Going for a dip in Rydal Water

Now there are some people who think it's inappropriate to use a blog as a means of poking fun at someone who has found themselves in an embarrassing situation.
Fortunately, I'm not one of those people, which means that I am able to take great delight in re-telling the story of a friend of mine (perhaps former friend after this) who ended up taking an unintentional dip in Rydal Water in the Lake District.
However, to save the unfortunate soul from too much ridicule, names have been changed to protect their identity, so Sue Jamieson will be known as Ethel.

It's a simple enough tale (what bits I can remember anyway...I was rather busy sniggering when the tale was being related to me) - mountain biking along a track beside Rydal Water, Ethel and her two companions approach a section where walkers can take a high path but bikers need to enter the water and make their way through it. Whilst Ethel's two companions have local knowledge of how to get through this stretch, Ethel does not and, alas, her front wheel hits a rock and she slowly (and comically) topples over into the deeper water of the lake...much to the amusement of the 30+ people who happen to be in the vicinity.
Now, in my mind's eye, in the moment when Ethel hits the rock and realises she is toppling over, there will be an expression on her face similar to that in Wallace & Gromit's 'The Wrong Trousers' when the toaster pops but no toast comes out, and Gromit realises where the jam is going to end up.(if you haven't seen 'The Wrong Trousers', watch it...now!)

Ethel ended up wet through from the waist down. She had to stoically endure the jolly comments of passers-by. She left a small (amusing) trail of water on the path as she rode away. She also had to drive home still wearing damp cycling shorts (yes, the ones with the shammy gusset).

Still, Ethel can at least console herself with the knowledge that she was able to bring a smile to the face of those 30 people who saw her go 'splash-down', and to all the people those 30 people told about the time they saw a female mountain-biker fall over into Rydal Water that day in May ('It was hilarious!'), and to all the people whom those people have told who have put it on a blog so that potentially everyone in the world can read about it, have a laugh, thank the Lord that it wasn't them and bemoan the fact that no-one caught it on video so we could watch it again and again on YouTube.