Twirly-wirly padlocks

Let me tell you a little story about me and the twirly-wirly American padlock. Every Friday I work at a gym that has a locked cabinet that contains the stereo. Every Friday I have to do the combination on the padlock to access the stereo. I arrive 15 minutes earlier than I need to do this. I know the numbers off by heart, but can I open the twirly-wirly padlock. Can I heck!

American high school students use these combination (twirly-wirly) padlocks for their lockers at school so Americans are pretty au fait with how they work. I, however, and many Brits I know out here, cannot work the damn things. We do not have diplomas in twirly-wirly padlocking 🙂

Combinaton / twirly-wirly padlock

This twirly-wirly padlock does my British head in! Every Friday I try 8-10 times and every Friday I ask someone else to do it for me. I just can’t work it out. Right, left, past the number, back past the other number or whatever. I just can’t do it! America, you have stumped me with your twirly-wirly padlocks.

I only have to teach this class four more times in my USA time here, so that’s four more mornings where my head is done in! Poor baffled British me 😉

From America to England

Over the next few weeks I’ll be transferring my blog writing to my new UK blog, From America to England, charting my repatriation to the homeland! Make sure you sign up to follow this blog for my British adventures!

One more TV show

I’ll be appearing on the Fox 45 news channel one more time on Thursday this week before I leave the USA. I’ll be talking about ‘Sins of Summer’ and how to cope with the extreme heat. I need this, being a professional sun worshipper and all that. Today we reach 99 degrees in Maryland. Holy cow!