In our everyday life we have to handle situations that are mundane but frustrating. Yes, we can discuss world peace and famine with friends, but in reality our daily life revolves around the ordinary.

In a previous blog I wrote about the frustration of having to open cans with ring-pull tabs. Before you start snoring, I invite you to read on. There is a point to all this, I promise.

My most recent gripe has been bath mats that slip on tiled bathroom floors. We didn’t have this problem in the past because such mats had a rubber backing. There was a disadvantage to such rubber backing, unfortunately, which was its inability to be washed frequently and if there is one area of our homes which demands frequent washing it’s the bathroom.

My rubber-backed mats would disintegrate after a few washes and the washing machine would be choked by little bits of latex.
And no, I didn’t think that a gentle handwashing was sufficient for hygienic purposes.

So I tried the new types of mats. They were thick, fluffy but slippery which made them dangerous on a tiled floor.

There was nothing else on the market. I know because whereas normal women wander around the shoe counters or enjoy a squirt of perfume samples, I used to search for the holy grail in bathroom mats, only to be told, sorry but this is all the stock we have at the moment.

Consequently I became quite knowledgeable in a field of research
which gradually resulted in my trying to solve the problem myself.

First of all, I tried some leftover underlay which is used to make rugs stay put. That didn’t work because the underlay and the mat would then slither together on the floor. I went back to rubber backing for a while before being reminded why I had originally given that up.

Then came the Eureka moment! My husband had some double-sided tape in his study. So I cut four little pieces, removed the sticky protective coating on one side and then placed said pieces strategically under the mat. It worked and all I have to do is remove the tape, wash the mat and replace the same tape. So I’m even into recycling.

“Big deal” I hear you yawn. Well, actually it is, because if a simple person like me can solve a practical everyday problem it is more fuel for the maxim “Necessity is the Mother of Invention.”

Which brings me to the point I want to make. Non-slip bathroom mats may be important to some people but they are not crucial. And yet if you put your mind to it, you can overcome that inconvenience. Imagine, therefore, how many potential solutions there are out there among the scientists, engineers and lateral thinkers, who are now racking their brains trying to solve the climate change problem.

I have two views on the subject of climate change. The first is that it’s an hysterical beat-up by vested interests and jealous nations.

The second and this is the crucial one for me. Even if the climate change armagedon were true, then mankind has the capacity to solve the problem. It always has and always will and if we panic the rest of the world about impending doom as we did recently with Y2K, we will make a lot of publicity-seekers wealthy, but the rest of us will remain stressed for nothing.

You never know, the solution may come from an ordinary person mucking around in his or her shed at this very moment. Now you can rest easy and go to sleep…