Following my walk to a local convenience store for the Sunday papers, I was confronted by a locked door and a notice: 'Back in ten minutes'
This phrase followed all the guidelines of clear simple communication, bar the key element that mattered... As a result, I was left pondering whether we were at the end, middle or start of the 10-minute waiting period'. Given all the freedom of a deadline-free Sabbath, I was able to further ponder if time could be taken literally in such cases.
In other words, in our working lives we are often confronted by millisecond put-offs such as 'With you in a second' from a shop assistant busy finishing a text... Or even closer to home, 'Dave, got a minute to OK our response to the Marmite price-hike?'
Anyway, by that time, Ahmed the shop owner arrived, reopened the door and following a brief discussion re the problem of simple communication being the most difficult, handed me my change with an invitation to 'Get a life, Brian' and returned to his Sabbath-free deadlines.....
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