GOGS...Grumpy Old Gits Society..

The Dragon (my mother) is arriving today, for her annual festive visit. I hate wishing my life away, but roll-on Monday when she's going home. She was once described as "an atmosphere hoover".

The up-side to this is that when the actual festivities are among us, she won't be able to put a dampener on it - I'll just have to talk to her on the 'phone for a few minutes.

Is it the holiday season or are all the GOGS away, there havent been a grump here for over two weeks ...

Well I have one and since I dont know if it has been mentioned before Ill just post it here, you can be grumpy about that if it makes you feel better 😎

Its virtual keyboards, the ones that pop-up when you need to enter some text on your phone or tablet. As a young lad I learned to type with 10 fingers, and wenn I started to work as a programmer it really payed off. Still Im in software development and I can find the correct keys on the keyboard blindfolded without making a lot of mistakes.

Some time ago I got a smart telefone after my beloved old Nokia went to GSM heaven. Now SWMBO adviced me to install some apps on that (in the old MS/DOS days we used to call them programs), especially an App called WhatsApp. Because that is so handy ... Now she dont call anymore but sents WhatsApp messages all the time. And expects me to react on them, what happened to the old fashioned call? Wasnt the telephone invented for that?

My wife is Russian and lived in the States for multiple years, so at home we communicate in English. My Dutch friends however communicate with me in Dutch and learned that I have this App so they dont call anymore as well. To make it even worse, I work in Germany and as you would guess my German collegaes sent me messages in ... German.

So here I am typing with one finger, never learned how to use two thumbs, switching the languages all the time or else autocorrect will make constant mistakes assuming a word in English while I try to write German f.e. I drives me crazy.

Now the tablet has bigger keys so its not that much hit and miss but the bl..dy App doesnt work on a that. This is why I cant post much on the forum here, during the week Im in Germany and dont have a proper computer. Writing posts on my German work computer is not adviced since I have to use that for work and they dont like it wenn one uses it for private matters.

So Im grumpy about the fact people dont phone anymore, in 30 seconds one can say more the in a 100 messages. Why all this typing?

Henk said:

Its virtual keyboards...........

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I hate the things with a passion! I've only started to use a smartphone recently, because of my job. I'm not the best with a proper keyboard, but my fingers are far too fat to allow easy use of the touchscreen 'phone. If I ever manage to type something correctly even at the second attempt it will be a miracle!

I have to say that the 'phone was supplied with a stylus, but it vanished after a couple of days............

Proper grump this afternoon.

We live in a reasonably small village and it's human scale and a comforting place. There is a local small town which is OK as well.

Just occasionally though, we have to go into the nearest big town. The hospitals are there as are the big stores and they are the only places we can get certain things that we use. Bloody hate them. Vast hangers, crowded with people and offering a bewildering choice of goods. Human scale....hah!

Why is it necessary to offer 20 different sorts of butter or milk. Same for everything, there is so much choice, it makes me wish I was already on an island somewhere with just a local shop. I understand the economics of scale and that there are too many people trying to make a living as suppliers but it makes me hopping mad when I see the shelf fillers doing the opposite and chucking all the out of date stuff away. Surely less choice would mean less waste?

We get in and out as quickly as we can. I am lucky that Ronnie isn't a shopper. She hates the places too.

We are doomed, doomed I tell ya.

Had a strange experiance this morning , went into a supermarket , nothing strange in that , did a bit of shopping , nothing strange in that, got to the till's and a queue had formed, nothing strange in that.

Then a young lady walked down the queue and said sorry we cannot accept card's the machine is not working, well sometines that happens so not really strange, but in her next sentance which was , but we can take cash, something strange happened i appeared to be the only one who still uses cash, so i marched past all these people Having a right go about it and went straight up to the till with people muttering where the hell is he going , had my goods rung up presented the assistant with 2 nice 20's and a tenner, wished her merry xmas and walked out to my car with a big grin on my face.

PETER GUNN said:

I appeared to be the only one who still uses cash

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Cash? It's a nasty habit that will make people think you're a drug dealer or prostitute. Apparently...

PETER GUNN said:

Had a strange experiance this morning , went into a supermarket , nothing strange in that , did a bit of shopping , nothing strange in that, got to the till's and a queue had formed, nothing strange in that.

Then a young lady walked down the queue and said sorry we cannot accept card's the machine is not working, well sometines that happens so not really strange, but in her next sentance which was , but we can take cash, something strange happened I appeared to be the only one who still uses cash, so I marched past all these people Having a right go about it and went straight up to the till with people muttering where the hell is he going , had my goods rung up presented the assistant with 2 nice 20's and a tenner, wished her merry xmas and walked out to my car with a big grin on my face.

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I use cash 99.5% of the time, when shopping in person. I have a debit card which I use primarily for ATM withdrawals and also for internet purchases. I have never had a credit card - if I can't afford something, I don't need it.

I've been in a similar situation to PG on more than one occasion. I don't know if the law has changed, but it used to be the case that if you attempted to buy something and didn't have the cash on you to pay for it you were committing fraud. I know that these days "they" say that debit/credit cards are as good as cash but - as I understand it - it is the purchaser's responsibility to make sure they have the means to pay for the goods/services - and that means being prepared for card terminals to be inoperative.

A few years ago I made the mistake of filling-up with fuel without going to the cash machine first. That was the one day that the petrol station's card terminals were out of action. There were no warning notices warning "Cash Only", as I believe the problem only arose just before I arrived. The police were called and I (and a few others who were caught the same way) had to get my wife to leave work, go and get cash out and bring it to the petrol station. We were warned by the police that we could have been (and would be if we repeat-offended) charged with theft. They also impressed upon us that it isn't the seller's responsibility to make sure payments can be made. The only form of payment a seller has to accept is cash, anything else is merely a convenience for the customer.

A getting older grump.

All my life, I have been able to eat what I like and it made no difference at all to my shape or weight. What I like is basically cake, puddings and pies

The time of year is especially in tune with my tastes. Sadly, the rest of my body now seems somewhat out of step. I have put on 2 kilos and it's not even Christmas yet.

One of the problems with being one of the original models for Lowry is that every little bulge shows whereas, if I was, shall we say, of a more robust build, a small increase in girth would probably go unnoticed.

A few days of merrymaking to go and then its starvation rations until I am back to my usual shape. If a stick can be called a shape

Well, step-kids rocked-up at 19hr30. Their first hour went reasonably well - mainly because we were eating. Then things quickly went down hill with step-daughter. By 21hr15 Wor Lass & step-d had fallen-out. Step-d went to bed in a huff, leaving behind her an awkward atmosphere.

Aaaaahh........... Christmas chez Stu'n'El. Same s**t, different year.

............. And people wonder why I'd rather get away from family at Christmas.