Friday fun.

Do Not Leave Unattended Luggage

 

Imagine you're travelling via British Rail to reach some

sunny destination¹.

You've left your suitcase/holdall/internal frame backpack in the luggage rack at the end of the carriage where you would imagine it to be safe – that is, until you hear an 'important announcement':

Please do not leave unattended luggage anywhere on the train. Any unattended items may be removed without warning.

Without too much thought, you head down to the end of the carriage to attend to your bag. It's still there, but it's not doing anything particularly interesting, and you begin to wonder what all the fuss is about. Then you realise what the message actually meant: you must not leave unattended luggage. As you're standing there, your bag is by no means unattended. You are fully free to leave it, and do so immediately.

On the way back to your seat, however, you notice that someone has left their bag entirely on its own. You must not leave unattended luggage, so you stand next to it awaiting the owner's return. Unfortunately, the train reaches your stop before anyone comes to claim it. You panic about leaving the bag, but recall that 'unattended items may be removed without warning'. It's clear that you have no choice, so you take it with you as you head to pick up your own luggage. Fortunately enough, the police come round your house a week later to reclaim the unattended bag. However, some great misunderstanding ensues and you end up having to explain the above to an unsympathetic jury.

If only they'd had an announcement telling the bag's owner not to leave their luggage unattended.

---

¹ This does seem rather unlikely, but we did say 'imagine'.

Some pearls of wisdom for today

• Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me, either. Just bugger off and leave me alone.

• The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and a flat tyre.

• It's always darkest before dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbour's newspaper, that's the time to do it.

• Don't be irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.

• No one is listening until you fart.

• Always remember you're unique. Just like everyone else.

• Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

• It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a bad example.

• It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help.

• If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of mortgage payments.

• Before you criticise someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticise them, you're a mile way and you have their shoes.

• If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.

• Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

• If you lend someone £20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

• If you always tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

• Some days you are the bug, some days you are the windscreen.

• Good judgement comes from bad experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement.

• The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it in your pocket.

• Timing has an awful lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.

• A closed mouth gathers no foot.

• Duct tape is like The Force. It has a light side and a dark side and it holds the universe together.

• There are two theories about how to argue with a woman. Neither works.

• Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your mouth is moving.

• Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

• Never miss a good chance to shut up.

• We are born naked, wet, and hungry. Then things get worse.

That's enough of the hiliarity for today.