Today's theme: accidents and injuries.

This morning when I got up and looked at the roofs in the backyard I couldn't see any left-over snow, so I decided I'd take the bike. Our street was wet, but fine. Then when I turned right at the corner my bike slid away from under me on the icy tarmac. The fall wasn't too bad - the handle bar took most of the impact. I got up, a little shaken, but mostly unhurt, except for a scraped elbow and knee. There will be some bruises no doubt. I had to walk to school though because the handle bar was at entirely the wrong angle.

Then, in school, there was a pupil with a nosebleed episode. Nothing too unusual and we've got kids trained in first aid in my class, so the girl was tended to quickly. I'm really glad about that, because I'm fairly useless in any situation involving physical injuries. I know what to do in theory - with nosebleeds at least - but I have the tendency to become flustered.

This afternoon, I think, was the worst of the three incidents. We went into the small supermarket in the middle of town and a girl came out through the exit on the left, just as we walked through the door on the right. A small boy was standing inside close to the left door and then there was this wail erupting from him - he had got his hand or fingers caught between door and door-frame. His mum rescued him, but his screams stayed with us for a while.

The helplessness is what gets to me. And with the little boy, the knowledge that it could very well be my own child.