I had a Humpty Dumpty moment a while ago. I tripped over my own foot, fell hard on my right bum and hit my head against the wall. This happened in my living room. The floor in my condo is flat. I had on my reliable Nike trainers. I was doing my morning aerobics exercise. Everything was familiar. So why?

It occurred so quickly that I realised but couldn’t quite grasp that I had had an accident, albeit a small one. I felt the pain immediately in two spots. Smarting pain on the right cheek. And my right palm.  Bruises already formed on my palm that I had, thankfully, used to break the fall. Otherwise, I would have crashed my head a little harder on the wall. Yikes. After remembering to ice the two affected areas, I managed to laugh at how silly my little stunt was. It was funny and a little troubling. Was I careless? Was I not paying attention? I put in down to ‘These things happen …’

Around the same time, my husband fell off his motocross bike and hurt the right side of his upper body. There were some bruises. He had twinges of pain when he tried to do some every day actions like tying his shoelaces, lifting his work backpack or sleeping on the sore side. He has had intermittent injuries including a broken ankle bone that needed about three months to heal; since he began this more injury prone sport. Sport or activity related injury is almost more expected, accepted and commiserated. Professional athletes like tennis players, golfers and footballers get paid big bucks. But, they also have to deliver a high level of performance, and avoid injury as much as possible. Although not in the same level or league, I do my best not to labour the point when my husband gets bruised and hurt because these things happen.

I too have had my share of sports related injuries. I’ve been hit on the face by a squash racket and have crashed head first into a wall that produced shiners. I’ve fallen off a motocross bike and had my glasses cut into my nose. I’ve landed awkwardly on my thigh while skiing that required a visit to the doctor. And, I’ve bruised my entire being from repeatedly falling on real ice trying to ice-skate. 

I also have had some other now funny, very possibly, then painful incidences. I walked into a pole that left a scar that’s still sitting on my forehead when I was in primary school in Alor Setar. I obviously did not look where I was going until I collided with a stationary pole. I also unwittingly caught my foot in a bicycle tyre. Unfortunately for me, it was still moving. My foot was a bloody mess and it needed dressing for a few weeks. I had another unhappy episode with a bicycle. This time it was while riding pillion with my eldest brother to a sundry shop. My brother, who was little himself, could not navigate the sudden incline in front of the shop. Not being able to stop and park, we both unceremoniously fell of the bike. The shame of falling off was far worse than the pain as we brushed off any imaginary dirt and vamoosed. I am not sure if we ever visited that shop again.

The one incident that still gives me the shivers happened in 2011. My husband and I were walking back to our car after dinner. Despite street lights, it was rather dark and I remember casually jumping across a drain. My husband either misjudged or did not see it. He stepped into a monsoon drain and received quite a bashing. Luckily, no bones were broken. Particularly as it was just before our long awaited ‘travel the world’ gap year.

Most people have a story to tell about how they fell over or hurt themselves in the most frightening or unlikeliest situations. Just this last week, I sustained two bumps on my head. The first after my temple connected with an iron bar that protruded from a pole on a pavement. Yes, a footway for people to walk on. How? The second occurred yesterday when I knocked my head on a tap while scrubbing my mum’s bathroom floor. How?

I know I have a few more bumps, burns, cuts and bruises waiting to happen with my name on them. The trick is to come out of each one still standing. And, hopefully, with a chuckle.