Personal

A Picture says more than a thousand words. i believe the picture above is telling a story on its own.

Stephanie from Nokia, who prides herself in taking care of Austrias Bloggers, has invited me to Vienna this tuesday for a relaxed evening with food, drinks and public football viewing. however, in this little note, she stated there will be a “little” surprise. said and done, i was off to vienna after work, and decided to not ask anyone or anybody what it might be. Stephanie even was kind enough to pick me up from the Underground Station, since i just hate to drive through Vienna by car. We arrived a short time later at the holiday inn hotels, where the surprise guests were staying and shortly after the arrival, Simon Adamson, from 1000heads fame, arrived with a big grin.

yes you read that correct, 1000heads in vienna!

I met Simon shortly when i was visiting London in january, a very very nice guy, as all of the 1000heads are. Stephanie stated, with an even bigger grin at her face, told me that there is another guest, someone i “might” even know. I got even more excited and just a minute later, Mr. Frank Grindrod himself arrived in front of the Hotel. Frank Grindrod. I didn’t exactly know what to say or do in this very moment, i was just completely besides myself. I can’t express the feeling i had at this moment. Overwhelming happiness and joy would probably describe a very small part of this.

Let me tell you a little story, what exactly connects me and Frank: It was back in late 2006, when yours truly was working his ass off in a forum called www.symbian-freak.com. I made it to moderator ranks in that time and was just trying to be as helpful as i can. It turned out that WOM World Nokia, who i didnt even know existed at that time, has had a look at the forums, figuring out a possible guest for the 2007 CES visit, where Nokia was announcing the N800, N76 and N93i. (Click here for Pics!) Luck has been at my side at this time, because teo, the admin of the forum and website, wasnt able to go and decided to pick a replacement for him, which happened to me. So here i was, Michael Hell, picked to join the likes of Darla Mack, Rafe Blandford or Jay Montano, to come with this awesome Marketing Agency called WOM World and invade Las Vegas. First time alone abroad. First time in an airplane. First time in a country that doesnt speak german, my native language. Frank Grindrod happened to be one of the People that came along and took care of us. And they took good care of us. Me and Frank became very good friends and has endless chats about all things Nokia.

Frank has been a Friend since 2007, but i barely got to see/hear/read him. I’ve met him shortly in January, but there’s nothing like a relaxed evening with some Schnitzel 2.0, some Beers and football. As i found out, Simon and Frank had some meetings with Nokia Austria, but Stephanie thought it just wouldn’t be the same if the guys come to Austria and doesnt say hi to me! good thinking there hehe.. It was a fantastic evening, we had a ton of fun, it was just so nice to meet the Guys again. Well, i think my face above says it all.

I’ll never forget this evening, thank you Stephanie.

Tags: Personal