Accident-Prone

For as long as I can remember, I've sported random bruises and scars. Constantly.

When I was a little kid I was always up trees, on bikes, riding horses, falling down and scraping my knees.... I've got a scar on one knee that was the result of a fall on tar while running across a road. When I was 5! Got a scar on the other knee from the time I tried to show off, stepped off a still-moving train with the wrong foot and wiped out in front of a carriage full of good looking blokes from the local university. There's a scar on one hand from where the stove burnt me while removing brownies from the oven. There's another small one between thumb and finger from a chisel - I was carving soapstone and missed. I somehow avoided sporting any lasting damage after being thrown from a horse at a gallop. Twice. Within 10 minutes. Same blerry horse.

Every few days I'll get into the bath and wonder where the heck that big blue-purple-green bruise came from. On the hip, or the calf, or the arm. Sometimes I can trace them - a bump into the desk, or reaching inside a car door to fix locks (and getting tangled up in the innards in the process). Sometimes it's silly mistakes like standing up abruptly under an open kitchen cabinet and seeing stars - resulting in a rather large egg on the noggin.

Today I know where I got my bruises from. And all three of them are right on top of each other on my hand! One - bathroom tap. Two - back light on Olivia (number plate recovery accident). Three - car door. I'm surprised I haven't actually cracked the bone in that particular spot.

On my other hand is a growing shadow from slamming down an ammo box on my finger at a funny angle by mistake. Almost snapped, I thought - but no, I'm lucky.

Funny thing is I haven't had any major bone breaks. I broke a baby toe on a chair once getting up to switch off the TV. I cracked my pelvis and tail bone in a near-death car crash a few years back. But no broken arms, no broken legs - and still no fillings in my teeth!

I guess I'm lucky that random bruises and scars are all I have, after all.