Saturday 2 August 2008

per ardua ad conker


So we're out cycling on Friday morning and we're riding across the grass under the conker trees and the conkers are looking quite big now so i stand up to try and clout one off the branch as I pass under the tree and.... the front wheel slips on the wet grass and I take a really heavy tumble.

I lie there for a while letting the waves of pain work their way through, while trying to reassure K, who's extremely worried. Heck, so am I. I can still move everything, though there's a lot of pain in my left hip area.

Worst fall I've had, that I recall (the motorbike accident when I was concussed doesn't count, as I lost my memory. Likewise the time I had my skull fractured by those nice football enthusiasts in Portsmouth...) And, as I realised later, it happened during the eclipse. Scary.

I hope the full moon hasn't got anything in store for me too.

Oh and the conker stayed in the tree. I've got little puncture marks in the palm of my hand from its spikes. Serves me right. I guess.

7 comments:

  1. Ouch!

    You know,stunt-folk in showbusiness will lie still for 20minutes after an accident, and mentally 'check over' their body as stress reactions dissipate.

    Hope you feel better - perhaps it was conker revenge? Perhaps it was the full moon giving you reason to rest up and do something indoors! ;)

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  2. How are you feeling now - besides silly?

    I don't think you should say that being concussed doesn't count, even if there is an eclipse, or a full moon.

    They don't do anything with conkers here and we have magnificent trees in the park. One year I tried to teach my after school class the art of conkers (culture and counting) they enjoyed it but it didn't catch on. I do believe there is an Englishman somewhere in France who's got a tournament going in his village.

    Best wait till they drop off next time.

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  3. I hope you're OK, Dru.

    Is it just my perception, or are the conkers ripening a lot earlier in recent years?

    I noticed that at the beginning of July a lot of them seemed big enough to start dropping.

    Perhaps one consequence of global warming is that the UK's climate will revert to 2 seasons, Spring & Autumn, with only brief wintery and summery interludes.

    Another conker story I heard was that during the First and Second World Wars, schoolchildren were encouraged to collect conkers for the war effort. The reason was kept secret until quite recently: it emerged that the manufacture of cordite required starch - and most sources of starch, apart from conkers - were equally valuable as food sources.

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  4. Oh no!!! Sorry to hear that!! I hope you're ok.

    Conkers already?? I hadn't noticed them here yet, but maybe I'm in denial.

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  5. PS, 2nd eclipse coming up on Aug 16th, so stay safe!! lol

    I'm sure you'll be fine. They don't usually knock people off bicycles. ;-)

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  6. After making a career out of being clumsy, Shaggyred, I realised early on that the best thing to do when you know you've goofed is to keep as still as possible until the shrapnel has stopped rattling. Unless you're in the path of an oncoming train, of course.

    Silly indeed, Anji, and achey as old heck. And with some quite colourful bruises. It is odd, that French indifference to conkers, isn't it?

    You may be right, Em, I just feel that the year is rushing away. I was lamenting the absence of a dawn chorus latterly, and learned from Geraldine Taylor's 0520 nature epistle on Radio Bristol this morning that they're being quiet while they have their moult. So now I have learned something new, and so perhaps have you. And I didn't know that thing about the cordite. So thank you.

    They're still Very Young conkers, Chandira. Thanks for the warning about the 16th. Tin hats on...

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