I went to a folk dance one Saturday night and during a "Strip the Willow" I thought that someone had kicked me hard in the right heel. I finished the dance, but was limping badly although it didn't hurt in the way that a sprain would. I limped throughout the Sunday and also the the Monday when I was at work. Although not in great pain, my ankle felt strange - rather as though the ground was sloping at a funny angle.

On the Tuesday there was quite a bit of swelling, so I went to the local hospital A&E dept - feeling that I was probably wasting their time. The doctor about a minute to diagnose that I had broken my achilles tendon - "How did you do it ?", he asked. When I told him "Folk Dancing" he found it incredibly funny as did everyone else, including a nurse who was in a well known folk song group ("the Dead Sea Surfers"). Even when I was being wheeled along into the operating theatre, the sugeon was having a chuckle over my notes.

Considering that I spent a week in hospital, 3 months in a plaster cast, followed by about six months physio and it was at least a year before I could walk and run without a limp - I DIDN'T FIND IT AT ALL FUNNY.