Nitwits with blinds and other misadventures.

We had a very humiliating time today.
We have a conservatory attached to our sitting room, and it is fitted with blinds which we pull up rather like the sails of a boat, except for one blind which is pulled up by a small motor. The motor for this blind ceased working about a week ago, so we thought the remote control gizmo's batteries had gone, and we bought some new(expensive) batteries, but when we tried it the engine still did not work.

We phoned the company who had fitted the blinds, and they said they would fix it for us. On cue, one of the men, who we knew, arrived, and we explained our problem, and also told him that the spring on one of the blinds was not working well.

The man looked at the motor for a few moments, then looked at the electric plug on the wall, and turned it on! Of course the blind worked immediately. He then tried the blind with weak spring, and that worked perfectly as well!

Mas and I were overcome by our stupidity and could have given ourselves a good kicking! Needless to say, the blind man laughed, and was still laughing as he left us and drove away.

In the same vein, here is a worse story that happened many years ago: Various heads of department in a large London hospital were having a board meeting when one of them fell face down on the desk with what appeared to be a heart attack.

Someone rushed to get a stretcher, only to find that the poles had been stolen from it! They managed to get him into a treatment room to treat his cardiac arrest by electric shock. The electric pad terminals were placed on his chest and he was zapped, except it did not happen! All were stunned; someone then turned on the electric plug, and tried again, and he was saved! Phew!

In the evening I went with some friends to an introduction to the Landmark Forum. We did not sign up for a course, but it was fun catching up with each others news and talking for a while.