Assembly Required

I picked up some Christmas baubles from the market section of my favourite Swedish flat-pack-furniture store the other day. I'm a fan of their DIY style of doing things and pride myself on my capacity to interpret various complicated diagrams, but I hadn't really expected this: When I opened the pack yesterday, there was the instruction page, complete with safety warning, and yes, some assembly was required! No allen key though.

As it turned out, putting together the Christmas baubles was one of the easier aspects of my day. A friend who was here for lunch and has only recently come out of hospital, found the pressure of the day all too much . . . even my quiet, no frills Christmas with his favourite goodies. He asked to be taken back to his unit just as I'd finished setting out the meal. Unfortunately when we got there, the staff had taken the few remaining clients out to lunch, and the gate was locked. So we walked around for more than an hour until someone arrived. What can I say? . . . humans are so much more complicated in the way they're put together and don't come with instruction sheets.