A slight false alert on the new leg, I'm afraid.

It is ready -- and it feels brilliant -- but it needs a final bit of buffing and polishing in the workshop before I'm allowed to take it home for Christmas.

Thankfully, I don't have long to wait -- I'm going to pick it up tomorrow morning, although it'll be without its full cosmetic cover. It's going to be left au naturel for a few weeks so that I can get used to it and have any adjustments made before the outer cosmesis, which hides all the moving parts, is attached.

After today's test drive, though, I'm confident that the new leg is going to be a real winner. It feels a hundred times more comfortable than the one I'm wearing now -- within a few minutes of putting it on for the first time I was jogging up and down the hospital corridors!

Technically, it's very similar to the prosthesis I have now, except for one major difference. It's fitted with a torsion adapter. What it means is that rather than being a single tube of metal, the "leg" section of the prosthesis has a component on it that enables me to twist to the left and right while still keeping my foot planted on the ground. It has huge benefits when walking around corners and turning my body.

So, a small delay -- but tomorrow the leg will be mine!