Lady Penelope and I have just endured six weeks of darkness. The light in the toilet had gone. Call it a shot in the dark, if you like, but we'd changed the bulb. This was obvious, of course, so the suspect dodgy switch was given the blame when the new bulb failed to deliver any new light on the subject.

Penelope's son is an electrician-in-training, so we patiently adapted, waiting for him to come back and fix it.

Fix it, he did.

He replaced the bulb again.

It worked.

And, yes, I feel really stupid.

Not much of a man, am I, eh?

(If 'man' = 'DIY expert')

Changing your lightbulb... twice

I don't feel alone, though.

I'm willing to believe you've got something that's not working in your life - something you've tried already (unsuccessfully) to fix. So you've shifted the blame, or, at very least, shifted your attention onto something else... the wrong something else. You and I need to give our original 'fix' a second chance.

Go back to the lightbulb and try another one.

I'm walking away from the darkness with a clear lesson: check more than one lightbulb - in other words, don't quit too quickly.

What's your lightbulb that isn't working at the moment? I'd love to know.

It reminds me of a joke:

Q: How many long-suffering mothers does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: None

Why? Because they'd rather suffer in the dark (and moan about it!)

Lex

A Moodscope member.