Columbo moment...

Remember ‘Columbo’?

Yes, of course you do – battered raincoat, smelly cigar, ancient Peugeot, wife who’s mentioned a lot, but never seen – and of course the famous ‘just one more thing…’

It was always ‘just one more thing.....’ that eventually tripped the killer up. It always seemed like an afterthought, clever - it usually caught the killer off guard.

Isn’t there always - ‘just one more thing…’? One more thing to consider, one more thing to do, one more thing to be concerned with – there always seems to be ‘just one more thing’. It's called having a 'Columbo moment'.

Sometimes we decide to take ourselves to the 'Columbo moment' – ‘I’ll just pack one more thing…’ And before we know where we are our case is bulging and we are looking at having to pay a hefty excess baggage charge - particularly if we’re flying budget airline where two pairs of underpants and a toothbrush are just about the only luggage allowance that you have - there's certainly no room for a raincoat.

And isn't it that 'Columbo moment' that almost always makes us late?

You know where I’m coming from… you have an important appointment – maybe a marriage or a birth – and there is ‘just one more thing’ that needs to be attended to before you can get into the Rolls Royce or call that ambulance. You attend to that ‘one more thing’ and suddenly realise that the reception is just about over and you’ve not even got to the church; in fact your partner has married someone else, divorced, and has visiting rights to the kids; or not only have your waters broken, they’ve evaporated - and your ‘newborn’ child is in the kitchen making its own sandwiches for his/her school lunch.

And what about when you get caught up in somebody else's 'Columbo moment'? You are on the phone, you are in a rush, and you want to get away - but it’s your mum / wife / aunt / long lost friend / salesperson on the line…

“I have to go.”
“Yes you do, but (Columbo moment alert) just one more thing…about your father.”

“It’s been great talking to you. We must catch up again sometime…”
“Okay, but before you go(Columbo moment warning) , just one more thing - do you remember...”

“No. I already have one.”
“Okay, thanks for your time (yes, you guessed it). Just one more thing, did I mention our one time only, two for one, extra special offer?”

I've had a few 'Columbo moments' over the years, and some of them have caused me some real problems. I once missed a connection from Chicago to Iowa because I stopped to do 'just one more thing' - a phone call - and I had to wait fourteen hours for another flight.

Another time, in my teens, I went on a school trip to Switzerland. I was shopping in Lucerne and went back into a shop to buy 'just one more thing'. The queue for the till was so long that by the time I'd paid for my Swiss army knife and got back onto the street the rest of the school party had moved on assuming that I was with them. Fortunately the Swiss police managed to reunite me with, 'Hubby' Clibbon - my furious and very worried art master - some five hours (and nine miles uphill) later.

Sometimes though 'just one more thing' can be a blessing in disguise. A few months back I left the house a few minutes later than I'd planned to, delayed by 'just one more thing' - an e-mail. Forty minutes, and fifty miles, along the M6 later I encountered a really bad multiple accident that could have only happened a few minutes before. So who knows - perhaps that particular 'Columbo moment' may have saved my life?

Usually though 'Columbo moments' are a nuisance, and there is always, always, always going to be ‘just one more thing’ that you can do, if you want to - but maybe it would be better to forget your 'Columbo moments' and make ‘one more thing’ the ‘very last thing’ - wouldn’t that make your life calmer and easier to cope with? Yes - now that you think of it, it would, wouldn’t it?

So... big deep breaths and repeat after me… “I will stop having 'Columbo moments'. I do not need to do ‘one more thing’ and when I have finished ‘the last thing’... I - can - stop."

How does that feel?
Better?
Good.

Oh yes...while I'm thinking about it - just one more thing!