Tuesday morning

Morning all.

Managed to clamber downstairs at about 09:00 this morning after a long sleep.

Today – groggy, sore, dizzy.

It seems there are some bruises around my body that I hadn’t noticed until today. 

I’m beginning to have a few memories of what happened on Sunday morning and suspect that I actually passed out twice – once down in The Bunker (which would account for the cuts to my face and a huge bruise on my thigh this morning) and then the second time after I had climbed the stairs back up to the kitchen and attempted to get some water.

That would explain the Dexter-like scenes around the kitchen after I was carted off to hospital.

This morning I’m feeling even rougher than yesterday and the ever-present and caring Annie has allowed me some time down in The Bunker to write and read before escorting me under armed guard back to bed in a few minutes.

And last night on national TV I said that I had to get on with my bucket list and not worry about clearing emails!

Watched the show with family last night and was thrilled by the editing and the representation of our last week on The Island and return to base.

I’m also so glad the episode 6 showed some of the camp, including my Fortress of Solitude (of which I was so proud – and I enjoyed some wonderful nights and afternoons of sleep in there).

Somewhat irritated that it took me two days to weave the nets for the lobster pots (edited to 5 seconds) and three full days to single-handedly build that raft (edited to 15 seconds) – but that’s show biz.

Sam and I took the raft out three times to catch lobsters but managed nothing – which is, I suppose, why we didn’t make the cut.

My best moment last night was hearing the quote from Sackie that I hadn’t heard before:

Failure + Failure + Determination = Success

How’s that for a coaching quote?

Sackie was a rightful winner of the leadership election – he is a natural motivator and a lovely genuine man – who will go far in his life and career. At our last night party, his rendition of Invictus had me in tears.

So many people have commented on my own relative quietness on The Island.

By design, I assure you – there were plenty of alpha-males around and I wasn’t there to win votes, develop a TV career or sell anything – I was there for me.

Again, editing time does not permit viewing the many hours of conversation with my fellow Islanders on “the meaning of life”.

Long chats with Deano about “coming out” to his Romany family, with the lovely Matt about his family, with Joe about life on the farm, with Fletch about his life, his farm and his hobbies, with Craig about his volunteer work and mobile disco, with Tony about his grandchildren and his life in France, with Rupert about cooling down and being less like Bruce Willis, with Kiff about his amazing life story, with Ryan about his hopes and fears for the future, with Dan about following BG around the world, with Sam about his extreme mountain climbing.

Many evenings we sat around the camp fire with the cameras turned off and enjoyed the most hilarious conversations about modern life.

I had my moments as a coach – and I think some of the lads will vouch for that as I did spend time with people helping them to work through their challenges – primarily off camera.

Yes – we had our differences and tensions but we came together at the conclusion as a united body of men who had shared a once in a lifetime experience. Good luck to series 2 and beyond – but it will never be “us”.

I could go on.

We all invested many hours in foraging around The Island, looking for food and water. We all invested hours in building and maintaining the camp. We each took time every day for diary-cams and solitary walks.

2500 hours of footage down to 5 hours – go figure.

The heroes were not so heroic and the villains not so villainous – the TV magnifies that – so the vilification of individuals on social media is unfair.

One testament to that is that we are are all still in touch and have enjoyed a few memorable nights out since the show began – and plan more for the future. Just two weeks ago, Ryan and Rupert could be seen walking around the streets of London in the early hours and reliving some of the better moments, arm in arm.

A sense of anticlimax after the show last night – back to “normal” for us all.

I have had some lovely emails from friends in dentistry who feed back that the show has made them question their own core values.

Its a cliche but if The Island stops one workaholic from screwing up their life  – if it brings one father back to his children, one corporate employee back to humanity – then it will all have been worthwhile.

What I have to deal with right now is my current and rather bonkers bashed head – which I have now accepted is a rather more serious injury than I thought – get better and take some of the advice I gave myself on TV – slow down!