11 Comments

I don't think this makes you mental. Or not mental enough to get a hit show out of it anyway. I went through a similarly stressful yet almost opposite process when my car was due for its last MOT. There was a crack on one of my headlights and being a catastrophist I was convinced this would mean an MOT failure and I'd be without a car just when I needed it. So in a belt and braces pre-emptive strike I went on ebay and found a replacement in advance for them to fit immediately when the time came. Needless to say the car passed. Anyone wanna buy two unused VW Golf rear headlights?

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Ha. I am overwhelmed by having to do real life grown up things. If only I was a more successful comedian I’d have an assistant to do it all for me!

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I'm glad I'm not the only middle-aged man with no interest in how my car works or idea of what to do when it craps out.

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It is so easy to say don’t sweat the small stuff. Sometimes it isn’t. I for instance have £8.42 in my current account and get some money in on the 5th January. This is annoying and worrying but, it is after all only Christmas. I can’t change these circumstances, my health won’t allow it. So what can I do. Wait until January 5th to buy gifts and explain to the few people I do buy for my current circumstances. Today I woke up in no pain. Rare but I’ll take it. Human psychology means a billionaire will get annoyed when his private jet is delayed for thirty minutes whilst the street kid in India realises his cardboard sleeping box has been stolen and he shrugs and saunters off to go find another box. We all have our worries and problems. But we are alive at this time in a huge expanse of time in which we won’t be. Merry Christmas. Xx

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You are right. I am more concerned that I no longer seem in control of my anxiety (even when I know everything will be all right), which I’ve always been pretty good at avoiding. It’s a great strength to accept our limitations and not let them control us and to understand our mortality and see the positives of that. Have a good Christmas Vaun. You are a good man.

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Hey thanks. I appreciate that. Control of the feeling anxiety about stuff you can’t control is hard to accept. It took me being very seriously ill to realise. Have a merry Christmas to you and the family.

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Yup, being mildly ill gave me some insight into that too. And Chris Hoy's reaction to his own cancer is this times a million! Hopefully my anxiety will go away, but makes me understand why older people get a bit paranoid and scared of the world if a damaged headlight can make me feel like this!

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Right-hand traffic means that the car drives on the right-hand side of the road, Rich (the headlight beam is angled so it doesn't blind oncoming drivers - think of those beam diverter stickers you use if you get a ferry to France or wherever and drive on the 'wrong' side). All the cool kids in the UK drive on the left.

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So the headlight I’ve ordered will be no good? Or just annoying

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Unless it’s a newfangled matrix LED light that can sort itself out, then even if it can be fitted it would probably be an mot fail, because they check for ‘dazzle’.

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Maybe you should pitch to a telly exec a 2025 version of One Foot in the Grave starring Richard (Wilson) Herring?

With all modern things to get annoyed about… TikTok, kids vaping, losing a Bluetooth earbud, electric car running out of battery, smart fridge not working I DON’T BELIEEEEEVE IT

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