Heart attack

Monday, June 28, 2021

Life's Little Mysteries

This blog post is the 1550th. I can't believe that I have managed to reach this landmark. I know a lot of what I write on his is just mundane, but I bet Samuel Pepys, who kept a diary, had days when he had to write mundane things to keep his famous journal alive, and just think how valuable that has become to historians, giving a vivid insight into life in London between 1660 and 1669, which included mention of the Great Plague, which in some ways reflects with the current covid-19 pandemic and lockdown. He also mentioned the Great Fire of London. What a time to live through! Can the same be said of this current time? Maybe not, but someone in, say, 200 years will be intrigued by all this.

Why is it, when you do washing, you almost always find one sock that doesn't get washed and is left alone in the basket when you've started the machine? By which time it's too late for it to go into the machine because you can't open the door to put it in? Again, why is it when you do washing up (incidentally, I don't have a washing-up machine, so it has to be done by hand.) there's invariably one or two items of cutlery, usually teaspoons, which get left at the bottom of the washing up bowl once the job is over? Is it some freak of nature that these things happen? 

How many of you out there have trouble with child-proof bottles? They are usually how many medicines are packaged. I bought Robitussin cough syrup a few weeks ago. I think I told you I bought some in Boots (no, not that sort of Boots! I mean the high street chemists. Doh!) I really needed to open the bottle, but you really have to press down on the cap and twist to get it open. If I can't open the thing, what about someone who has arthritic hands or other problems with their hands. No chance of a child would be able to open the bottle. The same on the plastic box in which my washing gel tabs come in. I know you don't want your child to eat these things, but that box is difficult to open.

It's not just child-proof bottles. I had bought some raspberry jam a few days ago and when I came to open it, or at least I attempted to open it, I had real problems. I assume these bottles are put on and tightened by a machine. The only way I could open it was to stab the thing with a sharp knife, which released the pressure inside and the lid was then easy to open.

Why do those wretched television commercials for carpets and furniture have to have voice-overs that shout at you? Is it the only way they can communicate their lowbrow products to people who can't comprehend basic English? Brash, loud and totally horrible. It seems that some of the lesser digital channels have this sort of advertising because they can't get space on any of the other, mainstream channels. Then these companies have obvious names such as Carpets 4 Us or Oakwoodfurniture.co.uk Can't they come up with more original names. Oakland, I think it's the name of a furniture company, presumably sells furniture made of oak. Am I right? Why not call it MDF World or chipboard world. Would that put people off investing in such pieces of furniture. Well, IKEA furniture is made, generally, out of MCF and chipboard, but they don't make a big issue out of the fact. How about Put-it-together-yourself.com, or Flatpackworld.com.  Trymaypatience.com, when you find the instructions which come with the flatpack furniture extremely difficult to understand and when some of the bits go missing, like the screws or bolts which keep the whole thing together.

Just thinking of when they audition for the voice-overs for those furniture adverts where they shout. How does it work, do you think? Do they expect the voice-over actors to stand the opposite side of a field and shout? They wouldn't have to have amplification. Why not get someone like Brian Blessed to do it instead? He has a voice that's so loud he wouldn't need a microphone and if he did, his voice would probably break the recording equipment.






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