Pavements

I know this may be a ridiculous title for blog post but I do have something important to say about such an unsuspecting topic. For me every little dodgy raised paving stone, crack or surprise raised pavement is a potential catastrophe. I am well aware that this is not the case for most people rushing to the office on a rainy Monday morning. However, for me it all becomes worse as I get faster. This is because, due to my walking gait, I don’t clear the ground so much with each stride. As a result I am on high alert for any uneven ground as these little blips send me flying on far too many occasions.

One thing I have learnt from these ‘nice trips’ that I take (no it is not a sunshine escape to the Caribbean) is the art of recovery. If luck is on my side (not as much as I would like) then I can just do a little sprint start-Usain Bolt eat your heart out, and bring myself upright and rather than ending up a little too close to the floor. I have had a number of entertaining and massively exaggerated responses to these trips (My parents included but I know they are just worried about me). The problem is when I do take a tumble, these pavements are not very forgiving, if only they were coated in cotton wool then I wouldn’t have anything to worry about. Post trip, I would prefer to just continue walking as if nothing has happening but I remember one particular lady squealing and running after me to make sure that I was okay. If it was up to me no one would bat an eyelid but some people like to make my trips into more of a spectacle.

Another frustration of mine is the fact that to minimise my chance of a tumble, I have to spend all my time walking staring at the floor and focus sing on picking my feet up. Trust me I would much rather be looking up and around rather than at the paving stones! So all in all the dodgy pavements of central London mean I am on constant look out for my next pitfall however much I would rather be looking up at the scenery and hubbub of people, it’s just not worth the risk of black and blue knees.