This Is This

It was my son’s Sports Day at school, so I put the mobile phone thing behind me, we packed a picnic and went to his school. Nothing can explain the pride of seeing them having fun.

Then came time for the parents to race. I was weary but the mums did a nice gentle beanbag-on-the-head race, so when the dad’s turn to race came along, I was easily pursuaded.

Except there were no beanbags. It was just a simple pelt at full tilt down 100 yards of dry field, scorched rock-hard by the sun from a five day heatwave. You know where this is going, so I’ll get right to it.

Once I reached top speed, about 40 yards in, some ultra competitive dad knocked into me, because the running lanes were kid’s size, and I went down. Some people say I skidded, others say I rolled. Either way, the whole crowd gasped as I took the skin off my knee, grazed the underside of my arm, cut open my toe and friction-burned my elbow. I was dripping blood and dirt by the time I got back to my seat and all the mums offered bandages. Some offered wine, which went down well.

A week later and it hurts like hell. My kids, luckily, didn’t see it, but everyone else did. Part of being a parent is being grateful that they didn’t fall and at all and glad it didn’t spoil their day. I put of a brave face for the rest of the day, holding on to consciousness long enough to see my son finish the hoola hoop relays. If my wife were anything other than the beautiful woman she is, she would have said: “It always has to be about you, doesn’t it?”

I can’t straighten my arm because the 6 inch long scab has healed and it hurts when the skin pulls.

Stupid Things On My Day Off Part 3 - the levels of my painful-inflicting stupidity gets worse. Or funnier, depending on your point of view.

Also on This Is This
“Do you want romance?”
I turned to face a woman way out of my league. I was at the airport, which is always a wierd environment and one where such requests don’t seem as out of place as they should.
Read this post...

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 21st, 2005 at 8:29 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed, or leave a comment yourself.