Putting my foot in it

I nearly caused a diplomatic incident when I went out for a run yesterday.

I planned to head for the local park marked on my guidebook’s map and do a couple of laps before retracing my steps. This park, however, turned out to be more of a grassy knoll (I checked for concealed gunmen and Oliver Stone before proceeding) and a couple of laps wasn’t really enough. So I decided I’d run down a few back streets.

Unfortunately, but inevitably, I very quickly got lost and was trying to work out where I was when I turned a corner and saw a couple of men in overalls sweeping the pavement. Not thinking anything of this I ran on… straight into a section of newly-laid cement. The guys who were mending the pavement found this pretty funny, although their boss shouted something along the lines of, “Bloody look where you’re running, you flaming galah!”

I was half-tempted to suggest that they go with the flow and turn the pavement into Sydney’s answer to Hollywood’s Walk of the Stars (or whatever it’s called), but thought this might get me a thumping.