Tuesday, March 3, 2009

The New Technology

The last few days have involved spending a fair amount of time on the telephone to Mum, attempting to describe to her how to use the new recorder we got for her at Christmas. The problem is that her phone is not in the same room as the tv and recorder so she has to keep going in and coming out after each instruction to report on progress. I've discovered that it is amazingly difficult to describe the notion of moving a box (the equivalent of a cursor) across the screen by scrolling up, down and sideways to someone who won't go near a computer. But I think we cracked it regarding the recording of one programme she wanted and I'll be phoning soon to find out whether she got it to play back successfully.

In the meantime Maureen is fulminating over the fact that Mum broke an electric tin-opener she got for her on only the second occasion she put it to use. This was no frivolous luxury, by the way, but was meant to help Mum with cans she's no longer capable of dealing with manually.

I've kept telling Mum not to worry about the recorder, that there's no way she can ruin it. Now I'm not so sure.

2 comments:

Trebuchet said...

My dear fellow, you should be very careful with that back. You don't want to be having stabbing twinges for the rest of your life...

The (former) TOK Committee met for murtabak and kopi-o kosong today. It was very good.

Brian Connor said...

I have the oddest feeling that, in addition to the merits of the food and drink, there was some sparkling converstion to enjoy. If you intended to promote the deadly sin of envy within me you have succeeded, big time.