For weeks I had been planning what I had finally managed to do.
Since I'd moved into my new neighbourhood, I've noticed the routines of everyone in our area. The school run, the post man, the business man who's always late, and the 6am runner before work type.
I'd especially noticed the runner who lived 2 suburban streets away, in his very clean white nike running trainers, his athletic fit grey joggers that required no imagination and his gym bod workout top. I could tell he was a regular gym goer by his obvious wearing of tight work-out wear and very defined muscles. He wanted everyone to know and I certainly noticed.
So I hatched a plan, and continued to observe the early 6am street. Every morning at 6.03 he would run past. I decided to create the habit of taken a small bag of trash outside every day at the exact time he would run past and set my imagination wild. It only took a few days for him to acknowledge me with a simple head bob or a small hand gesture. Little did he know it was more than a small hand gesture I had planned for him.
3 weeks later, after many tedious get ups, and pointless trash trips, I made my acting debut. I left my front door a few minutes early so that he would be a few houses down as he watched me open my front, trip and fall down the front few steps. Whilst intentionally falling, I did go down harder than expected and with quite a thud too! As expected, he came running into the front garden to see if his friendly new neighbour was alright. Such a gentleman. As he offered out his hand and helped me up, I was rewarded with a much closer view of his grey jogger bulge. I had to control myself.
As I stood up right hand on one side of my head, I told him,
'I think I've twisted my ankle, would you mind helping me inside?'
As he helped me to the nearest chair in the kitchen, out of breathe from his run, he also sat down, perfectly planned opposite me and back to the kitchen counters.
'My ankles feeling a little better now, must be the adrenaline taking over, let me grab you a glass of water'