D'oh!

Have you ever tripped on nothing, banged your head, said 'sorry' to a lamp post and 'thank you' to sympathizing spectators?

I did. And it was such a humid afternoon too...

My team mates and I were just returning from one of our lunch-outs when it happened. So here I am walking peacefully with a content smile on my face and covered in hard-earned sweat (the restaurant was quite the walking distance away), when suddenly I tripped. I don't know what caused my feet to stumble like that, and it was my curiosity to find out that furthered my embarrassment:

I tripped, so of course I looked back to find out what-the-frap caused me to trip but found nothing. Instead, I found myself suddenly in front of a jumbo lamp post. With no time to react, I squeezed my eyes shut and braced for impact.

Oof~

Inertia caused my arms to swing forward while I became a helpless witness as my arms hugged the post without my consent. Without control, my forehead banged on the said lamp post, and because it was covered in rubber (don't ask) my head re-bounced. I was slowly regaining consciousness and common sense by that point and managed to control my neck to prevent a second banging. It all happened within 2-3 seconds.

After which, I immediately untangled myself from the post and said "Sumimasen" (sorry) to it. I figured it'd be best to say 'sorry' in Japanese since it was a Japan-based lamp post, but that's just my banged head talking.

If that wasn't enough, I found (to my horror) that my boss, and the boss of my boss, and my team mates, and everyone else that happened to witness the show, was staring and you could really feel the strain on their faces as they tried not to laugh. The energy produced was so palpable in the atmosphere, I wouldn't be surprised if steam was produced somewhere...

Someone managed to ask, "Daijobu na no ka?" (are you all right?) to which I replied, "Ah! Arigatou..." (thank you). There was a huge crowd of blank stares involved and everyone began to sweat. Mine was already dry, in fact I was shivering.

Then someone laughed.

And the world was fine once again.