Daily story, September 27, 2025

I brought a bagful of shoelaced conkers to the office to get things started. Soon people started bringing their own; the finance team had a lead on a tree that grew them so small and compact they were like lead shot. I heard their manager boasting you could hardly drill through them, and then the message went round in private Teams chats, you’re not meant to use a drill, it makes them weak, you’ve got to push a hot skewer through. Bandaged fingers gestured to PowerPoint slides. Shattered shells littered the smoking area. The boss kept threatening to put a stop to it, but it wouldn’t happen. Not unless someone broke her thirty-niner.