Sharon Lloyd
On life’s little incidents
I LIFTED the lid off the butter dish recently, only to discover what could best be described as a bright yellow soup inside – and I instantly knew that Blokey had tried melting it in the microwave but had got his timings seriously wrong.
When I soften it, I tend to err on the side of caution and open the microwave door literally every few seconds to check, but I too have had the occasional lapse in concentration and have ended up with a boiling bubbly mess.
There are a few simple tasks I need to focus on, otherwise they too can end up a turning a bit pear-shaped.
I recall the days where I used to tape my favourite songs from the charts on a Sunday night as a teenager.
There was a definite talent in pressing the record button on your cassette player as the song started and stopping it at the exact moment it stopped, without getting any snippets of Tony Blackburn chattering away over the top of your recording.
Precision timing and a steady nerve were needed, but I’m proud to confess that I almost always managed it.
Almost.
Nowadays I have to focus my timings on more mundane “grown up” tasks, such as fine-tuning the softening of the butter in the microwave, boiling the perfect soft runny egg, and not burning the pizza in the oven.
Putting petrol in the car is another trial.
I so desperately want to put the exact amount in every time.
It’s a personal challenge, but no matter how hard I concentrate, I always go a couple of pennies over my target of a nice, round pound.
The feeling of satisfaction I get when I’m actually bang on my target is quite wonderful and I want to a little dance of joy on the forecourt.
It’s up there with the same sense of achievement I get when I thread a needle at the first attempt without going squint or losing the will to live as the cotton keeps missing its tiny target over and over again.
So, as I carry out major tasks in my life with often minimal effort, it seems I’m going to have to concentrate harder on the more trivial , smaller things as I get older – with melting the butter in the microwave just-so hovering at the top of the list.