One Step at a Time

OK, so I had the title to this post in my head for a while, and thought it was kind of witty and appropriate and so on, and then thought, who wants to hear about us putting a step in our house? It was supposed to be a metaphor for the slow, laborious progress made both with our renovations and with my jewellery work, with the obvious installation of a single step in our back room on the one hand and the successful new start to market life at Canberra on the other. I got over the urge to write it up, and was going to leave it, but then Something happened, and it was too good a title to miss out on as far as apt puns go.
The step in the sunroom has been long in its gestation, and went through many design phases before we finally got around to putting it in. There is an awkward and potentially dangerous passage for the less able-bodied to go from the lounge into the laundry/toilet, and being fairly young and agile we never had it as a high priority, but more as an item that needed addressing to assist any people visiting us who didn't feel so stable on their feet. Anyway, the tiling of the laundry meant that the step had to be done first, so in it finally went.

It looks much better now with all of the form-work removed!
So yes, we felt like we were finally making progress, and Canberra had been a bit of a personal milestone and so the whole one step at a time thing seemed very appropriate. As it happened, the really good part of the pun was about a week ahead.
I was getting on with the Second Step of the laundry process, levelling out the floor so we could tile over it, and it went fairly well. but I cleverly chose a time for laying the final coat of levelling compound when I had about an hour and a half, after which I was going down the road to meet Anna for lunch. It took longer than I thought, as always, and by the time I had rushed through it and done a quick clean-up of the equipment I had five minutes to our lunch date. Still, I figured I could make it on my pushbike in a pinch, it being my preferred mode of transport when circumstances allowed it, so I leaped on my bike, whizzed down my driveway and began to turn out towards the road. A passing car made me gently apply the brakes. The tyres suddenly slipped out to the left, finding no traction on our driveway, and I came down very heavily. It was a tiny spill by any standards, but I spent the day going to one hospital, then transferred to another "on the whistle" in an ambulance, and by the wee hours of the following morning I was deliriously coming out of my general anaesthetic having had major surgery. Now I am on crutches for at least six weeks, with the potential for another major operation looming in the near future, and the concept of one step at a time is even more literal for me than ever.
So my momentum with making jewellery has hit another wall, or in this case has hit our driveway. I am hoping to be able to do some kind of jewellery work in the next six weeks, even if only designing pieces, but I definitely won't be getting to return to Canberra for a while. I've shifted my August booking to the September market, the 19th I think, and hopefully I will be able to get there for it.
On the positive side, our brand new step, ostensibly installed for the oldies, now means I can get to visit the toilet without killing myself.