Pencils

There is something about mechanical pencils that are just lovely, mine is a silver parker and is the only elegant thing I have on my desk. So I was understandably distraught when I lost it. It was one of those silly things – I had it in my hand, and then it wasn’t there. So I checked all the places that I normally lose it.

Is it in my coffee?
No. (I do sometimes get it confused with a spoon, not that I use spoons in my coffee)

Is it in the bin?
No.

Is it in my tissue box?
No. (You may laugh, but it’s crazy how often it ends up there – I think it’s making a nest)

Is it under my desk?
No. (But I can’t look too hard because I might pull out the network cable and cut off most of the room. And people have been really touchy about that recently)

Have I managed to throw it somewhere else?
No-one else has noticed a flying silver projectile, although it can’t be ruled out. The people sitting near me are getting used to me accidentally firing things across the desks – It’s got to the stage where other people will drop things when they’re talking to me in a sort of sympathetic response.

I was left upset and disorientated, and had to use a wooden pencil. Now, I’m sure that I’m not the only person who has this problem, but I tend to eat the ends of pencils. This is the primary reason that I use a mechanical one as even I can’t eat metal. However, when you eat a wooden pencil you run the risk of splinters. I’ve never got a pencil splinter yet, but I’m in no rush to get one either, I suspect they’d be painful.

So let’s all celebrate! My prodigal pencil has returned*. Let’s go kill the fatted calf and parrttttttyyyyyyy.



*I think that the fact that it was underneath my keyboard all the time is a detail that doesn’t need broadcasting.