2013 is here and how…
Happy New Year to everyone. I hope you are all in good health and spirits, and ready to face another year.
I trust you all had an enjoyable festive season and that you managed to spend time with family and friends. I spent it with my mother, one sister and her family, and had a wonderful time in her lovely old cottage not far from the South Downs here in England – an area of outstanding natural beauty.
We managed a couple of walks around the village where she has just moved, braving the rain and the cold. It was lovely to get some fresh air and exercise in such pretty and historic surroundings.
And then……well, all I can say is I had not had a drop to drink so cannot blame the dreaded alcohol for my fall. Yep, I managed to dive head first down the narrow, twisting stair-case in her 17th century cottage and, I am happy to say, lived to tell you the tale and with – as far as I can tell – no fractures, broken bones or other major injuries.
I am covered in black and purple bruising, a military looking yellow and green bruising, and my whole body feels as if a steam roller has gone over it; the pain is unreal, but the fact that I am not dead or crippled forever makes me so very, very happy. If you had seen the stairs and how I got to the bottom – around a corner too – and managed to survive you would understand my joy in-spite of the agony.
My 82-year-old mother almost had a heart attack and it could so easily have ruined Boxing Day for everyone. As it is I managed to find a comfortable position on the sofa, propped up by cushions and pain-killers, and the family continued to have fun.
Old cottages are gorgeous of course, but the stairs always seem narrow and steep and with weird lay-outs which make entering or leaving some rooms a hazardous enterprise.
The cottage upstairs has steps up to each room and no sooner have you left one step you are upon another. Modern technology is to blame for my fall….well that and my haste to be a slave to a ringing cell phone.
I came out of a bedroom, balancing upon the step outside the room as I closed the door, ready to undertake the journey slowly down the bannister-less staircase, when a phone rang in another room.
I turned too fast, calling out that the phone was ringing, missed my footing, lurched forward towards the staircase, couldn’t find anything to grab and so began my journey head first down the stairs, sliding and bumping on the newly laid carpet and wondering as I fell if I would survive, or end up in a wheelchair. Seriously, I fell so slowly (so I thought) that I can recall my thoughts as I was propelled ever downwards.
So here I am today, still on the pain-killers, still covered in bruises and as stiff as a board and only managing a while on the computer now and again; but I am here! I am present in 2013 and so as far as I am concerned I am happy and content.
I have since heard of others having similar accidents or medical dramas over the festive period and just wonder about timing, location and destiny. Is there a message for me and us all somewhere in all this? Perhaps it is just fate….if I hadn’t gone to stay with family, if I hadn’t worn slippers, if the phone hadn’t rung….what if the stairs had a bannister or the carpet had been old and not new? Who knows.
Who knows what is in store for us all today, tomorrow or next week? Next month or next year – what might be waiting for us all? Perhaps it is a good thing we don’t know – we might stop doing anything ‘just in case’.
I do hope you find yourselves happy and content in 2013 and that you are able to enjoy friends and family and whatever else 2013 has to throw at you. I hope you have a soft landing whatever happens.
I’ll be back in the saddle soon I hope. See you all then.
Categories: Blog
Jane Risdon 
Lovely website Jane. ‘Sorry to hear of your accident…hope you have already crossed your difficult time for the year and the rest of 2013 is full of peace, love, joy and health!
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Many thanks Nandita. I am slowly getting better thanks. I hope I have crossed my difficult time too…not much fun. Keep safe and I wish you all you wish yourself for 2013. Jxx
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Jane I’m so sorry to hear about this. Glad it wasn’t serious, but it sounds painful nonetheless. Take care of yourself and get plenty of rest.
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Ah thanks so much. I have since heard of so many illnesses and accidents amongst my friends on Facebook and here, I am starting to wonder if there is some weird stuff going on!! Lol x
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Oh Jane, How awful! I have a visual of those stairs. It will take some time to recover even if it is bruising vs. broken. Be good to yourself and take good care. And if you are using your laptop in a sitting position place a barrier between it and your lap. I just read about internal burning (YIKES!)
(I tread so carefully since I had back to back falls a few years ago)
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Cripes…yes I shall find something to lean on as so far it is agony but I need to get on. I had a series of falls early in 2002/2003 for not apparently reason though in each case the pavements left much to be desired! Not a drop had passed my lips either time I might add…not even when I fell down the stairs. What is internal burning? Am I about to com bust? Do tread with care too.
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OMG! Talk about launching yourself head first into 2013 with a crash, band and a wallop. You poor thing, hope you’re feeling much better now. Wishing you all the best for a safe, happy, successful and accident-free 2013, my friend. Rock on! XX
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Nicky, talk about rocking and rolling! More like crashing and bashing….not to mention what I must have looked like!
I am here to fight (write) another day and know that life is so unpredictable and fleeting, I had better get a move on and get my novels out there before events take over.
Wishing you lots of success with your trilogy and I look forward to reading the latest WIP (3rd part) soon. Best wishes and much success for 2013.
Rock on and keep upright!
Jane xx
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And you too!!!
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Jane – I’m so very sorry to hear of your accident! How horrible and I’m sure it must have been frightening. Please be kind to you and take care of yourself. Hope you’ll feel well very soon.
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Thanks for your kind words Margot; appreciated.
I seem not to be the only person who has had drama over Xmas. My sister-in-law in the USA has a torn, detached retina and is going through hell regarding her sight. Another old friend in Australia was dancing and is now on crutches, and several others have had the nasty stomach bug (Noro-virus), and have been laid low by this for days.
You just never know what is just around the corner.
I hope you and your family remain well and that 2013 is your best year ever. I am enjoying our chats and exchanges and look forward to many more.
Thanks again for your concern – really do appreciate it.
Keep well.
Jane x
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Jane, so sorry to hear you have been in the wars! That could have been indeed a very nasty ending – not that having pain and bruising isn’t nasty enough! Take care of those bruises too.
I started the New Year off with a virus where I spent two crippling days vomiting continuously even when there was nothing left in my stomach – not pretty! I now have had jabs to stop it, and tablets to take and am on the mend…was hoping to go to work today but I think I’d cave in at the knees because of how weak I am feeling.
So here’s to 2013 and a better continuation of it for all of us. Hopefully things will brighten up and it will be a good one for us all. Take care Jane. xx
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Oh Jo, I have just read your recent comment and I am so sorry you are feeling so bad. The Noro Virus is going round here, is this what you have?
I do hope you get better soon and recover quickly as I know the misery it causes – Mum had it before Xmas.
I really hope we all recover soon and that all the nasty stuff is now out of the way so that 2013 can be our best year ever….
Get better soon, take care of yourself and I wish you all you wish yourself for 2013.
Great knowing you here,
Jane xx
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Sorry to hear that you have started the new year with injury, glad there are no broken bones. I think you always come to grief when you least expect it. I had a spate of falling over, mostly tripping on protruding corners of paving stones. Apart from feeling utterly foolish, my knees were the first thing to impact with the pavement – not a good move. I’m very careful where I tread now! Hope you make a speedy recovery!
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Hi Jo and happy new year. Thanks for your message, appreciated.
I am wondering about falling over now you mention it. Early in 2000 I went through a period, like you, of falling over. First time was after a recording session in London and the pavement was wet and I went down with a crash on my left side (same side which is worst now), and then at my son’s wedding in Prague later that same year…cobbled streets and I tripped and I went splat on my left side. Then a bit later the same year I went down on my left side (again) in the bamboo at the Huntington Gardens and Museum near Pasadena USA……sober each time!
Do you fall on one side mainly? Your poor knees! I know you feel foolish but the pain takes even your embarrassment away I found.
I do hope you stay upright this year and that your knees are not painful ever since.
We really must be more careful!
Keep safe this year and fall-free.
Jane x
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Feel better soon Jane, I look forward to a wonderful New Year of reading your posts. Your mother’s cottage sounds so interesting, I’ve never been in a 17th century cottage. In my area a 10 year old house is considered old. We actually had a snowy Christmas in NorthTexas with was beautiful before it all turned to ice. Thankfully it had melted by New Years so not too many accidents.
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Thanks so much for your kind words and I do hope you are not too deep in snow in Texas – pretty but not much fun to try and live with it.
It is really strange but several friends of ours have had accidents or medical dramas over the festive period. One ended up on crutches! My sister-in-law in America has a detached retina which has torn….so I thank my lucky stars really.
I look forward to our chats again this year and wish you and all your family the very best, and I shall be reading and catching up with you soon. Take care. Jane x
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Oh Jane, I’m so sorry to hear about your dreadful accident and thank goodness you are now feeling slightly bruised, but a lot better. Do you have an answer-phone? Its better to miss a call than miss a ‘step’. It must have been a real nightmare.
We had a good Christmas with our seven grandchildren! Not all together I might add, but with respective parents, four granddaughters on Christmas Day and three grandsons the following day. The spread of their ages is 13, 10, 9, 6, 5, 2 1/2 and 2 in a couple of weeks. The underneath part of our Chrismas Tree was rather over-crowded to say the least. The two dogs had a wonderful time tearing up the wrapping paper!!!
The Christmas weather was of course not too good. Up here in the Surrey Hills, we had some rather high winds, which brought down a huge 85ft. tall oak tree. Fortunately we were nowhere near it at the time, but it did break part of our perimeter fence down. That too could have been nasty.
Hoping to catch up with everything soon. Looking forward to hearing that you are back to normal.
Take care.
Phyllis x
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Phyllis, thanks for you good wishes. I appreciate you taking time to drop me a line. I think we are all conditioned like Pavlov’s dogs to the phone and so forth, though I was not rushing to get it but turned to shout down the stairs that it was ringing – very dangerous stairs, and I shall not be the last to take a header I am sure. Glad it was not Mum.
Your Christmas sounds wonderful, how lovely to be with grandchildren and family in such a lovely area. I seem to recall my son, when young, loved the wrapping paper most of all!
It is so sad to see trees coming down but the weather has been awful. I wrote here about the Horse Chestnut opposite mother’s house being felled due to disease, but it is still a sad sight and the gap in the view is really such a shock still, and I keep expecting it to be there.
I am so glad no-one was near your Oak when it went. It could have been very nasty as you say. I hope the fence won’t be too expensive to replace. A nuisance though.
Well this is giving me some pain now so I shall close here and thank you once more for your kind words and I look forward to more chats in 2013 when we are both going to be incredibly successful…..I know!
Take care and keep well,
Jane x
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