Chocolates

I think these look lovely. Apologies for the fact it is another christmas thing but it was the easiest thing to do today.

To say I had a trying day is pushing it. I'm actually a very lucky man and, on some levels, I know it. However, on the losing-it-completely level, it was a shocker of a day. Perhaps best illustrated by the "trying to get a key cut" story.

The building we live in has a back door. Sometimes, say after shopping and it's raining, it would be handy to just nip in through the back door and not have to go round the building to the front. For that we needed a key cut. I volunteered to go and get this done. It should be painless really.

So I went to the key cutting shop.

And waited.

After a couple of minutes a head popped round the screen at the back of the shop "terribly sorry, I'm on the loo and I'll be a couple of minutes" said the man. "Ok" said I, "not a problem, I can wait" not realising what was going to unfold.

After a couple of minutes, he duly re-appeared and washed his hands. I explained what I wanted - 2 copies of the back door key, please. And then there was the first sharp intake of breath, "oooh, don't know about that mate - not sure we've got that sort of key".

This prompted 5 minutes of searching through all the different key templates that he had. Finally, he found one and cut me a copy. He handed the copy to me and said "nip back home and see if that works, I'm not a hundred per cent sure it will."

So I went back home - only about 3/4 of a kilometer. Tried the key and of course, it didn't work. So back to the shop. "It didn't work" I say. "I didn't think it would" says he.

And then he has another look through the marvellous world of key blanks for 5 minutes. Selects another after a lot of peering and comparing. And cuts another copy. "Trot on home and try that one then" says he. Given that it feels and looks identical to the first copy, I'm not hopeful.

And after trotting home and trying the bloody thing, I was absolutely spot on not to be hopeful.

So back to the shop. He looks sad that it hasn't worked but he says he isn't all that surprised. Because, you see, he's only looking after the shop today for his nephew. His nephew knows about keys. He doesn't.

Really? Gosh. I am surprised....

Anyway, he phones his nephew and the nephew says he'll be right round. He must have been in Mainz because it took him ages. Anyway, he arrives. Finds the right key body in about 2 seconds and within 4 minutes I have the 2 functioning keys that I asked for.

What I didn't have was the nice relaxing walk around town - that I'd left work early for - looking for a Blip of something that wasn't lying around the house...

Like I said at the beginning, a first world problem. Didn't half spoil my mood though.