Tangled truths

It is a truth universally acknowledged that if you get your iPod out to listen to on the Tube, the earphones will be tangled. You will then spend all the time that you intended to spend listening to your chosen music fiddling with tiny wires. Which will then somehow get themselves even more knotted than they were to start off with.

By the time the wires are untangled you have either reached your destination or have been so involved in your task that you have actually gone past your stop.

Either way, you now don't have the time to listen to the music that would have let you arrive looking like (and listening to the appropriate soundtrack for) the stylish person you want to show the world you are.

Going up in the World

I go climbing (theoretically) once a week. The theoretical part is because at the moment I keep coming up with excuses as bad as the ones I used at school to avoid PE. I'm not sure why I'm avoiding it. I actually like climbing. Admittedly I am rubbish at it. The visions I had of astounding people with my natural ability when I first decided to try it have not exactly been evidenced. I am a natural optimist. Kind of. I always hope to be brilliant at any new sport I try. Sadly climbing, is not something at which I naturally excel.

However I will continue to go to climbing, struggle my way up the walls (Spiderwoman I am not) and come back down replete with bruises, scuffed elbows and knees and grazes. Not to mention pulled muscles. So far I have never come back from climbing without bruises round my knees. My climbing partners don't understand this. Knees are not involved in climbing - except as the useful bending joint which enable you to go up in the world. Why mine end up the way they do is a complete mystery. I think I will worry less about the little purple circles and more about whether my knots are tight.

After all, when you are tied to a rope and all your weight is balanced on two little footholds, knots not knees are your priority.