You're cutting it close mister

I've always had the bad habit of leaving things until the last minute -- when meeting up with people, leaving for work, arriving at the airport, etc.

This adds minutes of free time to my life, but also adds back an equivalent amount of stress.

Here are two recent Hall of Fame type instances.

1. Train to Dorset leaves at 11:20am. I leave my flat at 10:45, with no ticket and no real idea how best to get to the train station, which is on the opposite side of London. I arrive in the train station at 11:18am, buy a ticket on the train, and sit down as the train begins to move. I'm seated across from my colleague Oliver and friend Maurice. Oliver has just finished betting Maurice that I will appear and sit down just as the train is departing.

2. Rental car due at Rome's Ciampino airport at 1pm. We depart Siena for Rome on a quarter tank of gas at 10am. For the first portion of the trip, I decide to navigate us on the scenic route through Tuscany. This is a beautiful drive, but at 11am we're still at least 2 hours away from the airport, to which I have only basic directions. At 12:50 we're 10 minutes from the airport, and the gas light has been on for 20 minutes (thankfully you can return the car with the tank empty). We pull into the airport at 2 minutes till 1pm, park the car, find the Avis counter and return the paperwork. "Is the tank full or empty?" "Empty." "How empty?" "Empty."

It's a gift.

Or is it a curse?