The miracle of arnica.

For the past two weeks, my knees have been blackened with bruises describing my repeated falls in The Moment Of Misery. A fine rounded bruise covering most of the kneecap on my left leg - clearly the one which bears the brunt of the fall - along with a little neat bruise on the right side of my left kneecap which must be where I neatly fall when I sink lower into my misery. And then a broad general bruise on the right knee. All an attractive brown apart from the side bruise which is an angry purple-black.

Costumed run-through on Sunday demonstrated that my pretty summery dress skims my blackened knees. While I suppose appropriate for a devout character who is possibly continually on her knees praying whenever she's not on stage, I felt it wasn't particularly sightly.

So an emergency trip to Boots and a purchase of a phial of high-strength arnica pillules. I sat at my desk yesterday afternoon guzzling these pillules, careful not to touch them as the label instructed and instead pouring them direct into my mouth so as not to weaken the effectiveness.

And today, miracle of miracles, I wake to find the left knee is only palely brown, the right knee is no longer bruised at all and even the wicked little side bruise is calmed by the power of the homeopathic remedy. I swallow down my cynicism and believe.