Monthly Archives: July 2023

Zimbabwe Hyper-inflation Money

Phones, Groceries, Politicians . . .

Sorry, fell asleep instead of posting.

The phone is not exactly growing on me, but we are settling into a sort of neutrality. I don’t like it. It clearly isn’t bothered what I think. Together we can make calls and send texts.

It also appears to have connected itself to something as i could follow a link from a text ASDA sent. The link told me that my delivery was on its way and had 14 stops to make before it arrived. This information was, like a lot of stuff on the web, useless. All I want to know is that it will be on time. Nothing else really matters. I can work to an hour slot, all else is more than I need to know.

When it arrived the bread rolls were crushed. I want packers who can pack. I don’t need to know there re 14 stops between me and my crushed bread rolls.

I see that Nigel Farage has been denied service by his bank, and that this is a growing trend. Farage is a boil on the bottom of democracy in my opinion. He found a policy, ran with it and milked it. He has produced a career from nothing and is, in my opinion, no better than a politically based reality TV star, or internet influencer. They, as you know, are not my favourite people.

However, I don’t think that means that banks have the right to make moral judgements about their customers. They don’t seem to make judgements about their hugely wealthy criminal and despotic customers, so why have a go at Farage? Anyway, once you get into politics and morals, how long before they start sacking their own executives for being devoid of morals, ethics and basic humanity? It’s a slippery slope . . .

My New Phone (I Hate Technology)

Yes, I got a new phone. The old one was going wrong after many years of faithful service so I contacted Tesco, asked about a  free upgrade and spent forty minutes on the phone typing a conversation that would have been a lot easier, and quicker, if we’d spoken. Having badly underestimated the time needed to do this I had to hand the conversation over to Julia because I was due at the doctor. Having allowed 15-20 minutes, I ws surprised it took over 40 minutes just to arrange an upgrade.

It arrived a day later, which was brilliant service. I opened it, and that was where everything went wrong.

Bee on Red Valerian

I couldn’t get the card out of my old phone. I couldn’t find any way to get the back off so I resorted to the internet. There were several You Tube videos about it, but none of them were quite right. Finally I found a video from seven years ago and that told me. It involves a great deal of brute force. And that was just the start . . .

My phone seems to have gone wrong because the maker withdrew support from it, which explains my trouble with texts. On a planet full of electronic waste, they are selling phones and then deciding when it will become obsolete . Without the intervention of Motorola, it would have lasted for years..

Then I found I needed to be linked to the internet to do anything, and needed a Google account and a Microsoft subscription.

Marmalade Hoverfly

Marmalade Hoverfly

It’s like a tightening net. You pay for a phone, but someone else switches it off. You just want to make calls but you have to sell your soul to corporate America and tether your life to the Internet by a data umbilical. So far I have resisted but it comes at a cost of multiple messages about finishing setting the phone up. I’m also having to enter all my phone numbers manually. I am not going to live my life as an appendage of the internet just because everyone else does. One day I’m sure I’ll wake up and find that most of the rest of the world has been taken over by zombified users of so-called smart phones.

Julia, Sutton-on-Sea

And just about finally, I rang Julia this afternoon. I didn’t get hr but a message came up on my phone  screen about signing up for video calling. It must be the worse thing in the world. I don’t want people ringing and having a look at the clothes I wear when relaxing at home, or the woeful state of the housework. Anyway, I still hold my phone to the side of my head,  all the caller will see is a section of moving beard. Or my ear. Neither is a great view.

My new phone case arrives tomorrow. I’ve been walking round all day with it wrapped in bubble wrap as it is  big delicate screen. You never had any fear of breakage with a Nokia.

And did I mention it took me over 24 hours to even find the clock?

Pictures are selected because they cheer me up.

Seal at Donna Nook.