Leaf Blowers, car GPS navigation systems and widescreen TV's - to me these were commodities that were made before there was a market for them and then the advertising agencies and glossy mags got going and created a demand, which in all cases has taken off. So now everyone has one. Or is being persuaded to get one for fathers day.
But me ? Well I heroically get out the old Broom (remember those quaint old fashioned cheap sort of stick thing with a whole lot of hairy stuff at one end - and much bigger than a tooth brush - ) and would labour away on the drive and turning circle in front of the garage, get rid of all the eucalypt leaves and sticks that blow in constantly and have a very nice clean drive at the end of it. And then I could go round all the verandahs and do the same. Good exercise, great to be out in the fresh air, didnt wake up the neighbourhood or pollute the atmosphere...yup,environmentally PC. And then Sue just went and got one, which I refused to use of course, noisy petrol powered plastic and junk metal chinese thing. Except that one day I really needed to clean up the drive in a huge hurry and I used it. And in five minutes I had cleaned the entire drive, the turning circle, the verandahs and the cobwebs, the detritus and half rotted litter clagging up the garden, the old hedge clippings and dried duck poo, and it all looked fantastic!
As for the widescreen TV well we already had three old TVs that worked. Admittedly the one we usually watched responded only intermittently to the remote - yes Ive used the remote for years but there was a time...- and for a second or two every few minutes the sound would stop but we hardly ever watch TV anyway. So Sue went and got a widescreen TV - shes great like that, very pragmatic. And now I watch TV like I used to watch TV when it first came in, in the 60"s, just to watch it and to marvel at the crystal clarity of the images and the sound, the realistic life-like colour, the feeling that you really are looking at reality rather than at a TV image, .....
And as for the In Car Navigation systems, whats wrong with the old "Gregory"s" - the inch and a half thick Aussie softcover road atlas book that everyone has in their car glove box? Most of us only ever drive to and from work, or the same shops or the same relations and friends, the same Pub and footy ground and only rarely ever venture out into new territory - and we always got by with the Road Signs, the Gregorys and the occasionaal winding-down-of-the-window-and asking-a-chap-walking-along-the-street-how-to-get-to-wherever.
It wasnt important that the chap usually didnt know where it was either, or if he did the instructions were too confusing and you got lost again and had to ask someone else. The point was you're out there, its one of lifes challenges and you're using your brain for once to work it out, youre meeting people and interacting with them, and at the end you get that huge proud sense of achievement when you finally arrive. Who cares if the wedding is already over?
No way am I ever getting one.
1 comment:
I think I would still use a broom, I wouldn't like how the blower sits next to the real tools in the shed; a bit of a girls power tool I think.
Widescreens do make sense as most movies and alot of TV now days are made in 16:9 format. I have a sexy 26 inch samsung and it's coming with me to Melbourne :)
Dad, you live in a backwood hill billy town with less than 10 streets; for people in the big cities sat nav systems are very useful and sometimes essential. Besides, you're installing a sat nav device on your boat right? Well what happened to the map and compass and those other traditional navigation tools.
Post a Comment