Sure, I’d heard it before, what the circumference of the Earth was I mean. I would have heard it mentioned at school, during geography lessons at Sir Gilbert Claughton, back in my teenage years in Dudley. I had always hated sitting in geography class, always looking out of the window yearning for freedom. It was my version of a Japanese prisoner of war camp. OK, you got me, I watched far too many episodes of Tenko as a child.

So, Mr Boner. Yes, that was indeed our geography teacher’s name. Well, no, I may have changed it to protect myself from a defamation charge. Anyway, whatever his name was, he was a prick. So, “Mr Boner” would have droned the fact out at some point, with all of the other meaningless and pointless facts he used to, such as precipitation rates in Florida in 1972 or how many oranges were grown over the course of the following year. Of course, these were all valuable and pertinent facts for a teenager, in Dudley, waiting patiently to be thrown out onto Britain’s working-class compost heap upon leaving school.

Anyway, for some reason, that nugget of information struck home today.

It’s funny how our minds work, right?

One minute, we’re concerned about killer asteroids, and then the thoughts of home seep in. But home and my parents seemed so far away today, as I realise that I hadn’t spoken to them in a while. Feeling upset that I hadn’t, and then feeling even worse when I realised that I felt relieved that I hadn’t spoken to them.

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