Tuesday morning brought one of the thickest frosts I'd seen in a while. Walking to school, the pavements glittered and whilst G enjoyed the fun of skidding and sliding, D clung tightly to my hand, fearful of falling.
Our walk to school is normally an uneventful affair. If it's rained enough, the fields and the park by the river might be flooded. This happens often enough not to be a real novelty. In the spring, there are sometimes ducklings and cygnets on the river; sometimes the barriers on the level crossing get stuck in the down position, causing traffic chaos. On Tuesday, however, there was an unprecedented mini-drama. A bare-footed man of dishevelled appearance: no coat, wild-eyed, blood pouring from one of his arms, leaned over the church wall and mumbled incoherently into a mobile phone. An ambulance stood nearby, together with two disgruntled looking paramedics and a policeman, deftly stepping between the man and any passers-by. At the school, the playground mafia bubbled with excitement. Children installed in their classrooms, a huddle formed by the school gates and speculation was rife...
Anyway, I digress. It was frosty, I dropped G and D at school and, not being a fully paid-up member of the school gate gossip brigade, I went on my way. I planned to go for a long, brisk walk before going home but my bladder, full of morning orange juice and coffee, was beginning to protest. I decided to nip into the health centre to make use of their facilities. Huge mistake! I stepped out of the health centre onto a patch of ice, felt my ankle twist, a sharp pain and I landed in an undignified heap on the ground. The utter humiliation, combined with the fact that it really did hurt (a lot) made me feel like throwing my head back and bawling loudly! I managed to hold back the tears whilst a couple of concerned mums from the school offered their sympathies but as I hobbled away, I gave in and begin to snivel. (I should like to make it clear at this point that I don't normally consider myself a wimp when it comes to pain; I gave birth to my two younger children without so much as a whiff of gas and air.)
A few steps down the road, I realised I was getting nowhere fast and didn't fancy my chances of getting home, let alone going back to pick up G and D from school. I also have to drive to collect J from his school on Tuesdays; he has a guitar lesson and hasn't yet perfected the art of cycling with a guitar and an industrial-sized school bag. I couldn't flex my right foot at all, I had no chance. I was beginning to feel sick and dizzy. I rang Cam and sobbed pathetically down the phone! Cam agreed to pick me up but getting back from Birmingham would take some time. I sat on a wall by the pub and waited. With my tear-streaked face and the fact that I was sitting outside the pub, shivering uncontrollably at 9.15 in the morning, I definitely looked like a desperate case. Almost as bad as the man by the church. I don't think I was spotted by any of the playground gossip brigade, but if I was, it undoubtedly stopped them talking about someone else for a while.
Anyway, nothing is broken and though my ankle is still pretty swollen, I can drive and can get around, albeit with a rather unattractive limp. Brisk walks are off the agenda for the foreseeable future.
Nobody Move, Nobody Gets Hurt - We Are Scientists (With Love and Squalor, 2005)
Farewell 39 And Counting.....
15 years ago
