Oh well, here we go! Nellie you were so nearly right, it was a very near thing that my legs were waving out of the top!
What happened was....... we finished supper last night and I went out to scrape the plates into the bin. Firstly, it is very unusual for there to be anything left on our plates, and secondly, yes our Local Council actively encourages us to put food waste in the green wheelie bin.
Now, I'm not very tall, and the bin only had a small amount of stuff in it. So, I'm scraping away, and accidentally dropped the knife. As said earlier, tipping the bin on it's side would have been the best option.
Unfortunately wine had been taken, so my judgement was impaired.
I looked into the bin, could see the knife and thought that if I just sort of jumped a little bit, I might be able to reach it. So I jumped a bit, then kind of bounced up and down a bit, until my stomach was sort of balanced on the edge of the bin.
At this point there was a sort of "fulcrum" effect. (I'm not sure if that is the correct word, but it will have to do.)
Basically, within a split second, I became aware that there were only 2 possible outcomes, namely:
1) I would go head first into the bin, with my short fat hairy legs waving in the air. (A la Nellies image)
2) I could shift my weight back the other way, and fall backwards with the wheelie bin on top of me.
I briefly considered option, 1, but as Mr P had already gone through to the sitting room, I realised that I could have been upside down in the wheelie bin for some time. Well, at least until he came back into the kitchen to get another beer, glanced out of the window and wondered if the village had a new performance artist specialising in social commentary with regard to recycling.
So, I went with option 2.