Lists

I just love making lists. Indeed, I am a compulsive lidt-maker (so that’s where Helen got it from, says Ian). I have a lifetime lists of birds seen; a list of butterflies seen in the garden; my favourite desserts; and so on. But lists of jobs always defeat me.

It does not seem to matter how many jobs one does the list, instead of diminishing, grows. The current (as opposed to long-term) list has about 45 items on it. Last night I had a spare fifteen minutes before “Eggheads” began so I thought I would fill a pretty bottle with little coloured stones; a job too trivial to be on the list. I misjudged the sizes and one of the stones got stuck in the neck of the bottle. I went to get the long-nosed pliers from my little emergency tool-box but they were not there. At the same time I noticed the tape measure was missing. While in the downstairs loo looking in the toolbox the light bulb blew. That reminded me I have been trying to get screw-in energy-saving daylight bulbs for Jo’s counselling room. In the end I used a Victorian bootlace hook to extract the stone and wondered what one would sell for on E-bay. I then zoomed upstairs to catch the second half of Eggheads while I played on the computer.....

In half an hour I had managed to do one job (not even on the list) and added the following:-
Find pliers;
Find tape measure;
Replace loo bulb;
Check E-bay re value Bootlace hook;
Hunt internet re Jo’s bulbs...

Soon the list will reach the stage where I abandon it totally. Then, in a few weeks I’ll write in my notebook “List the jobs I have to do....”