How I fell over because of muffins.

On a Saturday morning, I teach 5 tap-classes in a row to a bunch of children, without a break.  By class 4, I'm absolutely starving!  As a way of feeding myself something quick, cheap and not junky, I whip up a dozen muffins before the first class.  Owing to the fact that my tap hall is a shared facility, I keep the dry ingredients in my lock-up cupboard but have to remember to bring the egg, butter and milk from home. It is necessary to put a couple aside at Nell's Desk (Nell likes to have one too as she sits there being my admin person, marking the roll and taking money etc) because I leave out the rest for whoever wants one, and they never last long. Generally gone by the end of the first class.



Anyway, the Saturday before last, I left the egg and butter at home and didn't realise until I'd arrived at the Tap Hall.  So in a bit of a hurry, I drove quickly to the milkbar nearby and dashed in to buy eggs and butter. She had butter, but no eggs!  I rushed out her door, wondering wildly what to do, where to go next and if I even had time, skated on a wet leaf in my treacherous non-grip dance sneakers and fell down so fast that I didn't even feel myself falling, just an incredibly hard impact.  I had to lie there for a minute in shock, catching my breath.  The lady from the milkbar rushed out to help me up, and although I was sore and shaken I could feel I hadn't really damaged anything.  I mostly landed well, taking a good bit of the impact on what they called at drama school a landmass, meaning of course the fleshy part of the body in the rump and thigh area.  (You have to be prepared for a bit of falling over at Drama School, in case you were thinking of going.)  Unfortunately I also came down on my elbow and the trauma of that went right up my arm and across my neck and shoulders and stayed there for several days, until a combination of a chiropractic treatment, a cocktail of paracetemol and anti-inflammatories, and time, settled it down again.

This is the picture I shared on facebook.  Obviously when you fall as dramatically as this, you need to tell as many people as possible, and show them your bruised elbow so they can wince at you sympathetically.

I rang up Mister Fixit in nearly-tears and said I'd fallen and hurt myself, and could he please bring the egg and butter and the boys to the Tap Hall, where Climber could make the muffins for me, and Fixit could be deputy-Nell as she was away that week.  He of course came to my rescue, and the muffins were made and I taught all my classes and told them the funny story of how Miss Caroline Fell Over.  Unfortunately, Climber didn't realise the importance of Putting Aside some muffins at Nell's Desk so he just left them all out on the kitchen bench and of course, by Class 4, aka Starvation O'Clock, they were ALL GONE.   Disaster!  So for the second time that day, Mister Fixit had to come to my rescue and hunt & gather me a muffin from a nearby cafe.  He takes good care of me, that man.



A couple of comments made to me after my fall really rang true for me. One was by Astrid, who said that falling at this time of your life is such a shock; you fall over all the time when you're a kid and we foresee tumbles in our future when we're 80-odd, but this time of life should be the non-falling years. So true! Except when you're at Drama School obviously. The other comment was from an adult tap student who remarked how you always hurt yourself much worse if you're angry, and followed it up with an anecdote of a furious bed making incident which put her in the bed with a bad back for 4 days. And we all laughed and nodded ruefully in agreement.  I most definitely was in a snit at the milkbar for having no eggs and this made me rush out of the shop at an ill-advised speed, considering the wet ground and my unsuitable shoes. So I suppose the lesson from my muffin related fall is to try  to minimise your movement when you're in a temper? Or maybe just calm down if you don't have sensible shoes.