Compelling further proof today of my sister-in-law’s theory that the best way to get something done is to do something else. (See blog entry for March 4th).
I take my car to be valeted. This is not a moment before time, on two counts. Firstly, a journey with me has lately become increasingly like travelling inside a speeding wheelie bin. (I was tempted yesterday to pull over by a van offering a wheelie bin cleaning service.) Secondly, the valet service is actually a Christmas present from my husband, and in three days’ time it will be Easter. In keeping with Janet’s theory, by finally having the car valeted, I manage to complete not one but five other tasks:
– I get to try out two new coffee shops while I wait for the work to be done
– I finally sort out the toys, books and colouring pens that have been multiplying around my daughter’s car seat
– While drinking the coffee, I draft article with an imminent deadline (working at home yesterday, I allowed the ironing to displace my writing plans)
– Feeling I’m stretching the goodwill of the coffee shop proprietors, I also visit the nearest public library and am able to find the two books that my usual branch was unable to provide last week
– And last, but not least in terms of profitability, the mechanic finds two major items of interest down the side of the seats – a purple fairy doll of my daughter’s and a nearly-new mobile phone that I thought I’d lost 18 months ago.
This is particularly good news for my husband. As luck would have it, I invested in a new mobile for myself just the other day, so the rediscovered phone will now be passed on to him, replacing his current ancient handset. This phone cost me rather more than the valet service has cost him, so this Christmas, at least, he has made a net profit. And of course I benefit by having an immaculately clean car.
I wonder what I should request for next year’s Christmas present?
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