No. 8 Thursday 7 July 2011
Living alone, some folks wonder how I spend my time. Well it is partly taken up by the extended time taken for even the simplest of tasks, but I ration my watching of TV to specific times of day or to specific programmes - because I don't want to spend all my days glued to the 'box' like some elderly people do. I am able to use my hobbies of computing and music to take up some remaining time, the music part being listening not playing !! As far as computing is concerned I recently bought a new computer, built to my specifications (based on advice from my son Neil) and added a new printer. This means that I am having to transfer data from my old computer, editing it in the process. I hadn't realised how much I had stored which was either out of date or no longer needed - so the editing has become a slightly laborious process. This is not the only use I make of the computer but I do exclude certain activities which many others use. For example, I don't use any social networking sites (such as Facebook or YouTube) because I am concerned about identity theft. In addition I keep the computer for things it does which I cannot do by other means like only watching TV programmes on the TV set not the computer or only playing CDs on the hi-fi. However I make quite a few purchases on the Internet and use it for other activities as well.
Other time consuming activities, which I have mentioned in previous blogs, are shopping, going to Quaker Meetings and my weekly visit to the retired people's club. For the latter I am preparing a talk (for when they would like it) on 'Humour on Record' which will use songs taken from my CD collection. I was surprised at the variety of such music which is available for this. Shopping is not much of a problem because it only takes about 10 minutes to get to the supermarket and, with a prepared shopping list, it only takes about 40 minutes to do the actual shopping. Quaker Meetings are, generally (for me) a weekly affair because some other activities are outside my travel range or are inaccessible by wheelchair. If I find a slot of spare time it is easily taken up with essential paperwork, which despite the 'paperless office' plans in the early days of computing, seems to have increased to the point where one almost needs secretarial training to keep things in order.
Another annual activity for most people is a holiday which for me is an extremely difficult project - even if I wanted to, which I don't. Part of the problem is that I never know what to do on a holiday, especially having travelled to, and worked in, many foreign lands. In fact we had done so much travel between the UK and overseas that, on arrival back at Heathrow when I retired, I told my wife that I wasn't going to travel on another b****y plane again. If I wanted a holiday (an unlikely prospect) there would be the problems of travel, wheelchair access, a suitable bed and coping with toilet facilities. Here at home all that is organised out in one way or another. The only thing I really miss is motoring and motor-cycling but I am even coming to terms with my inability to spend time that way. If there is something that I really want to go to which is any distance away, like an exhibition at the NEC at Birmingham, I can always splash out on a taxi.
Mike
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