Life - Bah!

I was sitting in my favourite bookshop/cafe last week.. It was a wet day and trade was quiet, so one of the waitresses got out the ironing board with a view to pressing the mountain of staff aprons stacked up in the laundry basket. Well, it's one thing getting said contraption out, it's quite another to assemble it. Now the good lady is not lacking in intelligence or perseverence, but after a good five minutes of struggling with the board and its unco-operative legs, she threw in the towel and summoned assistance. A colleague came to her aid and had the thing assembled in a trice. I reckon she must have spent a lot of hours on english beaches assembling deckchairs. Have you ever tried that? How can two rectangular pieces of wood cause so much angst, not to mention trapped fingers and thumbs and all with the aim of having a nice sit down in comfort on the beach!

Life! Nothing is straightforward. Things that are meant to make our life better or easier or more comfortable should, in my opinion, be viewed with deep suspicion, because believe me, they never do. Generally they bring a whole heap of trouble with them. Kitchen gadgets like  coffee machines, stick blenders,  food mixers, chef''s torches and the like cause no end of bother - well they do in our house. Just take the stick blender as a for instance. You've made a lovely pan of soup and take the stick blender to it. Maybe your attention is momentarily diverted to something else and in that moment you slightly raise the stick blender and hey presto - there is soup everywhere, up the walls, the windows, in your hair. Everywhere but in the pan, so, so-long lunch and let's clean the walls instead. It's the same with the food processor. If you forget to put that little plastic top in the chimney, there you go again, food everywhere. And as for those chef's blow-torches for caramelising food. Yes, I'm sure you're there already. Over-enthusiastic use and you burn the food to an inedible mess, inattention and you set hair/curtains/clothes on fire and burn hands and anyone one else unfortunate enough to stand too close to you.

I asked the question in the cafe - do modern gadgets and digital technology improve your life?  Oh, I so wish I never asked. The whole place erupted with everyone's pet hates - DVD players they can't work, remote control devices that are completely unfathomable, internet connections that don't, mobile phones that are a mystery to the user, washing machine programmes that are so complex you need a university degree to understand them and so on and on and on.  As if it was all my fault. I only  lifted the lid on the cauldron.

However, it is good to know that it is not only me that gets exasperated by all the new-fangled technology and gadgetry. I am not the only Eyore quietly grumbling away in my corner, 'life, bah' ,mystified and frequently annoyed by the devices I allegedly need in my life. I grumble quietly though; wouldn't want the washing machine or internet connection to hear me and turn their respective hogs out, now would I?