Story of my life

Have you ever been haunted by a phrase? Followed everywhere you go?

I have. It has even followed me into exile, as a transplanted Brit in Greece, and continues to stalk me even 20 years since I sampled my first mouthful of REAL tzatziki and slurped my first frappe (iced coffee).

"And what is that phrase?" I hear you say (I do, don't I?).

It's "She means well", usually followed by an apologetic "but...", and anyone who has known me long enough can vouch for its accuracy, and probably have said it themselves on more than one occasion.

Hence the title of this new blog-o-mine (past ramblings can be found at the boringly titled ajm-online.blog.com).

Nature has made me long of limb, broad of beam, open of mind and impatient of nature. Sometimes the results are embarrassing, sometimes hilarious (in retrospect) and - occasionally - unintentionally hurtful.

I'd like to think (hope) that the times I have made folk laugh outnumber the times I've made them cry.

And if that means making an utter fool of myself by bouncing off lampposts in France (and apologising - in True Brit style - in schoolgirl French), ploughing into a precious collection of miniature liquers to prevent a toddler from causing damage, sending a sugar sachet sailing through the air to land with a 'plop' in an unsuspecting coffee drinker's cappucino, or leaning off just a little too far over the food display to seeing my sunglasses drop off and land in the stew, then so be it.

The immediate result is usually cringing embarrassment from me, occasionally accompanied by attempts to hide under a small coffee table (remember the long of limb & broad of beam bit here). Later comes hilarity from those who witnessed it or hear the story richly embellished by my gleeful Other Half. All I can do is sit there and good-naturedly shrug my shoulder, give a lop-sided grin and hope they can see beyond my 'Queen of Klutz' image.

I can live with being the Diva of Disaster, but the one thing that rips me up is when I unintentionally wound someone.

So, just for the record, I'd like to take this opportunity to apologise to anyone whose feelings I may have unwittingly hurt. I may be tactless, clumsy, irrational, or artless but I DO mean well...