Wednesday 9 June 2010

An Accident Waiting To Happen.

Last Saturday, a party of us went to a lovely restaurant to celebrate my sister-in-law's birthday. As it was a lovely evening, we decided to order drinks outside in the late sunshine. The men settled on garden chairs and loungers, whilst three of the girls, including me, sat on a padded circular lounge area.
We ordered our drinks and caught up on family news, when suddenly the three on us on the padded seat, dropped a few inches. Seconds later, before we had time to grasp what was happening, all three of us fell backwards into a deep hole. We fell about six foot, landing on our backs on pipework. As I looked up at the sky through the opening of the hole, several faces peered down at us. I thought at first we'd fallen into a well!
We were all hauled out, luckily with only cuts, bruises and pulled muscles. I shudder to think what might have happened. Falling six foot onto your back isn't something the health and safety inspectors would condone!
It appears that the hole was a drained jacuzzi with a shelf removed, making it deeper than it would have been if water had been in it. My sister-in-law and friend were soaked as they'd been holding drinks at the time. Not a very promising start to a birthday celebration. One member of staff muttered that they would get a notice made to stop others from sitting on it!! A bit like shutting the gate after the horse has bolted I think! And why was there padding on the top, inviting diners to sit down? Why was our drinks order taken whilst we were sitting on it, without a word of warning as to what we were sitting on?
A visit to the doctor on the Monday morning, thankfully only revealed a twisted knee, pulled muscle in my back and a beautiful display of purple and black bruising up my calf and thigh. I suppose looking on the bright side, it's some new material for future chapters of my new novel! Inspiration can be found from the bottom of a smelly jacuzzi!