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Timing out.

I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as a quick visit to social media. Be it Facebook, Twitter, or whatever, it is never just a quick look, is it?

I can be busy with an online project, taking five to gather my thoughts and have a cuppa, figuring that I might spend a few minutes checking my Facebook pages and then get back to work with a fresh approach… And that would have to be the most ridiculous example of self deception there is,  because it is Never just a few minutes.

I know this for a fact because my last thingy of just a few minutes on Facebook turned into one hour and forty-five minutes! How could I have spend so much time checking my notifications, scrolling through my newsfeed, commenting and Liking/Loving/Caring/Wowing/Sad Facing/Angry Facing? Where did one whole hour and forty-five minutes go? It seemed like only two or three minutes ago I put the kettle on! What the hey?

And that’s what happens.  If time allegedly flies when you’re having fun, I must be having an absolute ball on Facebook! It doesn’t feel like I am in seventh heaven exactly, but I must be if that much time can elapse and I don’t even notice it.

I think it might be the scrolling. That newsfeed page seems to be never ending and it’s possible I become a little mesmerised by the constantly changing images and the need to see what the next one will be, and the next one and so on.  Plus all the news and shared posts from family and friends. They post a lot, they share a lot and I have to ensure I read the lot! And then comment and/or Love/Like/Care… etc, etc. It’s almost impossible to not respond in some way because I feel I am being remiss if I don’t. What if they think I missed it? Or worse, I saw it and I’m ignoring them? Okay, so chances are they wouldn’t think that at all, but you never know.

Thing is, I can be researching material, a lot of it, and making notes, editing things, cross referencing and writing and it can seem like I must have spent a   longer than one hour and forty-five minutes doing that but it’s actually only been forty minutes when I look at the clock.  Sure, I like what I do, and enjoy getting my teeth into a good lead, feature or news item, but I must love it to bits if I can get so much done in a shorter amount of time than I think I’ve spent on it. Either that, or I am a ridiculously fast worker.  Or it could be that when I’m onto something I can work through coffee breaks and meal times without really noticing. I’ve done that a few times.

So why does it take me so long to go through my social media pages and why does it feel like I’ve only been doing so for five minutes or something?  Maybe there’s subliminal text buried in the images that says “Don’t log out yet. You’ve only just got here.” and my brain says “Sure, no worries. I’m not going anywhere…”

Sounds feasible to me. As we are all aware weird stuff can happen online and maybe we’re all being quietly brainwashed into locking onto eternal loops of social media posts…and then we can’t unlock until acute hunger or a throbbing bladder snaps us out of it and we find it’s been, like, five hours! Well yes, I have to admit that sounds a bit too much like a conspiracy theory, and a silly one at that. As if that would really happen.

But on the other hand…

 

 

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Enabling the Travel Bug

I renewed my passport just recently. Yes I know, why bother with doing that when it’s not likely I’ll be heading off anywhere overseas in the near future. I could have saved the money and let the “renew by” date come and go. Except that, should the need arise for me to hop on a plane to somewhere outside of Australia in the next year or so, I’d have to go through the whole rigmarole of getting a new one all over agin, as opposed to just doing a renewal.

So where am I planning to go? Well, nowhere at the moment, but down the track I would love to head back to Europe, especially to France. I loved France. But my new passport is good for the next ten years (because if you’re under the age of 74 in this country, you can only get a ten year one) and I expect that somewhere in the future decade it will be safe to travel again because there will be a good, all-round safe vaccine against COVID by then, and those of us with any sense will get the shots.  And of course, once we get the all-clear, I trust I will be able to grab my passport and go.

But it seems many in the same passport boat decided to jump ship when theirs came up for renewal.  Figures for passport renewals have dropped dramatically as people have decided that if they can’t travel, where is the point of paying out to renew it? Okay, I’ll admit they have a point there, and who knows, perhaps travel will be no safer in the next five to ten years than it is now, but I  think it will be. While there is a vaccine available now, it has had some glitches, so I expect work on the development of an even better version  will continue and when they hit the jackpot with the ultimate COVID vaccine, it will be made available worldwide, thus making it safe for us to globe trot again.

So I am not sorry I renewed my passport. Besides, my photo in this one is so much nicer than the last.  I look good!

Meanwhile, I have pacified my personal travel bug with a few trips beyond my local region and it felt good. There was the trip inland to spend some days with Daughter, Son-in-law and the grandkids (and all their pets) and we had a wonderful catch-up. Not quite overseas, but I did cross from NSW into Canberra so it was sort of interstate. Then there was the trip up the mountains to get new tyres on my car. I could have had them done locally but The Bloke very generously offered to cover the cost and it meant we could catch up for lunch and coffee.  It took about two and a half hours to drive up there, so that was sort of like a long distance trip too. Sort of.

Thing is, a few months ago I would not have done either trip because things were still a bit too iffy and while I knew I was not sick,  the kids and grandkids (and all their pets) were not sick and neither was The Bloke, it just seemed like the wrong thing to do at the time. Travel was still on hold to a degree and I wanted to do the right thing.  But now it’s okay to extend our boundaries for the moment and I am so hoping the trend continues. And I’m sure that’s possible, just so long as we are all responsible with our new-found semi-freedom.  I felt an exhilarating sense of semi-freedom as I headed up the highway! It was great and I truly believe travel much further afield will be possible in the near future and when it is, I’ll be ready. With my nice renewed passport, with the much nicer photo of me.

Seriously, I look good.

 

 

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The Cost of getting Stone-faced

I’m talking about Chinese gua sha (and please don’t ask me to pronounce that because I haven’t the foggiest) facial massage and the use of “facial sculpting stones” here; apparently the New Black in keeping your face looking honed, toned and youthful, and the go-to tools for “face sculpting”, which could be the other New Black.  or just the New Word for “facial”.

Whatever, face-sculpting stones are all the go at present and never have rocks had more of a make-over. There are also sculpting tools, some made from crystals or metals if you want to move up from the basic rocks and naturally, the cost goes up too, depending on the gadget.

The basic rocks begin at around $30 each and you need at least two of them and it goes from there, all the way up to the  glossy gold-coloured solar-powered micro-current version which will hit you up for around $298. The basic stones are designed to be used in conjunction with a facial oil, but the roller and other versions may not be, I’m not really sure. There are also vibrating ones and then there’s the Flash Facial gadget which uses LED light, thermo and cryo therapies, as well as T-sonic pulses (whatever they are) and claims  to give you a salon worthy facial in just ninety seconds. Neat! And that one will only set you back $395!

And I have to say, all of these face sculpting tools are attractive. The basic stones are smooth, shiny and come in a variety of pastel bathroom-y colours and will glide over your face with the help of a quality face oil. Which all sounds lovely. Some of the rollers, vibrators and squeezers (did I mention them?) are also quite attractive in their metal finishes.

And then there’s fingertips. While not qualifying as quite as luxe as gua sha facial sculpting stones (and the other thingies), the advantages of just using your fingertips is a) you already have eight of them (thumbs don’t figure here so I haven’t counted them), b) you can’t drop them like you just may drop an oil-smeared stone and c) nothing knows your facial contours like your own fingers.

On the downside though, while fingertips come in a vast array of lovely natural skin tones, they don’t come in pastel shades of rose, blue, green, yellow or mauve.  They aren’t plated in 18 carat gold (like the ergonomic gold set at just $200). You can’t leave your fingertips in an expensive little dish on the bathroom vanity for other women to see and get all envious over and…well…they just aren’t gua sha!

But they work. Incredibly well! So why would you want to fork out for a fad when you already have the tools to hone, tone and massage your face literally at your fingertips? I suppose if I really wanted to, I could nick down to my local beach and pick up two sea-polished stones, use them, and then lie about where they came from should any female visitors spot them, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable with pulling a swifty like that and would eventually have to fess up. But beach stones could easily moonlight as gua sha stones, I suppose. They’d be a lot less expensive for a start (think free) and come in really nice natural hues. The polished quartz I’ve found there is beautifully white…

Plus fingertips are great for accuracy. They glide around your face with ease and finding the right pressure to use is a cinch. Probably a lot easier than sliding oil-slicked rocks around your face, although there may be some merit in the rollers, pulsers and vibrators. But when it’s all said and done, I still think they’re all just another fad.

I’ll stick with fingers for now.

 

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Out of the Blue

Whatever happened to blue soft drinks?  Buying up some soft drink to have over Christmas and New Year got me thinking about that because blue soft drinks were a thing  for a short while there, with Blue Coke, Blue Pepsi, Blue Sprite and, if I remember correctly, there was even a Blue Fanta, but I could be wrong about that one.

But I would like to say at this point , that wondering what happened to them and wishing they were back has absolutely nothing to do with my obsession for that colour (oh alright, maybe it does.  A little bit), I just really like the look of blue drinks. There’s something really cool and inviting about them.

I bought the blue versions on several occasions when they were available because mainly I was attracted to the colour, but also because they tasted nice, and coming from someone who is not a huge soft drink fan, it says a lot for the marketing; they made a blue version and I made a beeline for the shelves to buy it.

So what happened to it? Why is it so difficult to do blue ones all the time? Soft drinks come in almost every other colour, so why not blue? This was a mystery to me when I was a child; if soft drink companies could do red, green, yellow, brown almost black and clear, why couldn’t they do blue as well? Turns out they could after all, because those major brands turned out a blue version of their product through the mid 2000s and I was thrilled to bits!

And then, after all the fanfare, they were only on the shelves for a short time and then they vanished into the great unknown, never to be seen again. I was devastated.

I mean, if Smarties could introduce a blue Smartie (in the 90s I think it was) and then leave it in there with the other colours, why couldn’t the soft drink brands have done the same with their blue versions? They were very popular, especially with me, and I would have continued to buy them, fan of soft drink or no, because of that colour.  And now I would appreciate it if they brought them back!

Okay sure, I could just buy a bottle of Lemonade and add a drop or two of blue food colouring if I was really that desperate. It would probably do the trick and I’m sure some of you are thinking “Well duh! Why doesn’t she just do that?!”  Well I haven’t because I thoroughly enjoyed the thrill of finding them there in the shop fridges and all I had to do when I got them was remove the lid and savour the blue. Nothing wrong with that. It’s even normal! I’ve seen exactly the same reaction in little kids on having their first mouthful of bright red soft drink (whatever flavour that is). It’s a colour thing. Little kids like red.

But I love blue.

In fact, I love it so much that I am appealing to Coke, Pepsi, Sprite and Fanta (assuming I’m right and they did do a blue one too) to please, please, please bring back their Blue lines.  Permanently. They tasted nice and looked so pretty and I swear I will buy them regularly.  Just do the Blue again.

Please?

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Why All the Blather?

You know, I’ve been thinking…

Those who are a) not American citizens, b) do not reside in America, and c) are ineligible to register to vote in American elections because of a and b, should perhaps refrain from getting themselves so het up over what’s currently going down with Donald.  Let’s face it, people rarely go on about leaders in other countries unless said leader is an entitled narcissistic sociopath, who is  hell-bent on causing chaos, and capable of creating international incidents that could cause a major world conflict.

Oh, wait…

Anyway, what I have found so senseless is the number of non-Americans who not only blindly worship at Donald’s feet, but have spent his Presidency obsessively posting and sharing provoking pro-Donald nonsense on social media, and every Trumped-up piece of fabricated “truth” they have found on Parler and MeWe, while ignoring what was really going on..

As time went by, proclaiming anything that showed him or his supporters in a bad light as “fake news” they went absolutely nuts on social media. The things that showed up in my Facebook newsfeed had me almost choking on my Fruit Tingles (my go-to fix when online). Didn’t matter that the evidence was staring them in the face. “It didn’t happen!”

Well sorry, but it did. Donald Trump was never going to be a good choice to run a country. He is vain, he is arrogant, he is a true sociopath and if those who voted him into the Presidency in the first place had not been so “starstruck” they might have voted for Hilary instead and saved America from the mess it has found itself in now. I’m not saying Hilary is as pure as the driven snow either, but at least she has her wits about her. Donald, on the other hand…

Yes, I’ve seen some funny posts that have targeted him, have even shared some of them, but that’s not what I’m talking about. What I’m talking about is the long-winded drivel that some avid Trump supporters have lifted from Parler, MeWe or some other Pro-Donald site and shared all over the place in an effort to convince us that he is the Second Coming and heaven help us if we dared to contradict it with cold hard facts.  I never shared any of those. Sometimes I have had to wonder if they really do believe what they’re posting, or are they trying to start an online war. Or perhaps just hoping to get noticed. Whatever, whitewashing him to the point of sainthood is not going to cut it. He’s a loooong way from sainthood.

But Donald has been voted out now and he and his followers need to accept that the trash party is over, so therefore, pack it in and go home. The fact that so many Americans finally saw the light and voted in favour of Joe Biden says it all. Donald’s tirades and actions since his fall from Office also says a lot and the behaviour of his diehard followers just confirms everything that was ever predicted back when he was voted in!

I am not American, don’t live in the US,  am ineligible to vote in their elections and am baffled by others, who aren’t American either, deliberately inciting violent online brawls via mind-boggling tripe and misinformation.  For goodness sake, it’s done!

Grow up!

 

 

 

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The Toxicity of the Karens and the Chads

Happy 2021!

We’ve all come through a bit of a different Christmas and New Year haven’t we? Well, for those of us who took onboard the need to continue with the social distancing rules anyway. Some opted to throw caution to the four winds, but for most of us things had to be done around the New Normal.

Which doesn’t feel very normal at all, but that’s the way of the world for the time being and common sense would suggest we all just go with the flow for now.

But it’s nice to know that some things haven’t changed. Well no, it’s actually not all that nice, because I’m talking about the Karens and the Chads. For those of you who don’t know what a Chad is, it is the male version of the Karen, and they are starting to come to the fore now. Although to be honest, I think they have always been present, but have managed to stay below the radar because we have been distracted by the antics of the Karens.

Both however, are highly toxic.

Karens, as we know, have a  heightened sense of entitlement, and can become loudly aggressive when they believe their “rights” have been challenged, which we have seen many times when one of them has been confronted with the directives regarding masks and hand sanitiser. They also have issues with social distancing and anything else that might stymie their desire to do whatever they want. They get downright nasty, and then they get abusive.

Chads also have a well-developed sense of entitlement and are as obsessed with their “rights” as the Karens, but where the Karens tend to throw noisy tantrums when confronted with reality, Chads tend to be quietly sinister. They get sarcastic, caustic, and are also very fond of glaring at whoever has had the audacity to challenge them. You will spot the occasional Chad who can be as loudly vocal as a Karen, but more often than not they keep the spleen to a lower decibel. But it’s just as nasty.

Karens and Chads often present as a pair, which would be par for the course I suppose, like being attracted to like and all, and when they come up against a reality check they tend to operate in tandem.  The Karen becomes immediately indignant. The Chad kicks in with the eye-roll, followed by the glare. If that fails to exempt them from having to comply with whatever it is they don’t want to do, despite it being a reasonable request that the rest of us don’t have an issue with, the Karen will then begin to express her displeasure via rudeness and if that doesn’t work, will resort to aggressive body language and shouty voice. The Chad will back her up.

As I mentioned, Chads get off on being sarcastic, but that’s only the start. Chads are also very entitled and strangely, all of them tend to believe they are gifted with a far greater degree of intelligence than the rest of humanity, especially business owners/staff who insist the current rules, which apply to everyone else who enters the premises these days, also apply to the Karen and the Chad. But the Karen and the Chad are hellbent on challenging any form of constraint. Confronted with the hard and fast rules for masks and hand sanitiser, they will go on the attack and that’s where the Chad can get really nasty. She rants, but he quietly throws down the gauntlet and can become quite threatening if that fails to move things along in their favour.

If this isn’t an offence worthy of arrest yet, it should be, because business owners and their staff do have the right to insist on any current rules of entry, which means hand sanitiser and masks these days, and the Karens and the Chads need to be brought back down to earth with a resounding thud because this is life now.

And they need to get over themselves.

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The Christmas Dilemma

A lot of families will not be doing the Big Family Christmas thingy  this year,  social distancing not being consistent with packing the crowd of assorted parents, grandparents, siblings, kids, aunts, uncles and cousins into the one house anymore. Some families will feel genuinely despondent about that, but others will be secretly contemplating the bliss of not having to deal with the dramas that inevitably punctuate all the peace and goodwill etc, etc, that is supposed to be the tone of the day.

They will be spared the soap opera that airs every year, without fail, when the family congregates. Like the animosity from Nana Hortense,  who has never approved of Aunty Beryl,  (“Alan could have done so much better!”) and after two and a half shandies begins speak her mind. Or Cousin Sharon who experiments with a new lifestyle every year while searching for her “true self”. She’s thirty eight and apparently still searching. Last Christmas she had been trending a version of grunge/punk and calling herself Rabid (or was it Raven?) Something like that anyway.

“For goodness sake, Sharon!” her father had snapped when they’d arrived  around the same time, last year, at the suburban abode of Aunty Janet and Uncle Ted “Get that bloody safety pin out of your nose! You know it upsets your mother!”

Then there’s the assorted children, some feral, some reasonably civilised, the teens who haven’t see each other since the Christmas before (and would rather be anywhere but hanging out with the relatives) eyeing each others’ clothes and gadgetry while making adolescent judgements, and the general hubbub of a large family gathering where any tensions simmering in the background inevitably escalate over the Christmas Dinner table.

And, thankfully, no one will have to deal with Uncle Alf (who is actually no relation to anyone at all) having one too many after dinner brandies and then trying to corral much younger females into position under the sprig of mistletoe… Yes, some families are definitely going to have a break this year.

Of course, this is not to say that all families are like that. Some are really close and love getting everyone together to celebrate Christmas. No one starts in on anyone else, the kids are all friends, Christmas Dinner goes down a treat and it’s an all-round lovely day.

But there’s enough of the other kind to throw a spanner in the works of the whole Family Christmas thingy.  Which is why COVID might be a blessing in disguise! And whoever got lumbered with hosting the family for Christmas Day can happily suggest a virtual get-together via Zoom without a shred of guilt. Nana Hortense can knock herself out with the shandies, Aunty Beryl can click out of the whole thing when Nana gets started, and Cousin Sharon can be whoever she is this Christmas, from her own lounge room. Sharon, we hear, has gone all boho now (currently living in a coastal tree house community,) so when she accidentally sets herself alight via a floaty sleeve drifting too close to a patchouli-scented candle (thank goodness for that pitcher of kale-infused mineral vitamin water!) at least the incident takes place on her rug, not yours.

“For goodness sake, Sharon!” her father bellows from a little square on the lower left of the screen “Get rid of those bloody candles before you burn the place down!”

“But I’m channelling the Ancient Spirit of  pre-Christian Yule! And, as I’ve already told you, my name is Wind Song now…”

“Oh, well that’s just typical! Now you’ve upset your mother!!”

“Well what can you expect, Alan!” chips in Nana. “With a mother like Beryl and all!” Geez! Just how many shandies has Nana had?

You can almost feel sorry for Sharon though, but you’re also quietly thanking the Universe for sparing you from Family Christmas Gathering 2020 because it was supposed to be at your place this year and with the kind of year we’ve all just had…

Thank you COVID!

 

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The Shifting Bug

No, I’m not talking about moving house. I’m talking about that sudden desire to rearrange the furniture, be it just a couple of things in a room or the whole room or even the whole house.  I’m really susceptible to suddenly wanting to change rooms around and it’s on me right now.

Except I’m living in a flat at the moment. It’s a really attractive flat but the space is limited to a degree and there are only so many rearrangements I can do. I did the lounge room some time ago and fortunately I like it the way it is because it looks open and spacious…and there are not a lot of other options to change it again anyway.

Which leaves the bedroom. It has been as  I originally set it up when I moved in here and while it works well, I have decided it could work even better if I changed things around in there, and while the bed will probably need to stay where it is, the other things in the room can definitely be shuffled into new locations and then the whole room will look transformed.

And you know what they way; a change is as good as a holiday. Well I already live on the outskirts of a little coastal village, and right across the road from my local beach so it’s all very holiday-like here anyway, but that just gives me added incentive to give in the the Shifting Bug and do a big move-around of almost everything in that bedroom, thus creating a whole new space and I should be happy with it for at least the next six months or so.  Or indefinitely if it looks really really good.

To be honest though, I don’t know why I get these sudden compulsions to rearrange an entire room, but when it’s upon me I become the furniture shifting ninja. It doesn’t matter how big it is, it doesn’t matter how heavy it is, because if it has to be moved it gets moved and if I go down in a heap from exhaustion afterwards, that’s cool, because I am seeing a nice attractive space from my spot on the floor, which gives me the incentive to crawl out to the kitchen, heave myself to my feet and put the kettle on. Caffeine is really good when you’re shoving stuff hither and thither. And chocolate. Chocolate is excellent.

I used to think I was maybe unique with the moving a room around compulsion and was almost afraid to tell anyone incase they thought I was a bit strange, but it turns out I am not alone. I know other women who experience the same thing from time to time and they can’t fight the desire either. When it hits, it hits big and we have all found that our strength reserves almost triple when it comes to having to shift that weighty piece of furniture halfway around a room. It’s quite amazing really. I know from experience that while I may struggle with a loaded laundry basket, shifting that heavy chest of drawers from one side of a room to another is a walk in the park. Ditto that just as heavy oak dressing table from where it is now to another spot on a completely different wall will be no big deal. That’s just the way it is.

It must be the adrenalin, I think. You know it’s going to look good so you can’t wait to get into it and you don’t even notice how much effort you’re having to put into the pushing and lifting and shoving until the next morning, when you wake to every muscle screaming profanity and getting out of bed means rolling over til you fall out because sitting up and swinging your feet to the floor just isn’t going to happen. But the room looks just lovely!

Even from the floor.

 

 

 

 

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Artificial Intelligence. Yes or No?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is certainly making more inroads into everyday life, to the point where we don’t necessarily have to push a button any more, because all we have to do is speak to the compact little unit that makes it all happen and it all happens! Interesting.

So we no longer have to get off the couch if we don’t want to, just speak a command and the TV will come on (could this be the end of losing the remote?), music will play, the phone will call whoever we wish to speak to and the home AI system will even lock doors, turn on lights and send footage from our home security cameras to our phones so we can check what goes on when we’re not there.

It almost rules out having to think too much, doesn’t it? Let alone having to physically do something, and while this may make those who use it (and more people are now) the envy of those who want to but can’t afford the setup yet, I sometimes wonder just how good an idea it really is. Do I really want a little gadget running my life for me? Sure, they look cute and everything, but…is this what I really want?

Okay, so it’s fun and it’s really convenient. Via an AI home system you can send the little vacuuming robot on a whiz around the house while you check the recipe the system has brought up on your kitchen device, or set the kettle to boil while you spend some downtime with a downloaded novel. It can’t bring your coffee to you yet, but give it a couple of years and there will be something that will. It will probably make it for you first!

Hang on, aren’t there coffee machines that already make it for you, from go to whoa, now? Whatever, they still can’t bring it to you at this point. Anyway…

So then, your house is now the coolest one on your block because it does everything for you and all you have to do after a hard day’s slog is come home, walk in and drop into the massage chair. Well sure, that sounds all very nice, but what will you do in regards to general physical activity? You know, as in when you used to move about from A to B to C around the house doing actual things for yourself? Oh that’s right, your AI gadget probably talks to your exercise machines (it definitely will if you have a Google Nest Audio) and all you need to do is verbally direct it and it will set them in motion for you. Heaven forbid you should have to flick a switch or press a button.

Okay, fine! That’s why you went all AI in the first place so that you don’t have to do any flicking or pressing! Whatever!

But the big question for me is this…what happens should your system develop a glitch? Or gets hacked? Like, it cuts off your phone, sets the exercise bike to manic and tells your car not the start? Then it prevents you from initiating the manual override, locks you all inside or worse, locks you all out of your house altogether? You are probably thinking that is just ridiculous but if it’s smart enough to run everything in your house, run your phone and your car, it just might be smart enough to play silly buggers with you, or worse, your AI system decides it doesn’t like you anymore and goes all Twilight Zone on you.

Or the hacker does. Either way, it’s not good.

Personally, I like perusing the old recipe books, the physical ones, when I’m in the mood to create magic in the kitchen.  I don’t have issues with pressing buttons or flicking switches, with walking over to the bookshelves and physically selecting a real book to read. I am not put out by having to turn a key in a lock or trot around with the vacuum cleaner and feel comfortable with not wanting or needing to speak to a gadget to make things happen.

Perhaps I’m just too smart for AI.

 

 

 

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Thank Goodness for Books

Lucky I’m an avid reader. I will go through a novel a week, sometimes two, and it’s just as well because with all the social distancing and restrictions on travel, my games of Memory, Scrabble and Monopoly are spending a lot of time on the shelf under the telly.

Not gathering dust though. One of the things I’ve been doing a lot of is cleaning. Not that I don’t normally clean, because I do, I don’t like a messy space, but when a lot of other activities are off the agenda and I’m not into daytime TV, doing an almost daily whiz around with the cloth and the vacuum  etc has become my newest normal. But at night I like to read.

And it’s just as well because my fellow players (my kids) and I can’t get together to play those games nearly often enough because of the restrictions in place to keep us safe from The Bug. And it’s killing us! Like, we’ve been known to sit up until the wee small hours with a family game, or six, and we did it regularly, when family visits could be a lot more regular. And we had the best time ever going hammer and tongs on each other in a close match.

We are mad keen Scrabblers  and get the kind of close scores that lead to “revenge” matches, one after the other after the other, then a cuppa break, and then another game, it’s great! It’s the same with Memory and as for Monopoly, it’s just open slather when we all get together over the Monopoly board.  Everyone wants Mayfair and Park Lane and once we set everything up…it’s on!

But as I mentioned, playing regularly is not happening at the moment, and attempting to play on my own, well take it from me, it doesn’t quite work. Hence books.

The beauty of a good book is that it will grab your attention from the first page and keep you happily occupied until the last. You can read a book on your own. The joy you get from a book is as good as landing on Mayfair when you already have Park Lane, and have enough money left over to put a house on each and the other players just keep landing on them…

Books even take precedence over social media with me. I love crime fiction, mystery and a good creepy story and right now I have a hot selection in several piles sitting on the coffee table (thank goodness for the local op shop) so I am one happy woman! So I am very thankful that I’m a big reader or I’d be going crackers about now because one can only take so many walks, read so many newspapers and make so many batches of biscuits and meringues. The plants have been repotted, the wisteria trimmed and, well, the house got dusted to within an inch of it’s life. Again.  I didn’t vacuum though. I showed a bit of restraint there because it was only done yesterday.

I’ll just do it tomorrow.