wri t es Simon says
by Simon Hastelow
Random musings Sometimes I have plenty of things to write about, other times I struggle to think of something. This month I bring you my personal musings on three burning issues from the past week: 1. Handy pocket tissues 2. Towing capabilities of electric vehicles 3. Hypocritical Facebook warriors.
The first one is probably the weirdest one.
We’ve probably all used those handy little packets of five tissues. I carry them in my car, in my camera bag and work bag, but the other day I was just about recovering from a bout of man-flu and was searching for a tissue. The box in the kitchen was empty and I knew I had a packet of tissues in my work bag, but instead I went and got a bit of loo roll to blow my snozzer. The daft thing is that I walked past my work bag containing my ‘handy’ packet of tissues to get to the loo-roll. Why didn’t I use the handy packet? Why has the same packet of tissues been in my work bag for at least three years, probably longer? Because in my mind, once I open it I won’t have a handy packet of five tissues any more, I’ll only have four. Something in my head tells me that I need five tissues at all times for emergencies, an opened packet containing just four will not suffice, and will not get me through the next emergency, whatever and whenever that is. It's not like there’s a shortage of handy packets 82
THE MUD LIFE MAGAZINE
either. We usually buy them in bulk so there’s at least another ten unopened packets in the kitchen cupboard so I could just grab another one for my work bag, but I don’t. This has no real relevance to anything other than the fact that once we get to a certain age we tend to start keeping stuff just on the off chance that it will come in handy one day. It’s not sensible at all and I refer you to a previous issue of The Mud Life when I discussed clearing out the shed of parts for vehicles that I no longer own. The only instance where I have managed to kick the ‘we must save it’ temptation is with odd bits of wood. My dad and my father-in-law both have impressive collections of random bits of wood which they can call upon for household maintenance and other DIY jobs. When we moved into our new house four years ago I decided I was not going to do that. When I’ve finished a job I just bin all the extra bits I didn’t need, and go and get new stuff for the next project. I know this will upset some people, it’s just not the manly thing to do, but saving random stuff makes no sense either, just like constantly carrying a handy packet of tissues that I will probably never open!
