Being retired creates the opportunity to do things you never had time for in the past. I could invent something new or make a scientific breakthrough but that's a little unlikely as I didn't do science at school. So what could I usefully turn my hand to?


Socks.

That seems a good idea. Now I am fortunate enough to have two feet and if I have a sock on one foot then I always have one on the other. Taking socks off is, of course, a dual action: you remove one and then the other. I have never walked around with a sock on one foot only. So when I take them off I have two socks in my hand. They go together into the wash basket. But what happens after that is beyond me. They come back as ones.


In my sock drawer I will find an odd sock or sometimes two wrapped together that are different. This confuses me as I have been known to put these on as a pair only to cause colleagues great amusement when they notice them. But how does it happen? I ask Christine who tells me if I'm not happy with the washing procedures I should do them myself.


The 'work round' for this in the past was to buy a few identical pairs and then if one goes missing it's OK. This doesn't solve the problem it just camouflages it as I don't run out of pairs as quickly.


So what I'm designing at the moment is an Rfid tag (Remote Frequency Identification, my son-in-law tells me) to fit to each sock and have them scanned at all stages. I can scan them into the laundry room and Christine can scan them into and out of the washing machine. This can then be linked to my PC and I will be able to identify when and where they go missing. If I can find out where they go I should be able to locate perhaps as many as 300 socks that have disappeared over our forty years together. I wonder how big a space you need for 300 socks? The problem of course is that even if I locate the socks they will all be ones and I will have by now thrown away the match.


I detailed the plan in the Black Book and needed to get Christine to understand her part in the procedure. I called her over, she simply said it's a shame I had nothing better to do. She put the Black Book in the dustbin on her way to have coffee with Vivien. (She does that a lot.) I sit to ponder what to invent next.


I learnt a lot about Rfid by reading RFiD Factfile