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Sunday 10 January 2010

A wail - plus the literary Pollyanna approach

Wednesday evening, homeward bound through the icy slush, my bike slipped on a speedbump (does anyone except councils think speedbumps a good idea?) leaving me with cuts to my face and a broken humerus. A nice doctor at the London Hospital neatly stitched the gashes, and I don't care about the black eye, but my damaged shoulder and the plaster on my arm is driving me nuts.

The simplest thing is difficult and/or painful. Dressing, bathing, getting the lid off the coffee jar, rising from horizontal - and of course, biking and driving are both out. Along with making jewellery, and thus earning my living.

But: I think it's given me the solution I've been looking for to my current problem with Heart of Bone. Because if Yakiv the Ukranian builder incurred this sort of inconvenient injury while diving in to help Caz who was being attacked, he'd have a powerful claim on her.

Whatever favour he asked of Caz as he sat dripping blood in A & E, she'd be unlikely to refuse.

(Typed with one finger, and I just hope you are impressed I've done the capitals.)

28 comments:

  1. Blimey, Lexi. That's a hell of a way to solve a plot problem.

    Hope your humerus mends soon.

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  2. Maybe you should invest in one of these for the coffee jar -

    http://www.handyhealthcare.co.uk/mobility-aids/household/reaching-aids-and-helping-hand/aktiv-reacher.html

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  3. Oops - I meant to post this link:

    http://www.handyhealthcare.co.uk/mobility-aids/household/kitchen-aids/baby-boa.html

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  4. Art about to imitate life - brilliant!

    And so is the handy lid remover.

    Damn this global warming!

    :-)

    Hope you get better soon.

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  5. Lol Justine - have to say I'd prefer still to be stuck, with two working arms.

    Kitty, I have a bird's nest approach to my novels - any experience can find its way in to them.

    It's a tad milder here, so I hope to be able to walk in to work soon. I hate lying about at home.

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  6. Bearing in mind that whole ying/yang thing in which, one hopes, bad stuff gets balanced out by good stuff, here's hoping that that turns out to be your lucky break.

    Hope you recover soon.

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  7. Hi Lexi,

    Wanted to visit your blog after hearing great things about it. Sorry to hear of your accident and hope you get better soon. I can heartily recommend the coffee-jar-opener thingy - I'm not suffering from any ailments, I just use it for everything because I'm a general weakling and rubbish at opening jars.

    Best wishes for a speedy recovery, Clair.

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  8. I'm extremely impressed about the capitals for sure. But what on earth were you doing riding a bicycle in the slush anyway? Or am I just being too American? Or too countrified?

    I hate cities. I love the country. I love my car. Dodge Caravan, actually, with room for luggage, family, AND two dogs.

    Please take care of yourself. Mend soon!

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  9. Tom, I think I usually get more than my share of good luck...

    Hi, Clair, thanks for popping by the old blog.

    Christine, I bike most days and just didn't realize how icy it was - a misjudgment I'm still kicking myself about. I do have an elderly Micra of which I'm fond, but for zipping round London the bike's generally quicker.

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  10. Oy! I'm glad you got inspired by the incident - maybe that's the Universe's karmic recompense or something. I hope you get better fast! You're the second friend I've heard from in five minutes with major injuries this season....

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  11. Hope your injuries heal soon and well, Lexi. Also hope you're soon back to typing and can get that story line down.

    Take care
    K

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  12. Wishing you a speedy recovery. Take care.

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  13. Very sorry to hear about the accident. You definitely deserve a gold star for the capital- or for posting at all really. On the jar opening front, we have an electric device we got from lakeland limited.
    Here is a link to the same thing from Tesco http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.206-8529.aspx
    It's the Culinaire one Touch Jar opener. It really does work, you just put it on the jar and hit the button. It makes a vaguely ferocious grinding noise and slowly grasps the jar and twists the lid off.

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  14. Stop it with the jar openers!

    This problem is purely temporary. Even now, my bone is knitting itself together and soon will be as good as new!

    Or maybe even better!

    Plih.

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  15. Lexi,

    What an awesome response to what many would consider an awful predicament - only a writer could do that! But I'm still sorry you are injured. Was it a pedal bike or motor bike? (ignorant American here...curious about how you get around town out there).

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  16. Push bike - London's quite flat, so good for bikes. On a short journey they're quicker than a car, without the parking problems.

    Plus, my workshop is close to the vile Congestion Zone; £8 per day to drive a car into it.

    Grrr...

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  17. Oh dear!

    Are you feeling any better, Lexi? You have my fullest sympathies.

    Wishing you the speediest of recoveries... oh, and a happy 2010.

    Best

    Guy

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  18. Happy 2010 to you too, Guy.

    They've now taken off the useless plaster, so I can bath and wash my hair, hurrah, but everything takes twice as long and I'm walking in to work - 35 minutes instead of 12/15 on the bike.

    Pointless putting make-up on an eye that is red and yellow all on its own, so I look like an inhabitant of Cranford. I can't believe this is what God intended me to look like. Unless He's a misogynist.

    Btw, I came across the word sigil the other day, and thought of you.

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  19. Sigil - I knew it would come in handy sooner or later!

    Sorry to hear that everything is still taking so long... but at least you're out of plaster and slowly on the mend.

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  20. Hope you continue to get well, Lexi. At least you were able to turn the accident into something positive. Hopefully, this will have been the low point of an otherwise excellent year!

    Best wishes,

    Richard

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  21. Hi Richie!

    I hope your year got off to a good start. My sister lives in Spain too, and was chilly in the unexpected snow - flat not geared for the cold.

    The arm is a drag :o(

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  22. The weather has been bitterly cold, but no snow where we are.

    Currently have a stomach virus. Can't even use it for plot inspiration. Does help to lose the extra kilos put on over Christmas though. So, there is always a good side.

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  23. Poor you.

    How about working it into a short story?

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  24. How is the knitting going? And of course you are using this unfortunate incident as a positive thing for your writing. The sign of a true writer.

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  25. The knitting is going too darned slowly for my taste. But at least I can touch type now if I rest my wrist on the desk - the hand works, the arm doesn't.

    And I'm not as gloomy and embittered as I was last week.

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  26. Ah, Gloomy and Embittered, those fellows take up residence in my upper chambers every once in a while. Lousy companions, but I find they usually work their way out via my journal. It can take a while, but eventually they come drizzling out through the fine nib of my fountain pen.

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  27. I was thinking only this morning I'd been neglecting my journal.

    I don't use a fountain pen, but a nice black Pilot V ball. Will scrawl something tonight.

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