In Edinburgh on the south side of Princes Street, there are railings separating the pavement from Princes Street gardens. Every so often there is a park bench backing on to the railings. There are gates of course but a shortcut was to run at a bench, spring up onto and off it and jump over the railings. The added complication is that on the other side of them are rose beds and quite a steep downward grass bank so you had to have enough momentum not only to get over the railings but also to clear the rose beds and be able to keep running down the grass bank on the other side. All this seems perfectly reasonable when you are a teenager.
It works very well in fact until the strap of your Adidas bag loops around the top of the railings on the way over.
This causes at the very least an amount of instability in your proposed flight path and if you also happen to have the bag worn across your body at the time leads to an abrupt halt mid air and an involuntary plummet into the rose bushes which being planted on a slope conspire only to slow your descent while lacerating any exposed flesh and not especially or at all improving the appearance of your school uniform.
The park keepers are strangely and deeply unsympathetic to these sorts of events and can get quite aerated about them.
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