Spooky things are supposed to happen on Halloween, especially at night. Mine was very spooky, but all in broad daylight.

Pootling round a roundabout on my way home from a morning club ride something jumped out at me to give me quite a scare. Unfortunately it was a car that joined the roundabout behind me and knocked me off my bike. My arse took the main impact but the back of my head soon followed in striking the tarmac.

The cyclists who stopped to help me suggested I needed an ambulance despite me saying I was fine. The paramedic who saw my helmet cracked at the back said they did the right thing.

In A&E things started to get weird.

A nurse called out “Fisher?” A guy on a trolley in some considerable pain recognised my surname and said I was the “Fisher of……” quoting our exact address. He was a courier and had delivered to us. I hadn’t recognised him behind his face mask. Spooky.

Then a doctor came to my trolley. It was club mate Carlo. He’d seen I was in hospital, donned his white coat and very kindly came to see how I was doing. Spooky.

Then another cyclist was wheeled into the room. It was my time to recognise a surname – “Carloni”. Paolo had gone over the handlebars of his MTB on a separate ride and ended up right beside me. Spooky.

The spookiness didn’t stop there. Paolo’s partner Sonia, also a club member, was working in the hospital. Soon we were four Pansèrs in the room. Well spooky.

As time passed I felt better and managed to visit the bathroom on my own. On my way back I noticed the corridor filling up with patients on trolleys. Most were elderly. I called a nurse and explained in my second language that I thought that these people needed her help far more than me so I asked to be discharged. She agreed and I found myself in the car park waiting for Jan to come and pick me up.

Another club mate, Roberto, called to say he had my bike in his car and he would meet me at the hospital. He told me that when he picked up my bike, he spoke to the driver of the car that hit me as he was one of his customers. It couldn’t get any spookier.

Jan and Phoebe arrived to take me home for a spook free quiet night in.

Thanks to my arse taking the main impact of the fall it’s as big as Kim Kardashian’s, so for the next few days my name is Kolin.

A big thank you to all those people who helped me:

• Pino, Maurizio, Donato, Roberto, and other cyclists for helping at the scene of the accident (I can’t remember everyone who stopped to help).
• Pino for driving to Cartoceto to pick up Jan and Phoebe to take them to our car.
• Carlo and Sonia for checking up on me in hospital.
• Roberto for picking up my bike and taking it to the bike shop for repair.
• Alceo for coming to the hospital car park offering to look after me in his nearby home whilst waiting for Jan.
• The many club mates who called and messaged offering help.

It’s times like these that you realise just how lucky you are with such wonderful friends.

Thank you.

2nd November update:

The real Halloween Horror didn’t arrive until Tuesday evening. I warn you, it’s not pretty: