This week I learnt to tie my shoe laces

No it is true.

In my sad little way I was really quite chuffed to learn a new and better way to tie my laces. My family, of course mocked. ‘Well I could tie my laces when I went to primary school!’ or ‘ you just have too much time on your hands!’ or ‘brilliant another useless solution to a non-existent problem!’. Well let them mock. There is still pleasure in breaking a habit and doing something in a slightly different way and even if the problem solved is microscopically small, it is still a problem solved.

Like most kids I learnt to tie my laces before I went to school and have been using the same method ever since. When I tie my trainers I want to be sure they do not come undone so I cludge it with a messy double knot, which works fine. The laces stay tied but they do not come undone with a simple pull of one lace – you have to untie the knot. Mostly not a problem except that at the end of a race my fingers seem to be uncoordinated and freeing up the Champion Chip takes longer than it should.

The solution is this secure knot. It really works. The trainers feel nice and snug throughout the run but when I get home I only have to tug one end and they untie. A very tiny thing is done ever so slightly better.

This may seem like an April Fools post but it is not. I leave those to the Guardian, who do them better than most. This year’s is particularly good. It may not be as elaborate as Sans Serif or as horribly plausible as the EU directive on decimalising time but it has some funny news items as Tweets. I particularly like "JFK assassin8d @ Dallas, def. heard second gunshot from grassy knoll WTF?”.