Random reminder

Press, 26 June 1984, Page 30

Random reminder

KEYS TO THE KINGDOM Most of us have at times suffered from over-tiredness. One’s ability to solve problems or to think rationally can suffer as a result, as was found by the mother of two pre-schoolers. Feeling tired after a hectic day, she arrived home in gathering gloom, her tired, grizzly youngsters in tow. The house was in darkness and after finally locating the keyhole she found the key just would not go in. There followed a round of ribald curses which did little to help her predicament. Assuming she had left a key on the inside of the door AGAIN, the only door to which she had a key, she decided that access could only be gained via a window. Telling the youngsters to wait there on the dark porch, she groped her way down to the rear of the section in the hope of finding a ladder among the fruit trees. Luck was on her side, so the next job was to find an open yindow. Again luck was on her side, even though the open window was very small. By climbing the

[ ladder and balancing on the window ledge she was able to get one arm through to unhook the window below. She opened the window to the left of her ladder and was able to get one foot through it while the other foot remained on the ladder. Her feelings of relief were shattered when she was ever so rudely reminded of the presence of a tall multi-headed cactus, a thorny beast concealed in the darkness below. There she was in a strange squatting position, with her large behind hooked on the spiky cactus. By now the youngsters were howling to be let in, which motivated her to temporarily put aside her own feelings of discomfort and cast herself through the window: a painfully successful manoeuvre. On reaching the front door, she made to remove the offending key. But alas the keyhole was empty. Then the penny dropped. In the dark she had unwittingly tried to open the door with the wrong key.