I noticed something interesting on Wednesday, which I forgot to mention. When I stopped at the petrol station to fill up and put air in my tyres I found that the air pump takes cards. This is new. It takes a minimum of 50p, where it used to take smaller coins, but that is hardly a surprise as it’s the norm for everything to go up. It’s only surprising that it hasn’t gone up to £1 minimum.
It’s all part of the drive towards a dehumanised cashless society.
Eventually, with all payments being electronic and all shops having loyalty cards I’m sure the Government will take the opportunity to start poking its nose into our spending and resting habits.
How long before my weekly shop is greeted with red lights and klaxons and an automated message: “Put that cake back, fatty, and buy some crispbreads.”
It’s a chilling vision of the future.
My problems, as listed a few days ago, are decreasing. This isn’t because I’ve actually solved any of them, just that I’ve stopped worrying. I’ve already bored workmates, sister and wife by moaning about the boundary dispute at the bottom of the garden, so I won’t add my blog readers to the list. Anyway, it’s not as if my back garden fence is going to need a UN intervention, and despite some elevated rhetoric from the neighbour, I can’t see it escalating into actual warfare.
Unfortunately, the dispute is taking too much of my attention and I’m finding writing is dragging, so will sign off now and look for a random photo to use. I have decided on the sea buckthorn from Skegness on our last trip to the coast.
Good luck with the fence dispute.
It’s almost a thrill to had over cash these days.
I had that pleasure yesterday when handing over £3 at a haberdasher’s of all places for three secondhand books. And today I’ll be using cash again to buy my raw milk.
I can hear Bowie’s Rebel Rebel on my mental soundtrack. Books, Raw Milk and cash? Does the 21st century mean nothing to you? 🙂
😃
I know, I know! Where’s my Kindle….
In a hundred years they will put your face on student T Shirts.
I dread to think!!!
🙂
American tech companies already everything about you and after our magnificent trade deal with the US is completed, they will probably have the power to require you to wear specific makes of underpants before logging on.
They’ll make me wear underpants? :-0
You have no idea what they will do!!!
That’s true. Not comforting, just true…
Cheap plastic is indeed the story of modern life. Good luck with that neighbor.
https://youtu.be/LanCLS_hIo4
It is good things are worrying you less. It won’t help you, and will only contribute to ill health. There is probably a good quote from Marcus Aurelius on the subject. 🙂
I just heard a crash in the kitchen, and suspected a cat up on a countertop where they know they are not supposed to be. I wrongly blamed a cat, having just found that the rear bracket sleeves on each side of a drawer in the kitchen center island broke simultaneously, and the rear of the drawer dropped down onto the items on the shelf below. I noted they are made of cheap plastic that fractures and tears readily. In the hardware stores, this seems to be all one can find these days. Now metal would last! The drawers right now can’t take much weight, meaning a shortage of space for useful kitchen items. No, things are not made like they used to be, and I can’t force today’s manufacturers to do otherwise. At some point, I will take all the drawers out and engineer my own solution.
Cheap plastic – the story of modern life. My parents moved into a house in the mid-60s – it had aluminium kitchen units made by an aircraft manufacturer just after the war. I forget the brand name but they are quite sought after now. The paint chipped, the rubber seals perished, the soft-close drawer fittings stopped working. After they replaced it, they never did get a kitchen that matched the quality of the old-fashioned one.
As for cats, they may be innocent this time, but I suspect this isn’t always the case. Again, back in the 60s, my sister had two puppies – my cat taught them how to get on the kitchen counters to steal food. Good luck with the repairs.