Think of a Number

Are you an early bird or a night owl? I'm definitely an early bird, and one of the advantages is that I commute before most people, so have a less stressful journey to work. Often, I'm the first person in the office, but that means I have to open up and switch off the burglar alarm. Except this morning, I managed to forget where I was, and which alarm code I needed to enter, and the alarm went off. The police found my embarrassment highly amusing. I put it down to lack of coffee.

Actually, I don't think I should have been embarrassed at all. In my defence, Your Honour, I have to remember an alarm code on leaving my flat, then my PIN number for the ticket machine at the station (which this morning decided to have a 'card error' so that I had to second-guess my PIN, and missed my train). Next I have to remember the code for the padlock on the gate at work, followed quickly by the office alarm code. As if that wasn't enough, I then have to remember three different passwords for different areas on the computer. And all before 8 o'clock! Is it any wonder I haven't got any space in my brain for important things?

I've scrabbled around to find a positive aspect to this, and I'm trying to convince myself here's one: I bet I've got an extra-large hippocampus, meaning I wouldn't need to train for The Krypton Factor (except for the assault course – and you can forget that before we've even started as who in their right mind wants to sweat?). It still doesn't make all the stress worth it though.