Those of you who know Mike Tempsch, empeg meet stalwart and regular prize winner, will be concerned to hear that he has been involved in a road accident and is in hospital again with some serious injuries.

He was riding his (brand new) moped along a dual carriageway when an idiot turned across his path after not seeing him at a junction. Mike T-boned the car (an SUV) and sustained a broken arm and fractured pelvis. He also has a lot of lacerations: thank goodness he was wearing a good helmet.

He was walking wounded at the scene, and was taken to hospital. It's likely the moped has been written off: this is his second after the first one was stolen by some thieving t*** who didn't care that it was his only legal form of transport following his stroke, and subsequent recovery, two years ago.

He has been in hospital since last Friday and is today going for surgery to put a pin and plate into his hip to strengthen the break and speed his recovery.

To make matters worse, he has had to cancel all his credit cards since his wallet was lost at the scene of the accident


Whilst this sounds pretty grim, he is remarkably cheerful. After his stroke two years ago he has gone through a hell of disability, frustration and depression: he was unable to come to the last empeg meet for this reason. Since then, he has had a lot of care and support and with help has become far happier and confident. He was making progress at work and had started programming again, which he is very pleased about. So while he is injured, he should be back on his feet within the next two weeks and back in business before the end of the month.

However, the thing that convinces me he is feeling better after a long, difficult time in the shadows is that he is thinking of coming over to the next empeg meet in September - can't be much wrong, then!

Anyone wanting to pass on a message to him, please get in touch with me and I will let him know.