Entry for 21st November, 2007
Health and bloody safety.
Today my significant other tried to buy a pair of mittens for the Round Faced Boy. Being a sensible type she asked for a pair with the little string attached so that he can’t drop them. Apparently these are now banned because of health and safety. Presumably some expert in a white lab coat has been subjecting mittens to exacting tests in a warehouse somewhere in Essex. I imagine ranks of laborotary rats have been forced to wear mittens of a variety of materials and colours, and one day we will produce the perfect, safe mitten. We will shuffle around the grey streets wearing our UniMitten, perfectly safe, but bored out our tits, longing for the halcyon days when mittens came on strings.
What sort of a nation have we become? It seems we need to carry out a risk assessment before rising from bed in the morning, otherwise we run the risk of falling foul of some European Directive on Safe Bed Exit Strategies. We need to assess the potential dangers of lopping the top off our boiled egg lest we slash an artery or scald our dainty white hands.
Life is risk. Risk is what sometimes makes life worth living.