Snapping Back

Shoelaces have a sixth sense... I hardly wear my casual shoes all week and then on 'Casual Friday' (I swear I live in a Dilbert cartoon sometimes) - SNAP!

After 5 minutes attempting all sorts of combinations of missing-out lace holes and creative knots, defeat is admitted and the 'smart shoes' come out for their day in the sun... With jeans... Eat your heart out Gok Wan!

The day progresses well (despite a few quizzical looks aimed at the incongruous footwear)... Lunchtime comes and goes and naturally by this point my male brain, with its maximum capacity for simultaneous processing far exceeded merely by chewing food AND having conversations with people, is operating beyond its limits and the shoelace situation is long forgotten.

4pm hits and the lace problem once again occupies center stage in the cognitive mire and I realise that I'd better bloody-well do something about it as I have something dangerously close to a date on Sunday, during which footwear would undoubtedly be useful/advisable/sane!

It was quite a warm day outside...

My best 'rapid walking' is employed to move myself to and from the local purveyor of shoelaces (a fantastic little place staffed with men in check shirts and ties who haven't lost the art of addressing someone who wants to give them money as 'sir' - even if it is £3 for a set of brown laces!) and I return back to the office in record time.

It was a REALLY warm day...

One of my colleagues spots me re-entering the office... As has been noted here before, my colleagues are not known for their compassion or tact. The exchange was as follows:

Colleague: "Bloody hell, you're sweating profusely! Where have you been?!"
Me: "Shopping, I've been shopping..."
Colleague: "What the hell for?!"
Me: "Shoelaces..." (still catching my breath)
Colleague: "You ran to town and back for shoelaces?! Why the hell did you go so quickly? They're just shoelaces!"
Me: "I've already taken my lunch break... I'm busy... I needed to get stuff done back here"
Colleague: "You went to buy shoelaces on company time?? Shocking..." at which point they shook their head and walked away...

They say it takes years of training for a psychologist to understand the inner thoughts of a murderer... Sometimes I'm not so sure...