I teach English in Germany for a living. Having discussed food with them yesterday, my students said that they wouldn't mind trying a bit of English cheese, so I went to the local supermarket which happens to have Wensleydale with bits of apricot in it. I duly brought that into work this morning ... but there was no knife to cut the plastic wrapping open!
As it happens, one of the students had trained as a joiner in a previous life and I'd coincidentally brought my Veritas LAJ in to show him. Then the light went on: planes have detachable blades and they are extremely good at cutting open and cutting up pieces of Wensleydale.
And what do we learn from this? Always but always, make sure that you have a hand plane in your rucksack. You never know when it will come in use.