The modern world is full of security checks. We have passwords for all sort of things, some of them backed up with “secret questions”, the answers to which you must remember as you might be asked for the 3rd and 5th letters of the answer when you want to access the account or whatever service it is. I’m all for a bit of security. I seriously do not want to be hacked. For a while now our computer has asked me to enter a security code before it will let me log on to blogger. Fair enough! It sends the security code to my mobile phone. Yesterday it went a step further. Before it would send me a security code I needed to confirm that the number they were texting it to was actually my number. My paranoia levels are on the rise!
As I was out and about in Manchester centre early yesterday I decided to call in at the cinema / arts complex known as Home. In a former life it had been the Cornerhouse, so named because it was situated on one of the corners of Oxford Road. It was a good place to see foreign films and other films of the kind that don’t appear in mainstream cinemas. I frequently took groups of sixth form students to study days based on French and Spanish films. When the big new complex was built the work of the Cornerhouse was subsumed into that organisation. For years after ai retired I would get invitations to those study days.
My Italian friend and teacher often does courses on Italian cinema for them and recently took time out of baking herself in hot Sicily to send us all information about one she is running in the Autumn, with the warning that we should book early if interested. Her courses are usually very popular. On Monday I found it online but could not access the enrolment section. So, having discovered that Home opens at 10 in the morning I decided to go and enrol in person. The young lady at the front desk found the course in question but apologised to me: the building opens at 10 but they don’t open for sales until 12. There was no suggestion that she could make an exception as I was already there. I suppose she had other work to get on with. Suggesting that I could book online she checked and found that the online booking wasn’t going live until later in the day. Not a good system, in my opinion. Anyway, I popped back in after I had been to the hairdressers and so I sorted it all out.
A friend of mine contacted me this morning about that same course. He was having difficulty enrolling online. The system was asking the a 3D authentication. Either of us has any idea what one of those is! Eventually he used a different debit or credit card and all was well. Such a lot of fuss for a payment of around £60. Another bit of security overload. But then, he wouldn’t want Home to empty his bank account!
At the other end of the spectrum, we have Phil’s fun and games with a parcel, just a small parcel. On Monday he was expecting a delivery of vitamins from the health food store Holland and Barrett. At some point in the day he received a message: your parcel has been delivered! Oh no it hadn’t! We looked in all the obvious places where parcels might be abandoned by overworked deliverymen. No sign. The delivery people were of no help on their website. Eventually he tracked it down to the house across the road, not even an immediate next door neighbour. The parcel was addressed to Phil Adams, Delph. Oh, and there was a postcode, which is the same for a host of houses in relatively close proximity to ours. It’s a good job it wasn’t a rare book or some other object of great value. So much for security!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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