Things Fall Apart

You know those moments in life when everything just comes together for you? For me, the last few days have been exactly the opposite.

Let's start on a relatively minor level - any appliance or gadget I have touched has broken. First the luminous strip that marks 12 on my watch detached, and now rattles freely around the inside of the face. At least until it meets one of the moving parts, when it insinuates itself underneath whichever hand it's encountered and stops the watch completely.

Second, the kettle. Packed it in, just like that.

Third, the brakes on my car. Of all the things that could go wrong, that's a biggie. No brakes, no car, no car, no work for my wife. And suddenly we're haemorrhaging cash too.

One other device has been playing up, too. More on that later.

Running parallel to the technological disasters, we've had all kinds of health issues. My daughter's come down with tonsilitis, my son has had gastro for five days and is starting to look like a shrivelled balloon animal and my wife's been devastated by the death of an aunt. I've not actually been sick, but taking care of the rest of the family has left me tired and irritable from lack of sleep.

Exactly the kind of thing I'd usually cope with by putting the kettle on.

Yesterday, it all boiled over (if you'll pardon the analogy). It was the funeral of my wife's aunt, and I had cleared the decks of work to make sure I could go along for emotional support. Sydney had some work for me, a pair of simple jobs I could do in a couple of hours - I had four hours or more before I even needed to get ready to leave. No problem.

Right on cue, my computer died.

Two hours of swearing, threats and actual violence and I'd connected up all the right bits to my obsolete laptop to finish the job. I could do it, I could finish in time, provided my wife sorted out my clothes so all I had to do was chuck them on and leave.

My suit was missing. Just gone. Wardrobe, empty space therein.

Further cursing and searching wasted the time I needed to finish the stories for Sydney - now there was no suit and no hope of getting over the line.

My wife went on her own.

That should have been enough for one day. Then my son took a downturn and it was off to the children's hospital to get him seen to. Two hours of sitting in A&E and the conclusion was that he's sick - come back later if he's still sick.

Clutching the fact that the doctors guaranteed us he wasn't dehydrating as the sole plus point of the trip, it was off home.

In the car.

With the dodgy brakes.

Still, if we'd crashed, we'd have been close to the hospital. Fortunately nothing happened. And if 'nothing happened' had been all I'd needed to write for today I'd have been much happier about it.