Dear Santa...for my PP Christmas, I would like....

[Penners]

you'll want a particular sized grommet or washer, a thingy, an old bit of something, and you'll think "I had one of those that would do nicely. Now where is it? Aaaaaaaaugh!"

Absolutely right!

What was it that Joni Mitchell sang? "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone". Well, she's dead right - I've no idea what I've got... :?

 

[Zebra]

Is Ms Mitchell saying that something has to disappear before you know what it is? But I have many things right here, that haven't gone, and I know what they are! This pencil for instance! A chisel. The contents of this old tea cup. Oh, wait, no I don't know what that is.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Have to confess to pangs of longing reading the above. Oh for a messy husband who wouldn't nag me! Chris' ironmongery is all in labelled boxes, his hammers and chisels have places that are set in stone and woe betide if you move them round. Things are given 6 months to declare themselves useful, and then binned if found wanting. There's a saw shelf, a chisel shelf, a brush shelf, a scraper shelf, a protective wear shelf, a wallpaperer's bag, and a locked inner room to the workshop where the power tools sit in appointed spots ( only he has the key).
All his shoes have specific shoes trees, his suits have specific hangers and dust-bags with windows. His favourite Saturday morning past-time is to group like items together, and he won't do anything else until he's done 2-3 hours of that. Documents are filed, receipts are photographed. Obsolete technology isn't permitted.

It isn't human!! It is useful though. And at least I didn't get the brother, who memorised all the answers to Trivial Pursuits and gave up his wife for chess. :lol:

 

[Feltwell]

Scary stuff. Does he love lists as well? Mrs F does - she's never happier than when preparing a list. It is her only nod to being ultra-organised though.

I shared a university flat with a student who sounds rather like Chris. We got a key to his room on the quiet - we used to go in when he was out and change a few things just a little, like putting his calendar block back by a day, changing the alignment of the posters on the wall just a little, moving his bookmark by 1 page or advancing his alarm clock by 5 minutes. Great fun at the time but looking back it's lucky we didn't end up driving him into the local asylum !

 

[Zebra]

:shock: Wow!!

His favourite Saturday morning past-time is to group like items together, and he won't do anything else until he's done 2-3 hours of that

:lol:
Do you really messy things to rebel? Like have a drawer that is only yours, into which you can throw little bits of string, untidily?

 

[Flyfisher]

It isn't human!!

Indeed not. Is he a Vulcan perhaps?

Fortunately Mrs FF is a perfect match for my own hoarding impulses, though I do like to pretend that my piles of stuff are more orderly. I have, however, discovered an utterly reliable method for locating that essential item that you just know has been carefully stored somewhere safe so it won't get lost and today is finally the say when it is urgently needed. All you have to do (after searching fruitlessly for an hour or so) is to simply buy a new whatever-it-is and use that instead. You will then find, as if by magic, that your safely stored whatever-it-is will reveal itself almost immediately . . . so at least you'll know where it is for next time. Maybe.

 

[Zebra]

I have, however, discovered an utterly reliable method for locating that essential item that you just know has been carefully stored somewhere safe so it won't get lost and today is finally the say when it is urgently needed. All you have to do (after searching fruitlessly for an hour or so) is to simply buy a new whatever-it-is and use that instead. You will then find, as if by magic, that your safely stored whatever-it-is will reveal itself almost immediately . . . so at least you'll know where it is for next time. Maybe.

Yes absolutely. In fact I find it's the instant you stop looking, the searched-for thing gives up the game and shows itself, i.e. you hunt through your toolbox for your screwdriver, then you look in your pockets, then you look on the floor, then you look wherever you were last working, then over by the kettle, then out by the van, then in the toolbox again, and the very instant that you say to yourself "Oh never mind, I'll use another one" it turns up right in front of you.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Oh yes Zebra, my stuff's in a dreadful muddle. On Saturday mornings he tidies it though. Even worse, now we have synchronised iPhone calendars small reminders appear daily on my phone "book MOT" "dry-cleaning" "old ladies" ( the old ladies mend something of his once a week)
It used to irritate me, but now it's all just water of a duck's back I'm afraid, we've been together such an age. And it is so nice not having to think about these dull things.

Feltwell - that was naughty! Almost as naughty as when Chris wrote my brother a formal letter asking him to present himself at the Faculty of Engineering in black tie, on an appointed day and time, and then hid in the bushes filming his pointless sartorial progression down the street.

 

[Zebra]

I shared a university flat with a student who sounds rather like Chris. We got a key to his room on the quiet - we used to go in when he was out and change a few things just a little, like putting his calendar block back by a day, changing the alignment of the posters on the wall just a little, moving his bookmark by 1 page or advancing his alarm clock by 5 minutes. Great fun at the time but looking back it's lucky we didn't end up driving him into the local asylum !

Actually, I heard a tale while I was at university of a bloke who lived in the high accommodation tower, who after a rather late evening, was passed out in his bed, and his friends managed to move all his stuff AND HIM into a ground floor room, set the room up just like his, woke him up, and then all said goodbye and left via the window.

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol: :lol: brilliant. Chris and Clyde spent 6 years on pranks like that. Oh, the usefulness of university life! :lol:

 

[Penners]

I have, however, discovered an utterly reliable method for locating that essential item that you just know has been carefully stored somewhere safe so it won't get lost and today is finally the say when it is urgently needed. All you have to do (after searching fruitlessly for an hour or so) is to simply buy a new whatever-it-is and use that instead. You will then find, as if by magic, that your safely stored whatever-it-is will reveal itself almost immediately . . . so at least you'll know where it is for next time. Maybe.

Yes absolutely. In fact I find it's the instant you stop looking, the searched-for thing gives up the game and shows itself

Well I don't know how you manage to arrange that, Zebra. In my world, things that are lost (ie: anything that falls even vaguely into the category of "tools") never turn up until I've bought replacements. :evil:

 

[Penners]

a drawer that is only yours

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgUpDGAIdds&feature=related

 

[Penners]

Oh for a messy husband who wouldn't nag me! Chris' ironmongery is all in labelled boxes, his hammers and chisels have places that are set in stone and woe betide if you move them round. Things are given 6 months to declare themselves useful, and then binned if found wanting. There's a saw shelf, a chisel shelf, a brush shelf, a scraper shelf, a protective wear shelf, a wallpaperer's bag, and a locked inner room to the workshop where the power tools sit in appointed spots ( only he has the key).
All his shoes have specific shoes trees, his suits have specific hangers and dust-bags with windows. His favourite Saturday morning past-time is to group like items together, and he won't do anything else until he's done 2-3 hours of that. Documents are filed, receipts are photographed. Obsolete technology isn't permitted.

I've never met Chris - and yet, strangely, I feel that I instinctively dislike him.

:wink:

 

[Zebra]

Well I don't know how you manage to arrange that, Zebra. In my world, things that are lost (ie: anything that falls even vaguely into the category of "tools") never turn up until I've bought replacements. :evil:

Oh no, I can quite deliberately look for a while, then announce that I'm giving up, and out they'll come. Perhaps one day they'll be onto me, and then I'll be scuppered.

 

[Feltwell]

Obsolete technology isn't permitted.

The problem with implementing that particular policy in the Feltwell household is it would banish most of our technology. Our VHS video recorder's days are probably numbered, in part due to an inability to record now the TV signal is digital but mostly due to an over-enthusiastic toddler liking to use it as a postbox. For DVD's mostly, which has a certain irony to it.

 

[Flyfisher]

Slightly related to mislaying things, has anyone else had the experience of going to fetch something from another room and then, having walked in the room, have promptly forgotten what it was they they went to fetch?

Well, apparently it's all to do with the compartmentalism of the mind and the effect of doorways triggering an 'event' which causes the mind to file away its current 'task' in preparation for a new one: http://scienceblog.com/49411/walking-through-doorways-causes-forgetting/

 

[Zebra]

In the morning I go through the doorway into the bathroom to see if I can trigger an event.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

LoL.

My problem isn't forgetting things when I walk into a room, but finding my attention span is a little short.

As soon as I walk in to a... ooh look, a spider. I wonder where it's going?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

I have, however, discovered an utterly reliable method for locating that essential item that you just know has been carefully stored somewhere safe so it won't get lost and today is finally the say when it is urgently needed. All you have to do (after searching fruitlessly for an hour or so) is to simply buy a new whatever-it-is and use that instead. You will then find, as if by magic, that your safely stored whatever-it-is will reveal itself almost immediately . . . so at least you'll know where it is for next time. Maybe.

Yes absolutely. In fact I find it's the instant you stop looking, the searched-for thing gives up the game and shows itself, i.e. you hunt through your toolbox for your screwdriver, then you look in your pockets, then you look on the floor, then you look wherever you were last working, then over by the kettle, then out by the van, then in the toolbox again, and the very instant that you say to yourself "Oh never mind, I'll use another one" it turns up right in front of you.

The thing to do in those circumstances is to stand in the middle of the room, and say out loud "House Pixies, Please can I have my [item required] back", and then spend an hour or so doing something else. When you go back, the required item will be where you last saw it. Never fails.

 

[LadyArowana]

Oh for a messy husband who wouldn't nag me! Chris' ironmongery is all in labelled boxes, his hammers and chisels have places that are set in stone and woe betide if you move them round. Things are given 6 months to declare themselves useful, and then binned if found wanting. There's a saw shelf, a chisel shelf, a brush shelf, a scraper shelf, a protective wear shelf, a wallpaperer's bag, and a locked inner room to the workshop where the power tools sit in appointed spots ( only he has the key).
All his shoes have specific shoes trees, his suits have specific hangers and dust-bags with windows. His favourite Saturday morning past-time is to group like items together, and he won't do anything else until he's done 2-3 hours of that. Documents are filed, receipts are photographed. Obsolete technology isn't permitted.

I've never met Chris - and yet, strangely, I feel that I instinctively dislike him.

:wink:

That's strange, because I have also never met Chris, but I think we would probably get on rather well. I like my shoes in original boxes though ( easier to stack and know what's inside ) and because most clothes I wear are lightweight I keep them in their drycleaning bags, but other than that our thinking seems to be the same :lol: