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# The Other Foot
- URL: https://www.longspoon.uk/the-other-foot/
- Published: 2026-09-24T13:05:14.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-24T13:05:14.000Z
- Author: Malachi

It’s very annoying. You empty the wash basket, sort into piles, carry it all downstairs and stuff the colours into the washing machine. Laundry liquid. Conditioner. Eco wash and low temperature to save the planet.

Start the cycle. The door lock engages, the machine starts to fill. And there behind you on the staircase is a single sock.

This is that moment when the front door slams behind you and your entire life flashes before your eyes, culminating in your keys, lying on the hall table inside. Nothing will ever be the same again.

Not only does it spoil the day, it has consequences that echo down the week. On Friday or Saturday you will be pottering around the supermarket, weighing up the relative merits of pain aux raisins and Portuguese custard tart, wearing one clean sock and one dirty.

Nobody will notice, *but you will know.*

It’s one of those universal laws that defy statistics, operating on a deeper level than quantum mechanics. Like the toast always falling butter side down. Why is it just one sock? Would it spoil some vast eternal plan if there were two, on different steps. A pair?

It isn’t just me. [Terry Pratchett's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry%5FPratchett?ref=longspoon.uk) [Discworld](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld?ref=longspoon.uk) contains a creature that eats odd socks. (Also [Anoia, Goddess of Things That Get Stuck in Drawers](https://wiki.lspace.org/Anoia?ref=longspoon.uk) , and the [verruca gnome](https://wiki.lspace.org/Verruca%5FGnome?ref=longspoon.uk) – a bit like the tooth fairy, but he leaves things behind. Let’s not go there.)

Sometimes I envy people who have no socks at all. Their lives must be so simple. Then I think… *No. Be grateful for what you have. One clean sock.*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/97/1c978fa5-2348-4c13-b92a-fb7b79c3e450/content/images/2026/09/sock2-1-1-1.jpg)

One of those universal laws