(Friday) 3.40p.m. I can't think of a title for this blog post, so came up with the ridiculous effort you find here. Sorry it's so idiotic, but there you are! Do I care? Absolutely not!
Just listening to music on Alexa (by the way is Alexa male or female? Just a thought. It sounds vaguely female, but if you ask 'her' she doesn't seem to know.) As I was idly minding my own business, as one does when you listen to music, there was a 'clunk' as something was thrust through my letter box. I got up to find out what it was, and it turned out to be a copy of 'The Phone Book.' Something I haven't seen in years. Is this what the Telephone Directory has become? This rather thin and nondescript book? Not what I remember the Telephone Directory to be. What happened to Yellow Pages? Or Thompson's Directory. I have a glance inside and it's just advertising. Such businesses as drainage contractors, electrical engineers, plumbers, television aerial installers, advertisements for chair lifts and goodness knows what else. I was somewhat amused by the fact that if you get stuck down a cave you can be rescued if you dial 999. Seems a bit odd, because I can think of no caves to get stuck in and need rescuing from in Milton Keynes or thereabouts, but I suppose if you should need rescuing it's good to know you can call to get rescued. Also, coastguard, similarly, if you ring 999. But I don't know how far Milton Keynes is from the coast, but you'd be hard pressed to find a coastline anywhere in this vicinity. Must be at least 90 if not 100 miles if going east. Not sure if going west. Likewise, mountain rescue. Oh well, it's good to know you can be rescued from these areas if needed.
I just can't believe that the Telephone Book still exists. I don't honestly think I have missed it or even think I've had any use for it, particularly since if you need a telephone number you just go on Google, if you need a plumber or someone to sort out your central heating boiler or MoT your car. As it is, the current copy which was thrust through my letterbox is likely to end up in the recycling. I just wonder if everyone who lives in Dexter House also got a copy, and if not, why did I get a copy. I do have a landline telephone, but not with BT. You used to get a telephone directory in the days when the only telephone provider was British Telecom or, before it was privatised, it was part of the Post Office and you automatically got a copy when you were a customer. That's a good many years ago. The Yellow Pages and Telephone Directory lived next to the telephone and one or the other probably sat UNDER the telephone, one of those old fashioned Bakelite models, black, with a dial (how many children today have any recollection of this type of telephone? Probably none. It had a cord that connected to a point somewhere nearby and this cord, brown, many-stranded, got twisted, because people used to play with it as they talked. In a separate room, which was cold and crafty. Such are the memories. With a mobile phone you can call from more or less anywhere, inside or out, and have no end of apps, for Twitter, Facebook etc. Also, the Telephone Book or Telephone Directory used to be inches thick. This pathetic effort is thin and rather weedy. Just not very good somehow or other. Do people have their phone numbers in such directories? I my landline number in this? I'll have to have a look. Also, the Yellow Pages was also fairly substantial. I seem to remember at one time I delivered them around the village where I used to live. A car-load of Yellow Pages took up a lot of space, and they were heavy! Try carrying a load of them around with you and then depositing them at each house as you pass!
(Saturday) I've just got back from taking Alfie out (10.50a.m.) We had gone out for our fist walk at about 6.10a.m. As we walked around Oldbrook Green, Alfie stopping around every couple of yards to have a good old sniff, I found an object laying in the grass. I had to have a closer inspection and it turned out to be a Casio calculator. I wasn't sure if it was working. Having picked it up (probably not such a good thing to do, on reflection, considering covid-19.) It did work, so I decided to keep it and put it in my jacket pocket. No doubt a student from MK College or Milton Keynes Academy dropped it. Oh well, their loss is my gain. Having got it home in the flat, I have wiped it with alcohol wipe, so it should be safe from any viruses or bacteria. I have wanted a calculator for some while, so here it is. Looking on line to discover it must be worth at least £20.
I've just heard the most appalling piece of news, about an 82-year-old woman who lives in sheltered housing in Charlton Kings, near Cheltenham, who decided to have a cup of tea outside with a friend, and some jobsworth (I can think of a worse word here, but I won't.) who had to telephone the police, who turned up at approximately 9.45p.m. The lady was IN BED, to tell her she was BREAKING THE LAW! She was FINED, apparently, which makes this even worse. I trust she gets some sort of apology for such outrageous behaviour.This lady had recently had the vaccine and she and the neighbour were sitting socially distancing outside. What is going on here? It smacks of something out of some dystopian novel or even satire. It hardly sounds real. The person who snitched on her should be ashamed of themselves! Not worthy of the name 'good neighbour.' Why on earth do we have such idiotic legislation which allows this sort of thing? Makes me think it's more like Nazi Germany..We really have a totalitarian regime in power. I would never have believed it if it wasn't real. In fact, if you were to write it into a novel, people would say 'that's not real. It would never happen,' but, unfortunately, it is real. PLEASE don't let this sort of nonsense happen again and PLEASE repeal this crazy legislation IMMEDIATELY! The police had no ID, apparently, and the lady was quite deaf! The whole thing is OUTRAGEOUS! What would have happened if they'd dragged the poor old, deaf lady was clapped in irons, handcuffs, and put in a Black Maria and taken off to be put in the slammer. This whole thing has bought out the absolute worst in people (but more nice and kind, mind you.) I think people have lost the plot. It must be the effect of being confined they way we have been for more than a year. Sounds like something out of some crazy comedy to me or even a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta.
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