Next week represents a significant milestone. On Thursday, it will be nine months since I underwent surgery for a broken leg. I’ve been told recovery from a tibial plateau fracture takes 18 months. Next week I’m halfway there. Despite all the gym work, all the walking and exercise, I find there are times when my body gives me a reminder that all is not well. After work today I was walking down Pitt St to the ferry and bumped into Amelia. We decided to catch the FastCat together but realised that it was about to leave so we ran for it. It was immediately apparent that while I can walk, do leg presses and endless hours on the bicycle, I cannot run. It ends up being a strange one legged hop with the broken leg refusing to bend and take the weight. Hurts too much. In about three weeks I go back to the surgeon, Matt Lyons for the final checkup and to determine if I can ski again. I’m glad he’s not going to assess whether I can run a marathon. I think I could save him the trouble. My knee was sore going home on the Cat. First time it’s been spore in weeks.

I had a quiet Friday night reading a riveting book, called The Trouble with Islam Today by Irshad Manji, an American Muslim of Pakistani descent. Irshad is a woman and a lesbian which should give her some vibrant insights. It does.  She has a lot of problems with the literal truth espoused in the Koran in passages which instruct men with statements like “Women are your fields. Go, then, into your fields when you please.” As a father of three daughters, this doesn’t go down particularly well with me either. Imagine if a rabbi or a priest instructed the faithful with these sorts of statements – they would be run out of town by feminists, the ABC and the Sydney Morning Herald. However, it seems okay when Muslims say it. Feminism as practised in the West is a complete mystery to me.

If I hadn’t broken my leg I never would have been stuck looking for something to read and I may not have turned to the Koran. It’s been a journey. The most extraordinary part of this journey has been the discovery that the two best authors on modern Islam are both Muslim women – Irshad Manji and Ayaan Hirsi Ali who wrote Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now. These two women, not surprisingly, are reviled by the Muslim establishment. I think both are very brave. Even though they are not of my faith, if they were my daughters, I would be so proud of them.

I don’t know how I would have got through this last year without lots of books and continuous music. I don’t have a wife to share the burden and I hate unloading on friends when the travails of life get too much to bear. I have certainly learnt a lot from all the books I’ve read about a diverse range of topics, not just medical. I wonder if I should invite Irshad and Ayaan over for dinner. Get a few people around. Now that would be fun.