The great English hanky

I am English.

So what, I hear you mutter. So what that you like cricket and have an affinity for whisky (as opposed to whiskey). I can cope with that.

But when mentally ticking off the idiosyncracies of the typical Englishman (which I am not) you forgot to mention the hanky. That piece of material stuffed in the pocket full of old nose effluvia, and required for the storage of future nasal effluence.

Ah, I sense you mutter, disgusting!

Disgusting it may be, but useful when you sneeze and end up with a nose that resembles Victoria Falls (to remain with the English theme), and nary a tissue in site.

Documentation is sought of, in a very vague and ethereal way, similar to the hanky. Not everyone’s cup of tea (milk, no sugar, please) but of need to some. Most can, and do, happily survive without one, but when something unexpected happens they normally access the nearest support center (akin to the tissue). But what do they do when it is out of hours and support is not available? For the Englishman this is not a problem. He reaches into his pocket and extracts the rag known fondly as the hanky (akin, in this metaphor to the documentation).

Some read most of the documentation. Most read some of the documentation but all want to know it is there. Just like the hanky, it is reassuring to know that you have something that is available in your hour of direst need.

This post should never have happened, since it breaks my rule about posting every two weeks. So please ignore it and return next week when I’ll discuss rules, their usage and the breaking of them thereof, in more detail.