Last week was a big one and so this past weekend has been spent resting. I had a nasty fall midweek, which has left me in pain for days. I took a tumble while walking out of my manager’s office – tripping on a chair leg and smacking my knee and hand into the metal edged door. I immediately sat down, laughing it off, then applying a cold compress to my knee and elevating my leg. Overnight, my body stiffened and I woke up with a very sore foot in addition to the other injuries. The skin on my knee healed quickly as always, but it’s my joints that feel rickety.

Adam and I were like ships in the night – me at concerts and him at Cubs and handyman jobs most of last week. Dinners were eaten out or on the run. We saw each other briefly after 10.00 pm on some nights, for a quick talk about our day and a mandatory cuddle. I missed him a lot. When I told him I fell, he rang me straight away, asking if he needed to come home. I said I’ll be fine. He got home late, and straight away removed the quilt to look at my leg. Then he applied antiseptic cream to it. I hadn’t done so because I feel tougher than my skin looks. It’ll be right, I said. He wanted none of that, showing me such love in looking after me. I fall for him – in a safer way – every day.

This was my first big fall since I fell down the stairs in 2012. I cut both knees then. I’m clumsy. This time, three years on, it hurts more to walk. Each time I take a step downstairs, my joints ache. I went to see Fleetwood Mac a second Tim (!!) and when I got home, I felt like I’d been for a run. Adam has helped me stretch my legs out. I feel less sore, steadier.

When I was looking for a place to live in Melbourne, I had a fall After a long, hot day of househunting. Mum and I were so over it, and I wasn’t watching where I was going. I tripped over the pavement, and Mum couldn’t stop laughing at me. I did not see the humour in it at the time. Nor did I see it when I suddenly fell and did a drop roll on a flat source while on holidays in Tasmania. So. Clumsy.

Mum fell over a few months ago – she fell chasing a chicken. Skipping over in the mud, she did the splits. She used to be a very good gymnast in her teens and 20s. But that night in the chicken run left her bruised, swollen and in need of an ambulance.

My Dad tried lifting her up but she couldn’t move, describing herself as dead weight. She had us in stitches telling us about how Dad asked if she had put on weight. “This isn’t the time to comment on my weight”, she scolded him!

It’s funny how as a child, falls happen so often. We fall when we are running and playing. Scraped knees were a reminder that we were having fun. We bounced back quickly, agile limbs and a rush to get back to playing. But as an adult, falls frighten us. They make us unsteady as we walk over pavement cracks weeks later. And we feel so silly at our clumsiness.

Have you fallen down lately? How long did it take you to feel steady again?