The Big Decision

"Some people are very decisive when it comes to avoiding decisions" - Brendan Francis

Euripides said "Do not plan for ventures before finishing what's at hand." It was Monday morning, 5th July 2010, and I had the Daily Telegraph killer sudoku to hand. It wasn't yet finished. Lorain casually asked "Shall we do the End to End?" I looked up from the sudoku and said "OK." I could hear rustling from Euripides' grave as he started to turn.

On reflection, my reaction was a little rash. Having known and loved Lorain for more than 15 years I should really have learnt by now never to answer her questions at all, let alone with an "OK". It usually never ends well. That's how we got into the whole Norseman Extreme Triathlon trouble (www.nxtri.com). The only safe course of action is to answer her questions with a question. Such as, "You are joking aren't you?" Or perhaps even, "Have you taken your medication this morning, dear?" The absolute bare minimum response would have been, "When?" So I then asked "When?" Expecting a time line somewhere in the vicinity of 2012, I was a tad booted in the gonads to hear, "24th July."

This put me right off my sudoku for a minute. But at least now I was totally focused on the task at hand. I had to summon all of my wily wits to nip this over-ambitious plan in the bud. I had to summon all of the cunning and tact learned from 12 years of marriage to my over-achieving wife to avoid this catastrophe unfolding. After all, I was staring down the barrel of missing the last two days of the Tour De France. Sacre Bleu. "OK," I said and went back to the sudoku, mentally planning my next killer move. Lorain then said, "You realise that we would have to buy some new bikes to do it". I'm in.