h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's somewhere around 2pm on a glorious sunny Saturday afternoon and I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do about this. I've been considering going shopping for a number of hours now but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. I can't decide whether I genuinely need to buy anything or not, even after looking in the pantry and the fridge. If I do need to be all consumerist and buy some things, I can't decide which shops to go to. Most of all, I can't decide what to wear in the event that I get my act together.

Is it just me, or do other people have this sort of brain trouble on Saturdays? I mean, I've been making snap decisions all week in the office, but on Saturdays I can't even work out whether I need to buy food or not. I suppose the brain's entitled to a bit of a rest, but surely a decision about going shopping isn't over-taxing. It's not like I'm trying to bring about world peace or anything.

So after an exciting interlude in which I cleaned the kitchen, here I am again, staring at a screen because I can't decide what else to do.

Still Friday here. Thankfully, I have my shopping excursion for tomorrow already planned.

Friday here too, but yes, I have trouble getting my act together when I have nothing particular I have to do. Worse though, if I seem to have a lot of options, then I'm a wreck.

That is exactly the problem. I can cope with an either/or decision on Saturdays, but if there's more than two options I can't cope. By Sunday I'm usually back to normal...

Its over provision of choice and the necessity that entails to have to make a descicion which paralyses me... For a picture of utter confusion and inability to decide, just picture me in a large grocery shop, or supermarket, tryign to buy some butter, and suddenly finding I'm faced with a non-choice of over a hundred differnt types and subtypes of butter... Impossible to choose...

I'm a victim of indecision quite often myself. Some years ago, a friend gave me a keyring with a little spinner attached, with the three options "yes", "no" and "maybe", to help me make decisions on the fly.

Going grocery shopping is easy- we do it every week even though there are far too many dry goods and condiments between the pantry and the fridge. I keep meaning to use up some of those dried beans and then stick to buying them only when I plan on making them, rather than keeping them around to get tough. That's one of the times when indecision strikes- what should I make for dinner? I have all these staple items and then I'm never in the mood to cook or eat them...

I know the feeling well. As I have no car here, I can only buy in the amount I can physically carry back - which includes water ( 5 litres) so this means shopping most days. Then of course I *need to buy wine, so I just have to force myself out The wine is the crucial deciding point though.


I am dragging my friend along to the shops in about 30 mins, as she is better at decisions than me - I need some face stuff, so as not to get all wrinkly. That is nearly as important as alcohol these days.

Food did you say? yes,

Ah, procrastination, 'tis an art form on h2g2.

Not having a car (or a licence, or the desire to get one) does add to my procrastinatory tendencies. If I'm thinking about going somewhere I have to be completely sure I want to go, before I cast myself on the mercies of an increasingly erratic bus network. Yesterday, obviously, I wasn't completely sure about anything so I just lazed about. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Yep, we spend weekends in a vague heap of vagueness, opening the cupboards at random and wondering if we should be doing anything about anything.

>>>>opening the cupboards at random and wondering if we should be doing anything about anything.

I love that phrase Agapanthus. It sums up so much. in a dozen or so words. Brilliant. I totally empathise.


In my case of course, I shut the cupboard doors pdq, in case something needy should spring out uninvited.

At my last house I had a cupboard I would never open in case things came out of their own accord. Now all that stuff is in the box I haven't unpacked. Should I unpack it, or should I just chuck it out?

Ahah - one of life's mysteries. The Box.

If you should open it, you will find the things you didn't know what to do with in the first place. You will look at them with despair. You will close the lid again, but this time the air of despondency will cloy. You will hate that Box.

If you keep it closed, it will retain its air of mystery, maybe it contains love letters, torn tickets to the opera you enjoyed? sentimental trinkets from times long past?

Keep it shut. Fall over it, and stub your toe, but in the hope that it was worth the space it takes up.


( I say this as all my personal belonging have now been in storage for approx four years - which is one Big Box)

The Box is in the bottom of the wardrobe in the second bedroom, with infinitely more useful things stacked on top of it. That in itself is another reason to just leave it alone.

I no longer recall what's in it, but I suspect it's old tax returns and letters and a few presents that were almost but not quite what I might have wanted if I'd known they existed and I had an interest in that sort of thing.

Incidentally, an old boss of mine would put awkward documents straight into a folder labelled 'PB' - short for Pandora's Box. I might have to start doing this myself soon.

The Box. I have two un-opened from when we moved here in 1993. Or rather, now they have gone missing upstairs, where we also have heaps of the children's and my mothers various boxes. We seem to be the keepers of the family storage room. "One day I'll sort through it and....", I keep telling myself.

Now to figure out which items on the too long to-do list get lucky today. Or not....

Maybe we should just swap Boxes. It might make things more interesting...

My mother has a garage full of Boxes. There are Dad's Boxes, his father's Boxes, his mother's Boxes, Mum's mother's Boxes, and a few I left there 12 years ago. I wonder if we'll ever open any of them.

Sounds like the start of one of those cold case episodes

In principle I am a minimalistic (or is it minimalistriac? whatever): If I haven't used a thing for a year i am getting rid of it

In principle

They say that if you own more than 7 things the things start owning you

Therefore I am considering a sale and lease back scheme, but so far I haven't found anybody interested in buying

Depends what you're selling...

Would you like to buy an Unopened Box?

Thanks, Ivan, but no thanks, I have quite enough already (this minimalism thing really takes time, you know. In particular if you are also a devout procrastinator).

We have this Scandinavian tradition where each participant in a Christmas party brings a small . These are then distributed by random. Maybe you could use your box for this?