BEING able to iron is one of the most important skills anyone can have.

Now, many years ago to boast that one could iron could bring about the odd bit of laughter.

I have friends who do not know how to iron and I actually find that quite ridiculous.

In fact they don’t know how to do many things but I still call them friends for some reason.

They are relying on the ironing to be done.

I have to admit I actually like ironing. In fact I would go as far as to say that ironing is more therapeutic than going to see a therapist.

Ironing does manage to iron out all of life’s problems and one is able to come away knowing that one is now slightly more complete again.

Tell this to my friends on a Thursday night at the swimming baths and they seem to think that one must be forced to iron.

This is not the case at all. I would advise all parents to teach their kids to iron. I was brought up in a house where you were taught all the skills to survive independently.

The problem is, and I blame the mums actually, is that they themselves will not teach the boys anything apart from how to order fastfood.

And then you find the same people moaning about how their ‘fellows don’t lift a finger at home’.

The secret is to force them to do it. As soon as one has to do then it is funny how quickly you can pick-up the skills.

The strangest people on the planet are those who do not iron their clothes at all.

They simply leave them to hang in the cupboard and hope the goblins come and straighten them at night.

I find these people not only strange but a little worrying.

How does one de-stress if one does not iron?

And a shirt must be ironed must it not? Or it ceases to be a shirt? And what finer way is there to spend a Sunday afternoon?

And there was someone telling me I couldn’t write a whole 350 words on ironing and get away with it.