I was late going out for a run his morning because I spent the best part of an hour listening to a pre-recorded voice telling me over and over again, “We are experiencing a high volume of calls. (Canned music interlude.) You are currently number … on the list of callers. (More canned music.)” The only reason I didn’t give up and try again later was that I would almost certainly have had the same response and would probably have been further down the list. Eventually I reached number 2 on the list and finally heard a proper human voice and was able to make an appointment to see my GP.
Fortunately I was prepared for the wait to be quite long and had a book to hand. But it must be my day delayed phone calls as later I tried to call the plumber and had to leave a message. Whenever I hear “The person you are calling is unavailable right now. Please leave a message!” I want to start speaking at once and am interrupted by the pre-recorded voice telling me my message be recorded and then again instructing me to record my message after the tone. I have to fight an urge just to put the phone down at that point; sometimes you need to gather your thoughts and decide in advance what you need to say!
So phone calls have been just a little frustrating today! However, I did manage to call in at the pub next door to book a table for an old friend and me in their restaurant one day next week. Face to face communication works. Something else ticked off my list of stuff to do today.
For some time now I’ve been reading about cities complaining about having too many tourists, which seems odd when tourism is one of their main industries. But Air B&B has priced many younger citizens of such places out of the city centres. They simply can’t afford to live there. I find myself relieved, whenever I see photos or video, that we visited Venice, for example, a good while ago now. Even back in the early years of this century it was hard at times to get around that city but now it just seems horrendous!
The latest complaining city I have read about is Amsterdam. It seems they are suffering from what is called “performance tourism”. This involves going to place that someone, an influencer of course, has made famous. This is not usually a long-established landmark but more likely an outlet for fast food of one kind or another. People practising “performance tourism” queue up to buy the food and the take a selfie is the same pose as the original influencer - this is known as “copying influencer content”.
People living in residential street near these suddenly famous chip shops and burger bars feel as if they have been invaded and they have taken to putting up multiple signs in windows and on stairs reading: “No picnic: please do not sit here.” Even the vendors worry about the trend. You can be THE place to go for a short while and the suddenly find the crowd has moved on, leaving you high and dry with extra supplies you can’t sell so easily and even extra staff you now need to pay (or dismiss).
Finding out where is THE place to be seems also to have a generational element. 28-year-old German Lisa Wulff, in a half-hour queue for bubble tea and “toasts” at Amsterdam’s Chun cafe, said: “I’ve seen it on social media, and it looks good. My generation is more on Instagram, but I have a younger sister, so I saw it on TikTok.”
So at 28 Lisa is also out of date on her use of social media. She uses Instagram to find things out, but that has been superceded by a newer method. Her younger sister uses TikTok! Our daughter (in her early forties) uses Instagram and Twitter (now supposed to be referred to as X). My generation seems to be mainly stuck with Facebook and Messenger. I wonder what will come along next.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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