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Are you safe to be let out ?

(22 Posts)
pompa Thu 27-Nov-14 19:28:34

"You are not safe to be let out" says Mrs P today. hmm

I had gone UP the escalator in a Colchester store today, came to go DOWN again -- got one foot on the escalator, but couldn't get the other one to move fast enough to get it onto the step, how on earth I didn't go head first down I still don't know, somehow I managed to push against the moving rail to get my foot back to the top. I then searched out a lift. Bit scary.

MiniMouse Thu 27-Nov-14 19:37:17

Ooh Pompa that sounds awful. Would it be easier to get on it sideways another time? I suppose it depends on whether you've got one or both hands free. Glad you were OK smile

MiniMouse Thu 27-Nov-14 19:38:18

. . . Or start off putting the other foot on first?

pompa Thu 27-Nov-14 19:52:00

MM, good suggestions - perhaps hmm I put my bad leg on first, thinking I could get the other one on in time, but it took me too long to get the bad leg on, by that time I was starting to do the splits. Despite your suggestions, I will not be trying any option again for a long while, slower, but safer to use stairs.

Mishap Thu 27-Nov-14 19:58:47

NO ESCALATORS! Ever since I broke my foot 2 years ago I have steered well clear of them. Lifts are safer and so are stairs. You are more in control. So glad you did not come a cropper.

vampirequeen Thu 27-Nov-14 20:05:35

Glad you're OK.

jinglbellsfrocks Thu 27-Nov-14 21:04:10

I am amazed you managed to get your foot back to the top. Yes, the splits did come to mind. shock

pompa Thu 27-Nov-14 21:11:05

So am I amazed, and grateful. I think I still had my weight on my good standing leg, it was my bad leg that was going away from me.
I looks a hell of a long way down from the top.

Agus Thu 27-Nov-14 21:18:10

Afraid I agree with Mrs P grin. Far too early for you to be using escalators it's just too risky until you are 100% sure footed.

It must have given you quite a shock but thank goodness you managed to right yourself. So glad it was not the outcome it could have been.

POGS Fri 28-Nov-14 12:25:20

Glad you didn't take a tumble pompa.

I always have a bit of a wobbly feeling in my head when going 'down' an escalator. It makes me feel quite fluttery.

Hope you treated Mrs Pompa to a treat.

glammanana Fri 28-Nov-14 12:29:53

So glad to read you are OK pompa I sometimes forget to step of at the top of escalators and seem to get parachuted on to the next floor !! not very dignified or ladylike I must admit. grin

Nelliemoser Fri 28-Nov-14 22:22:46

Pompa I think Mrs P might be right. Just steer clear of escalators for a while. I am sure they have lifts in Colchester.

Don't go and spoil all the good work the surgeon did.

papaoscar Fri 28-Nov-14 23:07:34

I was going down a busy deep-level tube escalator in London some time ago when on the up-side an older lady with a suitcase pitched over backwards and toppled into the half-dozen or so people behind her, which arrested her fall like a human net. By that time somebody had pressed the emergency stop button and no further harm was done. However, I dread to think what would have happened if the escalator had been almost empty. She could have fallen from top to bottom unimpeded. I have tended to be be very wary of these things since then, even the horizontal ones at airports have to be treated with care.

Eloethan Sat 29-Nov-14 00:18:04

pompa That sounds horrible. I'd be too scared to go on an escalator after that.

papasoscar Something similar happened when we were going up an escalator last year. A young woman rushed onto the escalator just behind us and she must have lost her footing. As she lay on her back, going up the escalator, with her head facing towards the bottom of the escalator, struggling to get up, a youngish couple walking up the steps enquired "Are you OK?" (??!!) and then just carried on upwards!

We managed to get her on her feet and accompanied her to the platform she needed.

grannyactivist Sat 29-Nov-14 00:25:51

Take the lift pompa, I do on account of me dodgy knee. grin

Liz46 Sat 29-Nov-14 08:00:19

I am o.k. going up on an escalator but am frightened of travelling down. I think it is because I did it in vari-focals a few times. Even if I take them off now, I still feel unbalanced so look for the lift. Perhaps stick to the lift pompa.

pompa Sat 29-Nov-14 08:54:54

I had no problem going up. I think I was nervous going down because it looks a long way down from the top, and the escalator was empty. Had I been more confident I might have been OK (might).
But I will stick to lift or stairs in future.

Stansgran Sat 29-Nov-14 15:50:40

I think I was told good leg heaven bad leg hell as a reminder which leg to use going up or down

Charleygirl Sat 29-Nov-14 16:44:47

You are correct Stansgran the minor problem is if one does not have a good leg, like myself. I thought it too dangerous when I was at the top of an empty escalator, wanting to but not having the courage so I have also sought out the lift.

pompa Sat 29-Nov-14 17:14:45

Charleygirl, exactly, trouble was i did have the courage stupidity to try it.

Greyduster Fri 05-Dec-14 17:33:25

I remembered the title of this thread when we were out today. I was watching two buzzards flying over where we were walking, stepped back to get a better view and DH yanked me back from the edge of a thirty foot drop with a river at the bottom. "You're not safe to be let out!" he said. I think he was more shaken than I was....

loopylou Fri 05-Dec-14 18:50:29

Must have shaken you up Pompa, definitely safer in lift. Having been in London recently several of the underground escalators are so precipitous I hung on very tightly going down, to my daughter's amusement- she has a head for heights, I don't!