Who moved my cheese?

I was very disappointed earlier this week to open my lunch only to find that I had failed to put anything in my wholemeal bread roll. I had, just a day before, prepared some egg mayo with the weekly lunches in mind. That morning, I had remembered to take out a roll for lunch. I had remembered to butter it. But I failed to remember to add the egg mayo.

I know how it happened. I wanted to use the knife to butter something else before it had egg mayo on it. Having done so, I obviously assumed that my work was done and promptly packed up my egg mayo-less roll into my lunchbox. Once it was there, the thought did not cross my mind until the inevitable moment of realisation that occurred as I lifted the wholemeal bread roll to my anticipating mouth.

A sizeable wave of disappointment washed over me. An egg mayo-less roll is not the worst lunch, but having bothered to prepare the egg mayo and with my mind expectant, I was struck by melancholy. My next thought was to wonder whether I had any other foodstuffs contained in my lunchbox that would improve an otherwise relatively dry wholemeal bread roll consumption. My only option was grapes. A grape sandwich, it turns out, is not that bad. In fact it is a definite improvement on relatively dry bread roll. It doesn't quite match up to egg mayo, but in the circumstances I was pleased with the outcome.

It crossed my mind that this monumental fail may have been the result of my increasing age and my corresponding lack of mental agility. Perhaps it was just one of those early morning dopey moments we all get from time to time, like when you accidentally pour apple juice onto your cereal instead of into a glass. Like in the wholemeal-bread-roll-egg-mayo conundrum outlined above, this is not the end of the world - indeed it makes quite a refreshing change - but when nursing a sleepy brain incapable of contemplating change and with the expectation of milk, it turns it into the precursor for a terrible day.

To avoid this situation from recurring, I am going to embrace change. I will celebrate getting lost as it allows me to investigate hitherto undiscovered locations. I will relish trialling new taste combinations, if only to rule them out as possible future lunchbox components. I will say yes to last minute dinner plans even though I need to use up a carrot that definitely won't last another day. I will accept Plan B even though it means I won't be able to get the washing on as planned. And I will do all of this even though I know that inwardly I will still be tormented by these ludicrous decisions.