PlainGeets

Two years ago, I fell. Quite literally. I had a dramatic tumble that inspired a blog post about a new kind of Humpty Dumpty – one that doesn’t wait around for the king’s horses or men to help her up, but quietly patches herself together and keeps moving forward.

Since then, life has handed me a few more metaphorical (and literal) falls, but I’ve always kept up the Humpty spirit. And just when I thought that it was time for a small break from collecting scraped knees and life lessons, the universe said, “Wait, there’s more.” But this time, Humpty wasn’t alone.

Episode 1: My dog gets a bandage
I’ve always wanted to take Arya to the beach, and opportunity finally presented itself two weeks ago. Inspired by the man in seat 61, I planned a trip to Hendaye, located at the southwestern tip of France. We booked a lovely AirBnB that overlooked the beach, and planned long walks on the beach with Arya.

What we didn’t realise is that, unlike Paris, the city’s buses aren’t dog friendly, and we’d have to walk for 40 minutes in the afternoon heat to get the lovely AirBnB! In all fairness, the walk was lovely, but by the time we got there, Arya was limping. She had scraped her paw pads on the burning asphalt, which turned us into panic-stricken tourists looking for a pharmacy in a town we didn’t know. Luckily we found one just around the corner, and were able to get the right bandage for her foot. She did limp rather pitifully for another day, but my dreams of Arya running on the beach came true, albeit a day late!

Episode 2: My turn to hobble
Different trip, same spirit. A charming little hotel. A balcony with a view. A door frame I didn’t see coming. And suddenly, I was hopping around with a bleeding toe, thanks to an unceremonious collision with the metal edge of the balcony threshold. Ironically, the hotel had warned about slippery floors, but not the silent menace of low door frames and fast-moving humans. Is it any surprise then, that I walked out barefoot, caught my toe, and managed to slice it open on said frame? The cut was surprisingly deep, and the blood rather dramatic…

Cue bandage number two. Only this time, the hotel provided the first aid kit, and it was my own foot. Sure enough, I brought out my Humpty Dumpty spirit, bandaged myself up and got ready to soldier on – this time on long walks through historic streets, all while wearing sandals clearly not built for emergency foot trauma. I had to change plans, and make the others slow down occasionally, but I didn’t let the bandaged toe stop me!

So there we were: Arya and I, each with wrapped toes, hobbling through life with a slightly lopsided gait and a shared sense of determination.

And it hit me that this wasn’t just another one of my clumsy accident stories. It’s no longer just about pulling myself up quickly before anyone notices. It’s about caring for others, asking for help when needed, and accepting that some journeys involve limps and slower paces.