A Tuesday Tale - unexpected exercise

First of all, escalators and moving walkways and I do not get on together - I always hop on and off with a little leap - afraid they might gobble me up.

This image above is the stuff of nightmares for me!

Over the years I've had several incidents occur - the first was many, many years ago when I was on a course in London. Fresh and very green from 'the sticks', I went late night shopping with a friend, to Selfridges I think. We'd just stepped off an 'up' escalator when a very preoccupied lady jumped onto it, thinking it was going 'down'. Not so of course, and she was propelled off backwards with an enormous 'whoosh'. Beryl and I picked her up, picked up her scattered belongings, and replaced her hat (no kidding). We checked she was OK and went to walk away - and blow me, in her haste she only jumped onto it yet again so there was yet another 'whoosh'!! I almost cried laughing, thankfully she was fine but her dignity certainly was a bit bruised.

Another time just before Christmas, coming out of the underground one evening in Waterloo Station to get the mainline train home, another flipping fiasco. Two very respectable looking City gents up ahead had obviously been to a pre-Christmas celebration and one lost his balance at the same time dragging his pin-stripe suited pal down with him. Of course, this meant there was nowhere for us mugs behind to go so we had to keep on stepping down while the escalator kept going and Laurel and Hardy sorted themselves out :( Again, no-one was hurt.

The most recent time was one of those moving walkways in Heathrow Airport. I think someone up front had been partaking of some Dutch courage before boarding their flight. Wibble, wobble - oops, here's the end - wallop!  Just great - it was a long haul flight for us so we were a bit loaded, kind of like little pack horses. Have you ever tried jogging on the spot to make sure you didn't end up in the rapidly growing pile of travellers sprawled across the end of the moving walkway? In between hopping up and down on the spot I kept gasping 'For Pete's sake, someone hit the big red emergency stop button!'. Thankfully someone did that, and then they looked surprised when the flipping thing stopped!!

Len and I staggered off red-faced and panting for breath - but, to make matters worse, when we sat down eventually I reached for my bottle of fizzy water to have a gulp. And, whoosh - one fountain of very well-shaken water sprayed everyone within about 10 feet of us :(

Told you - the stuff of nightmares!

Di
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