OPINION: Don't look now but I have suffered a bang on the bridge of my nose, writes Pat Veltkamp Smith in And Another Thing.

No you can't see it here because I have concealer makeup on but when I haven't, you can.

And truly I am amazed at the attention it creates.

You could walk around with a patch over one eye and a parrot on your shoulder and not get the attention I have had this past week.

What has happened, what did you do?

I say it was a "naccident," which it was and then explain about the sharp edge of the car door.

You know, I say - and people stare back in something like sympathetic disbelief: it sounds so trivial, I guess.

And the healing is not helped by it being on the bridge of my nose just where my specs rest.

So I left off the specs and fell a bit and it started bleeding again.

You'd think maybe all that attention would be nice, people caring and that.

But it is not and for the first time I feel sympathy for paparazzi -dodgers because maybe they do feel singled out for unwanted attention which, to be fair, I always thought they really wanted.

There's a lot in that saying about walking in another's shoes before you know where they are at.

No-one has wanted to photograph me - but to study me, yes.

My son gazed at me thoughtfully and asked if I'd always had that bump on my nose, same as Uncle Brian, James, John or someone.

No, I snapped, and I don't think they have one either.

It is not a family characteristic.

It is new and it is temporary - I hope.

Such a small thing, a bump on a bridge but if I lost a leg or my head would it cause such consternation?

Now I wonder, am I drawing attention to myself, with attention- seeking behaviour.

Could be . . .

Bit on the nose, that.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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