There are two frequently-heard phrases in English which invariably carry an implied warning. They are: “It is bound to come in handy one day,” and “I’m planning to get round to it soon”. The first indicates that the speaker is about to store indefinitely some object the usefulness of which is obviously in doubt to anybody else. The second is an implicit acknowledgement that action is going to be deferred indefinitely without wishing to face up to that fact. All fluent speakers of English are familiar with these phrases, and those who are really at home in the culture also know that it is grossly impolite to question their truth.
Normally I’m pretty scornful when I hear these phrases, but every now and then I find myself the beneficiary of them. Our local church finally “got round to” disposing of a heap of stuff that had accumulated in a space under the stairs. It had accumulated, of course, because it was “bound to come in handy one day”. As I offered the use of my car to take it all to the local authority recycling centre I was allowed to keep anything that looked useful to me. A bird box went up on a tree in the lane past the house yesterday afternoon, and I was astonished to see blue-tits investigating it within half an hour of my completing the task. A collection of odd bits of guttering came in handy, yielding enough useful material for me to effect a repair where our neighbour’s roof drainage isn’t functioning properly. (He expects to get round to it soon.) Finally, the small amount of sand and cement will come in handy one day, enabling me to make a couple of repairs on our garden wall. (I expect to get round to that also in the not-too-distant future.)
*Although you never know when they might come in handy.