My preview text is: Moving On. In the second term I moved further up the road to ''Sunny Plains'' Turnbull''s farm. There my room was out on the verandah separated from the rest of the house. It was quite Spartan with only a bed, wardrobe and desk but was sufficient for my needs as I always ate with the family. Peter was in 5th class and we would often play table tennis. He was a nice boy but was sometimes lacking in confidence. Each time we played I beat him and it seemed to dishearten him that little bit more so I encouraged him to keep at it - until one day I relaxed too much and he beat me. After that he was an absolute pain in the neck.

I should have kept him down while I could because he became insufferably cocky. It was a good match to lose but made the next matches all the more harder to win. Winters in the district were cold so the P and C organised firewood to be cut and stacked next to the water tank. Inside we had a wood heater which radiated heat all through the room and warmed all the corners as long as I continued feeding its ravenous appetite. It wasn''t a problem - all I had to do was chop up enough firewood into manageable sizes each afternoon, put them in the bucket, cart them inside and leave them next to the heater for its next day''s meal. It was a responsibility I enjoyed having because there I was my own man, free of impositions life brought when there were too many entanglements. I suffered from jabs and small cuts from handling the firewood but thought little of it until my finger became infected. an angry looking abscess formed on the first finger of my left hand and became uglier over the next few days as my whole hand began to swell up.

After school I drove to the medical centre in Narrandera and was disappointed when the doctor said I couldn''t play football for two weeks then handed me over to the nurse to do all the nasty bits and try to clean it out. Despite the medical treatment it took two weeks before I could get back on to the football field again and even then the finger still had an angry look about it. A few weeks later I was down in Wagga ''helping'' Ross and Ron take an engine out of a VW. My role in the proceedings was that of an unintended spectator lending a hand if asked but generally of no real use to car boffins toiling away at a task in which I had little interest or expertise. Try as I might the workings of an internal combustion engine just didn''t warm my radiator so I was there basically to kill time with my mates. As it was my most enterprising moment came when I passed someone the grease gun. Afterwards I drove back to Turnbull''s farm later than I meant to and didn''t reach their farm road until dark. It had been raining and the road was greasy.

As I was driving up the road I had a sudden urge to relieve myself but in braking sharply I found the car sliding off the road into a table drain. After I did the deed I surveyed the scene and could see I was seriously bogged. the house was half a mile away so I trudged off down the road in total darkness on a ''cold August night'' until I saw the lights of the house. Then early Monday morning Mervyn took me back to the car in his tractor and pulled me out. I drove back to the farm for breakfast then headed off to school. At recess time I walked out into the playground and kicked the football to my boys. As I kicked it I felt a sharp pain in the centre of my back, a pain that just wouldn''t go away and became worse as the day wore on. That night I couldn''t lie down flat and had to sit up in bed to get any sleep.

the only relief I had was when I had a hot shower. by Tuesday afternoon the pain drove me back to the Medical Centre to see my ''favourite'' doctor. His examination was cursory and his diagnosis brief - a strained back and three days off. Once again his condescending manner left me cold. I took two days off and spent the time sitting up in bed missing the children but feeling too miserable to do anything about it. by Friday I''d had enough and felt if I was going to be miserable I might as well be miserable back at school with the kids. I spent most of the day sitting next to the wood heater and allowing the heat to warm my back. It was the only way I could get any relief from the pain.

After school I drove down to Wagga with the intention of continuing on south to Shepparton the next day to see a chiropractor I''d been told treated the VFL players. I was staying the night with the family Ron was boarding with - a lecturer from the college, rather than stay the other side of Wagga at Malebo. I felt pretty exhausted from the pain and lack of sleep so I went to bed early. It was still dark when I woke suddenly feeling pins and needles in my legs. I assumed I had pinched a nerve in my back so after bouncing my feet up and down on the floor I went back to sleep. Some hours later with the sun coming up I awoke to find I couldn''t move my legs. I was fairly calm about it until I realised my bladder was full but I was unable to get up and go to the toilet. I called out to Ron who seemed surprised to see I was still in bed.

At this stage I still trusted the doctor''s diagnosis so I presumed that somehow all this was just a complication from a strained back. My view of doctors was a bit coloured by my sister''s training in alternative medicine and the attitude of the doctor who had treated me in Narrandera so I was hopeful it would be quickly fixed up when a chiropractor was brought in to see me. the chiropractor came but said he couldn''t do anything until I emptied my bladder then after a second visit around midday he left and didn''t return. Before he left he told Ron I was in a bad way and needed immediate medical attention. by now I had no feeling in my legs and my bladder had become painfully distended. Lying there unable to move left me feeling helpless but paradoxically I also felt surprisingly calm despite the seriousness of the situation. I lay there for the next few hours as Ron made numerous phone calls to a medical centre, the ambulance service and even the hospital. Unfortunately it being Saturday afternoon in a country town the lack of urgency was palpable.

Most places were closed in sleepy old Wagga and Ron wasn''t able to get a positive response from anyone. the best offer was a vague promise that an ambulance would be sent in forty minutes or so after they finished the job they were on. It was only when Ron was able to get hold of a doctor that things started to happen. In hindsight it seems bizarre that so much time was lost and none of the people Ron contacted seemed terribly interested nor did they recognise how serious the situation was.