Some of the oddness of the modern world.

 Various posts on social media keep reminding me that Bruce Springsteen is in Manchester. Fans hang around outside his hotel waiting to see if he will appear. They have him sign his name on their arms! Are they not concerned it will wash off? Maybe they use indelible ink. Maybe they intend to have the signature tattooed into permanence. 

Years ago we saw him perform in a huge open-air venue outside Santiago de Compostela in Spain. We fantasised about running into him in the centre of the city, maybe looking for a suitable place for tapas. We never ran into him or any of the E-Street Band. I sort of get the impression that now he is more accessible. Or maybe we didn’t try hard enough.

Fans give each other advice on how to get to the Co-op Live Arena, near the Etihad stadium, where to park, which tram to catch, what time to get there. Here’s one piece of advice that went out:

“Get ready to indulge in an incredible variety of food and drinks with 32 exciting concessions, from buzzing bars and premium restaurants to vibrant lounges and exclusive club spaces! 

Co-op Live is a cashless venue - only contactless or card payments accepted! Get ready for an unforgettable time!”

It’s the last section that struck me + the venue is cashless! If you are really organised, all you need to take with you is your mobile phone. However, there are numerous things to spend your virtual money on. When we saw him in Santiago there were no such facilities. Times have changed. Such is the modern world! 

Here are a few more examples of life in the modern world:

We tried to put the Uber app on my mobile recently. It’s not possible. My phone is too old a version of the iPhone and won’t support the app. I am stuck in the old world of having to phone for a taxi which is not an Uber.

Yesterday I received an email from Marks and Spencer, intended to reassure me about their recent cyber attack. This seems to be the important bit:

Unfortunately, the nature of the incident means that some personal customer data has been taken, but there is no evidence that it has been shared. The personal data could include contact details, date of birth and online order history. However, importantly, the data does not include useable card or payment details, and it also does not include any account passwords. For more detail, see our FAQs.

How does this affect me and what should I do? You do not need to take any action, but you might receive emails, calls or texts claiming to be from M&S when they are not, so do be cautious. Remember that we will never contact you and ask you to provide us with personal account information, like usernames, and we will never ask you to give us your password.

How did they have my email address? i wondered. Well, of course, I have their loyalty card, the Sparks Card, a singularly useless card as far as I can tell. It doesn’t routinely give me reduced prices but occasionally sends me offers for things I don’t want or which are out of date by the time I finally get to one of their stores.

When you purchase goods these days, many shops will ask if you want a paper receipt or an email receipt. On the face of it this is an ecology-friendly move, saving paper but … In view of the possibility of systems being hacked I try to avoid email receipts whenever I can. There’s also the  matter of the store concerned bombarding you with annoying email adverts. Together with my ongoing campaign to pay for purchases with cash whenever possible, I am becoming a kind of refuse-nik!

Or just an eccentric crank! 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Signs of summer. Cutting the grass. An island of strangers.

 The smell of freshly cut grass! One of those quintessentially English summer smells! Joni Mitchell sings about the ‘hissing of summer lawns” but we don’t as a rule have sprinklers keeping our gardens green here. Bruce Springsteen sings about “girls in their summer clothes”, which nowadays often means “in as few clothes as decently acceptable” and unfortunately often exposing more flesh than they really should. That includes the male of the species - males of all shapes and sizes pulling their t-shirts off to walk along the streets as if they were on the beach. Ah! Signs of summer! Which has been going on for a while here now. Pretty soon concerns about drought will be expressed.

When I went out this morning early(ish) I could smell cut grass. Council workers were cutting the grass verges on our road, up by the cricket club. It was probably needed. The dandelions that have been looking rather magnificent have mostly gone to dandelion clocks and then just straggly stalks. Now, suddenly it’s the turn of poppies, which are everywhere. 

Yesterday I heard the sound of a lawn mower. Looking out I saw that the next door neighbour was cutting the grass in the back garden. We have a shared back garden. Legally, on the deeds, part of it is ours and part of it is theirs. Their bit is larger than ours as we also have a piece of garden at the side of the house. We could erect a very proprietorial fence between the sections of the back garden but it would really be a case of both of us cutting off our nose to spite our face. We all benefit from having a bigger open space. For years and years it has been Phil who has cut the grass. From time to time our neighbour has said he would do or, or he has volunteered his grown-up but still-living-at-home son to do it. All to no avail. 

As the fine weather has continued, the  grass in the back garden, never really meriting the term “lawn” has been growing longer. It was beginning to reach meadow proportions. Just over a week ago, maybe two, our neighbour assured me he was planning to cut the grass “one day soon”. So Phil has been stubbornly refusing to give in and cut it himself. A sort of game of chicken ensued: who could hold out the longest? Yesterday our neighbour gave in and cut the grass. Maybe his wife put some pressure on him.

However, he seemed to forget that when he assured me of his intention to cut the grass he also promised to mow the side garden … which remains a wilderness! So it goes! You can’t win them all! 

I am told that today, or maybe yesterday, is Fibromyalgia International Awareness Day.  I know a few people who suffer from this debilitating condition. And groups all over the world are shouting out about the need for more awareness of the condition. This day was chosen as it is the birthday of Florence Nightingale who possibly had fibro and suffered with chronic pain for most of her life. 

She knew some stuff did Florence Nightingale 12.05.1820 - 13,08.1910 , possibly ahead of her time. Here’s a quotation: 

“Apprehension, uncertainty, waiting, apprehension, fear of surprise, do a patient more harm than any exertion. Remember he is face to face with his enemy all the time.”

We have a chronic shortage of nurses and care workers in this country. It’s hard to recruit people to do the jobs. Aldi pays better! But the powers that be are making it harder for foreign workers to be employed in those positions. The government is making a big thing about cutting immigration … again! 

Back in 1968, in his Rivers of Blood speech, Enoch Powell declared: “They found themselves made strangers in their own country”. Now Kier Starmer is criticised for seeming to have echoed that sentiment, declaring: “We risk becoming an island of strangers”. Odd! We all come from such diverse origins that surely we are all strangers already! Frankie Boyle has commented: “Imagine what it’s like being an immigrant in Britain at the minute, being told you need to integrate more by people that spend their holidays pointing at pictures of egg and chips on a menu”.

Michael Rosen put it more poetically: 

“I lay in bed 

hardly able to breathe

but there were people to sedate me,

pump air into me

calm me down when I thrashed around

hold my hand and reassure me

play me songs my family sent in

turn me over to help my lungs

shave me, wash me, feed me

check my medication

perform the tracheostomy

people on this ‘island of strangers’

from China, Jamaica, Brazil, Ireland

India, USA, Nigeria and Greece.

I sat on the edge of my bed

and four people came with 

a frame and supported me

or took me to a gym 

where they taught me how

to walk between parallel bars

or kick a balloon

sat me in a wheel chair

taught me how to use the exercise bike

how to walk with a stick

how to walk without a stick

people on this ‘island of strangers’ 

from China, Jamaica, Brazil, Ireland

India, USA, Nigeria and Greece.

If ever you’re in need as I was

may you have an island of strangers

like I had.”

That’s all. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Some thoughts about grammar, art, books. And some photos.

One of our grandchildren, Granddaughter Number Three, is now eleven years old and will be taking SATS this year. She’ll be fine. She’s already passed the 11+ exam and will go to the local grammar school in September. Here’s a comment from the estimable Michael Rosen about SATS: 

“Year 6 teachers, I hope you'll remember that some of us know that the Grammar test coming up was devised purely in order to assess you on the false premise that 'Grammar' has 'right/wrong answers'. Plus: much of the 'grammar' in the test is wrong, misguided or not even 'grammar'.”

Some of us need to speak out about the nonsense that has taken over the teaching of English in primary schools. Having worked as a teacher of Modern Foreign Languages, I have watched attitudes to “grammar” change  and change again over the years. There was a time when there was a move away from teaching formal grammar in foreign language learning - the idea was to learn a foreign language as you learnt your own mother tongue. After all nobody “teaches” babies conjugations! Actually, learning the grammar rules speeds up your acquisition on a foreign language so long as you don’t get hung up on it. Well, that’s my experience.

In English lessons at school we learnt very basic grammar: verbs, adjectives, adverbs. Most of our grammatical knowledge came from reading. People often said they learnt more grammar in French lessons than in English lessons: probably true. Then along came SATS and small children were discovering a strange thing called the subjunctive, not to mention fronted adverbials. 

I read that a painting by Rothko has been damaged by somebody’s child scratching it. How did the child even get close enough. Here’s Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett commenting on it. 

I like Rothko. I can’t pretend to understand his work but I find it very pleasing to look at, which is surely part of what it’s all about. 

Art and music and books are important. I read this morning that the writer Umberto Eco owned 50,000 books. I wonder where he kept them all. Very half-heartedly I try to cull our collection. This is what Umberto Eco had to say about home libraries: 

"It is foolish to think that you have to read all the books you buy, as it is foolish to criticize those who buy more books than they will ever be able to read. It would be like saying that you should use all the cutlery or glasses or screwdrivers or drill bits you bought before buying new ones.

"There are things in life that we need to always have plenty of supplies, even if we will only use a small portion.

"If, for example, we consider books as medicine, we understand that it is good to have many at home rather than a few: when you want to feel better, then you go to the 'medicine closet' and choose a book. Not a random one, but the right book for that moment. That's why you should always have a nutrition choice!

"Those who buy only one book, read only that one and then get rid of it. They simply apply the consumer mentality to books, that is, they consider them a consumer product, a good. Those who love books know that a book is anything but a commodity."

Quite so!

Meanwhile, here are some photos I didn’t manage to post yesterday. Beautiful May morning flowers. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Some reflections on our dependency on IT and AI and such like.

Our local coop store has some empty shelves. Quite a few empty shelves, in fact. The slIghtly larger coop store in Uppermill also has some gaps but not quite so many. Some time last week in our local store they were having to take cash payments only as the IT system was not working: no card payments, no cash machine, not even the ability to swipe your Co-op loyalty card. Maybe we should go back to the system from my childhood where there was one cashier for the whole store, with a large notebook in which he noted down the customer’s name, membership number (9232 in my mother’s case) and amount spent and worked out the ‘divi’ (short for dividend). It was a slower system but then, the world was a whole lot slower back in the 1950s and 1960s. 

Yesterday I overheard one of the cashiers explaining to the customer ahead of me that the Co-op as a whole had been hacked, as had Marks and Spencer and a few other places she had heard of. This has messed the system up and so they have “supply issues”.

Today I read this report: 

“Passengers flying out of London Stansted airport on Sunday morning experienced large queues, delays and some missed flights after an IT problem affected check-in, baggage and security systems.

Images posted on social media showed long queues and although the issue was said to have been resolved, passengers were advised to stay in touch with their airlines as some flights faced possible delays.”

Hmm! Maybe the survivalists are correct and we need to start stockpiling essentials in preparation for a breakdown of the modern world of computer-aided everything! 

On the subject of computers, here’s a link to a quite long but interesting article, a bit of a tirade against the use of AI in the arts. 

Our local coop store has some empty shelves. Quite a few empty shelves, in fact. The slIghtly larger coop store in Uppermill also has some gaps but not quite so many. Some time last week in our local store they were having to take cash payments only as the IT system was not working: no card payments, no cash machine, not even the ability to swipe your Co-op loyalty card. Maybe we should go back to the system from my childhood where there was one cashier for the whole store, with a large notebook in which he noted down the customer’s name, membership number (9232 in my mother’s case) and amount spent and worked out the ‘divi’ (short for dividend). It was a slower system but then, the world was a whole lot slower back in the 1950s and 1960s. 

Yesterday I overheard one of the cashiers explaining to the customer ahead of me that the Co-op as a whole had been hacked, as had Marks and Spencer and a few other places she had heard of. This has messed the system up and so they have “supply issues”.

Today I read this report: 

“Passengers flying out of London Stansted airport on Sunday morning experienced large queues, delays and some missed flights after an IT problem affected check-in, baggage and security systems.

Images posted on social media showed long queues and although the issue was said to have been resolved, passengers were advised to stay in touch with their airlines as some flights faced possible delays.”

Hmm! Maybe the survivalists are correct and we need to start stockpiling essentials in preparation for a breakdown of the modern world of computer-aided everything! 

On the subject of computers, here’s a link to a quite long but interesting article, a bit of a tirade against the use of AI in the arts. 

And still on the subject of computers, this morning Phil asked me why I have not posted on my blog pictures of our recent walks through the bluebell woods. Well, quite simply because for a while now blogger has been telling me “Sorry, we are unable to copy your photos onto your blog”.  So today, my computer expert, aka Phil, set about finding a way round the problem. With a bit of luck, it will still work as I post this. 

And here, I hope, are some pictures of this beautiful May morning’s flowers.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

And still on the subject of computers, this morning Phil asked me why I have not posted on my blog pictures of our recent walks through the bluebell woods. Well, quite simply because for a while now blogger has been telling me “Sorry, we are unable to copy your photos onto your blog”.  So today, my computer expert, aka Phil, set about finding a way round the problem. With a bit of luck, it will still work as I post this. 

And here, I hope, are some pictures of this beautiful May morning’s flowers.

Nope! It’s not let me post those. I’ll try again tomorrow.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Celebrating. Remembering. Cutting trees down. Sentimentality in the world. Coping.

 Everyone has been celebrating 80 years since VE Day. My daughter has been getting quite indignant because her smallest children’s school has not done anything special to celebrate. Most primary schools apparently have had non-uniform days when children are asked to dress in patriotic red, white and blue or some simulacrum of 1940s clothes. And they’ve organised lunch outdoors, pretending it’s a VE Day tea party. But her children’s school - nothing! She’s quite put out about it.

I’m not sure how much patriotic stuff secondary schools do. Teenagers still enjoy dressing up but maybe they prefer zombies and vampires.

So everywhere is celebrating 80 years of peace. Meanwhile war is popping up everywhere. India and Pakistan have now joined in, although I just read something about a possible ceasefire. We shall see.

Here’s yet another bit of Michael satire:

“I've just watched a news item about 'defence spending'. Apparently every country in the world is spending more on defence spending. Good news for peace because if every country is spending on defence, no one is spending on war, eh?”

Given how much serious nastiness is going on in the world, it almost seems like an irrelevancy to comment on the two men found guilty of felling the Sycamore Gap tree. It seems they did it “for a laugh” and were rather surprised when it went viral. One of them commented that “it was only a tree”. It must have taken quite some planning to carry put the act of destruction. What a pity they didn’t apply that energy to something more positive. 

And now lots of people are mourning the loss of that symbol of endurance and beauty, a place where people orchestrated the important moments of their lives - engagements and wedding photos and scattering of loved-ones’ ashes. 

There’s a whole lot more sentimentality around than there used to be. Most parents have experienced that feeling of loss when your offspring leave home. I remember feeling quite bereft driving home alone from Keele University where I had just deposited Offspring Number One. But we still had Offspring Number Two at home, causing teenage mayhem and regularly breaking all the rules about what time she was supposed to come home. Eventually she left too. Both of them come back at regular intervals. It’s always good to see them and their own offspring. I never felt the need to have counselling. I think I was still too busy with my career. Now I read that Michell Obama is having counselling as the Obama daughters fly the nest. I would have thought her the kind of strong woman who could find an occupation to fill that empty nest! 

So it goes.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!