Three-Legged Cat

I’m not exactly renowned for my highly developed sense of time, even at the best of times.

Consequently there’s been a few issues over the years, especially when the clocks change, such as the time I got through all of Sunday without realising it was *that* day. The result was that I got up just a tad early for work on Monday morning. Oops.

There were numerous little incidents involving me and others when I worked in a pub. Would I have arrived, ahem, an hour late for work one Sunday morning? Er, yes, guilty as charged. Oops. Fortunately I was greeted with much cheek, humour and general pointing at watches.

On another memorable Sunday the assistant manager arrived an hour early, then rang upstairs to the landlord in a panic – “There’s no one here!” “Better get the meals started then,” replied Mr Landlord. The two of us who worked in the kitchen turned up, at the correct time, to find Mr Assistant trying to work out how he was going to cook a couple of hundred Sunday lunches. He was slightly stressed, but we told him not to worry, just take a tea break and watch the TV for a few minutes, that would help. I guess it did; he returned a few minutes later, waved his tea mug at us and made various remarks that implied that our parents hadn’t been married. Tsk, tsk.

But today I thought we’d got it right: most clocks/phones/gadgets reset themselves these days (how wonderful is that?) and Mr TLC and I trundled around the house, room by room, checking that we’d sorted everything else. All seemed well.

Until I settled down to do a spot of work. My PC had other ideas. I wrestled with my it, called it names, waved my arms and generally had a bit of a paddy. I used my high-tech IT troubleshooting skills (yes, I turned it off, waited a bit and turned it back on again). One piece of software remained particularly uncooperative and told me that it wasn’t licensed every time I tried to use it. Not true sadly, but try telling that to a stroppy PC.

Eventually I admitted defeat, time for the ultimate piece of IT troubleshooting: uninstall and reinstall. (I’m really quite skilled at this aren’t I?)

That’s when I spotted a teeny hint of a problem:

I’m pretty sure that I didn’t last use this on 27/02/2073. It appears I may not have got this clock adjusting business quite right after all.

January: Spot a brilliant present for Sister’s birthday. Order it immediately, even though her birthday isn’t until October.

August: Spot a birthday card featuring Spike Milligan’s splendid Fluffybum the Cat. We loved Badjelly the Witch as children; we adored Fluffybum. Buy the card immediately, even though Sister’s birthday isn’t until October.

Early October: Receive an email from my calendar, reminding me that my Sister’s birthday is imminent. No problem Mr Calendar! I’m prepared.

On the day: Arrive at school, mooch about a bit, make coffee. Write the date on the whiteboard. Hear a loud clunk as the proverbial penny drops. Say, “Gosh, heck, darn, I seem to have forgotten to post my Sister’s birthday present.”

Oops.