Mr Pigglesworth was stuck. No, not in mud, jam or trifle for that matter. It was much more in the figurative sense. There was something familiar about the situation however he felt there must have been some learning from this previously, tucked away in the depths of his recollection. To best assess this, he needed to consider what equivalency he could make in this situation as well as the fact that the thought of trifle was a tantalising proposition.
Right, stuck in trifle it is. That sticky swimming sensation where you are fighting through an environment of high viscosity custard with no means to move forward or backwards. Arms reaching out only to find the soft hold of the peaches and nothing of substance to grab onto. A foothold on a sponge gives away under the slightest bit of pressure and that whipped cream on top certainly doesn't help the equation. And even if you make it to the spoon, you are picked up and lumped into another bowl. Those curving edges make for a challenging escape...
Stuck in glue might also have a similar effect and texture, however the gradual drying process might render certain aspects less able to removed. And what kind of glue are we talking about? PVA? Glue stick? Paste? Super glue? Perhaps some strange amalgamation of all of the above. And then the consideration of what was stuck needed to be made. Was it his arms? legs? head? torso? Well to be fair, Mr Pigglesworth did feel still have have the ability to move, it just didn't quite feel like he was going anywhere.
Or perhaps he was stuck in concrete? More precisely, the slow pouring of concrete. When enough concrete is poured at once, it creates a buoyancy effect that will lift the object in question. However, when repeated at small and frequent intervals then the object will not be subject to the the same buoyancy principles and therefore the gradual shift isn't noticed in the same way. Had he been a motionless object for so long that the layers had rendered him incapacitated? Well, that might be a slight over dramatisation... But perhaps it wasn't so much the motionless part but the gradual increase in layers that have created the cementing effect. Longitudinal decision making might have been better considered in this respect.
It was also possible that he was simply wedged into a gap. That overestimated attempt to navigate what promised to be a larger opening than advertised could result in a firm place-hold in a less than desirable location. Similar to falling down the side of the bed as a kid (this has definitely never happened to Mr Pigglesworth as an adult.. ahem) where you find there is no means to lift or pull yourself out of the predicament. This in turn brought memories of the moment when he was biking along a narrow forest trail with a ditch either side. A rapid upending took place unexpectedly only to leave Mr Pigglesworth upside down in a thorny bush, leg poking through the frame of the bike and no leverage to be gained without multiple prickly spikes embedding themselves into other sensitive parts of his body. A plea for help seems only to met with camera lenses pointed in your direction... stuck, pain and apparently a moment forever immortalised in time.
Or is it stuck when Mr Pigglesworth found himself in a location with no means of getting to where he desired to go. Incorrect planning meant that the last train had already departed prior to his arrival. Or perhaps it's like driving and Mr Pigglesworth encounters a flat tire. A quick check on the spare in the boot reveals that this predicament has occurred before and the appropriate strategy was not implemented to prepare for a repeat of this circumstance. Or instead, perhaps the wheel has come off and rolled down the embankment, past the park, over the hill, around the corner, under the bridge, through the meadow, along the riverbank... in fact, it sounds like that wheel is the opposite of stuck and is really going places. Just not to the place that would be useful for Mr Pigglesworth.
Mr Pigglesworth thought very carefully about each of these. Each had their merits to describe the situation however there was a bigger picture that was emerging from all of this. Time and learning. Or learning and time. It was the longitudinal viewpoint that had escaped the focus, the missing of understanding choice in a way that would inform Mr Pigglesworth to the decision making process in a meaningful and deliberate way. It really was a kind of culmination of all of the above, being wedged upside down in trifle, the solidification of the custard taking place as he watches the spare wheel roll off into the sunset. The slow lesson was that there wasn't an immediate answer to the predicament he found himself in, however, in time he could develop an approach or system that would provide a much better prospect in the future. The question still remained, what was the right step now? To understand choice. Find the unobvious solutions (eat his way out?). Present himself with options that allow progress, even if it takes time it would bring the perspective that he needed. He knew what he needed to do. Mr Pigglesworth had learnt the slow lesson.
Of course, this would have to wait as all this talk of trifle would need to be remedied. To the kitchen!