Can anyone give me a genuine reason for the price of 2nd-hand iphones? My attention was today drawn to the ebay site,by a very excited and agitated friend who was bidding for a 2nd-hand one.
He was chuffed to BITS,that he secured it for “only” £475!!!
You what? Ok,I admit that,regarding mobile telephonic devices,I may be somewhat lacking in the enthusiasm department…but as I neither play infantile games,nor participate in ‘Soshal Meeja’,the main - in fact the ONLY - thing I consider important,is that a good signal is present at all times. To date,I have found NO uber-expensive plaything that can beat-or even equal-my trusty Nokia 6021,bought in Finland in 2005 whilst I was dutifully driving a roadtrain around all parts of Europe…including Russia…and never ONCE has it let me down. Price? The price was equivalent to £10. Still on the original battery,still holds useable charge for well over 3 days. [was once 5] I bought a brand new battery for it,genuine from Nokia,so not a Chinese copy,just two weeks ago;price £1.95.
Ok,I accept my interests lie in other directions and that for me and to me,a mobile phone is exactly that…but HTH can anyone justify paying such ridiculous amounts for an item that they KNOW will be outdated by Christmas??? A SECOND-HAND one,at that!
I inherit mine from my kids, thought I’d lost mine for the second time in one month, first thought was, I have no insurance, and won’t be replacing it, time to dig out the Blackberry.
Pug, you make my polymath uncle Vivian look like a work experience youngster.
Mine is clockwork, we are so poor.
That sounds Cognitive.
Ok…thanks RJ-I frequently am referred to as ‘Polymath Pug’ by several acquaintances - note I don’t say ‘friends’. They’re the ones who jeer and gossip when I’m at a distance,but are VERY fast to ask for help,assistance,guidance or direction when the effluence interfaces with the air conditioning. No matter-this interwebz is an indirect medium of converse,so everyone is a hero. BUT,that aside…I’ve just had it explained to me fairly energetically,by Weedy & The Scrote [two teenage/early twenties girls who live along the lane-and yes,I’m very fond and protective of them both,despite the honorific appellations] that it’s a ‘generation thing’.
Apparently I ‘couldn’t possibly understand as I’m used to fountain pens,books,steam-trains and dynamos on bicycles’…hmmm
…there’s actually quite a lot of truth in that…[bloody females. TUT!]
I don’t use my cell -phone a lot but it remains invaluable particularly in the bush. when I first purchased it from Telstra [you must have heard about them?] it comes with all wizdrop extras that cost more money. the ability to surf the net and send pics to deranged children - it was costing me $130 a month and they never warn you. being a slow learner it took me a while to realize like 12 mths. I cancelled everything - NO i do not want continues picks of my grandkids they grow to fast!
so now I pay $30 a month - that’s better. I sat around the lads table last week with his mates and his eldest daughter - they are constantly checking their effing cell phones and showing each other film clips and photos - and this is the new social scene - forget it - I sat back and smoked the cuban lady and drank the sour whiskey from the deep usa south!
I think it’s just me,gumbud…mayhap,the way I relate [or,more accurately,fail to relate] to the ever-changing,ever-more-expensive personal technology. By which,I refer NOT to such advances as defibrillators,sandwich toasters,microwave ovens and,to a lesser degree,flat-screen tv sets,but to such items as wrist pedometers,mobile telephones that give you your heartbeat-rate,the weather conditions in Hammerfest,the price of coffee shares on NASDAQ,plus the current “Who said what about whom” whilst simultaneously solving inversional equasions,hosting a Facepalm conversation and notifying you that your chips are ready and how bad the traffic is on the M25. [it’s shit,as per].
My,we’ve come a long way since the portable pencil-sharpener…and yet,at the same time,as a race,we’re determined to self destruct,via that very same inventiveness that gave us humourous fridge magnets. Oh,well…I think I may join you,gummy. Mine’s a Cuban & a large single malt,preferably Shetland Reel. #…ahhhhh…#
I have the strong conviction that I should take a moore positive interest in the life of my teenage grandchildren. I have 3 more aged 2,4, & 9.
Give them not advice but causing them to realise what their natural talents are, their gifts & ability . THis said to inform the & use them in their lives.
From an early age all I wanted was to pursue gardening, maybe and livestock. But I lost my way, ended up doing just that.
yes gardening - reading about the allotment owners and their antics on this site does me heart good. can’t beat rummaging around on an allotment.
can’t believe that saudi is now almost bankrupt and usa will not bail them out - what is the world coming to ?
the israelis were the ones to make the desert come alive again with the sound of trickling water and plants galore I believe. yes gardening and madness do go together! whilst everyone kicks shit out of syria and dear old aleppo once a great trading city on the old silk road says goodbye to the past. it is not just the oldies who despair?
i am on my last viewing of the last dvd of heartbeat - in a world gone bye but if you watch “in the dales” doco still there! - what will I do next - well there’s always hamish mcbeth or monarch of the glen to inspire me again or of course foyles war or ’ a walk through the highlands’ whoopee!
A good read GUmmy.
And now for a trip down memory lane.
In my days at GRACE BROS, I met a good number of famous people in the course of my work. Signing Sessions for Authors, B list celebs opening a new franchise, department or product, all came my way.
Percy Thrower, Geoff Love, great bloke, Larry Grayson, Margaret Powell, Sir Francis Chichester, Pat Phoenix, Dustin Gee & the other one, Rod Hull & Emu, & loads of others whose names I can’t recall. Frederick Forsythe, Lesley Thomas, Dick Frances, loads more.
I recall though, now looking back, the staff & customers were generally more interesting.
I’ll put my thinking cap on & post some on Confessions of a retired shopkeeper.
One of my colleagues had a double life while his mother was alive. Poor man was treated like a girl by his butch mother, dressing him as a girl until he went to school. Whether this helped him in his decision to secretly bat for the other side or his predilection to dress up and listen with fellow music lovers to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky or something else but when the mother died he had no need to pretend anymore & went off the rails. He took to wearing gold lame catsuits & the last I heard of him was that he had gone to MILAN to work as an Au Pair to an opera singer.
Today, I thought about that Canal Boat, and that rural Bus journey, who knows, I may through my own offering into the mix.
Ah canal now you have pucked at me heartstrings! - as a middle aged teenager I walked the canals with young lassies - in those days they were peaceful and empty and so the charm. alongside the canal we would often find a wooded glade when time stood still and I stood to attention!:-p
rural buses eh by gum laddie - single decked mind!
Gotta say,gumbud,excellent choice there,re ‘Hamish Macbeth’. Robert Carlyle hasn’t played a bad part,nor given a bad performance,in anything he’s ever done…well…that I’ve seen,anyway. I must admit,I’ve never watched,nor wanted to watch,Trainspotting. But,I can add Titanic,A Clockwork Orange,Frozen,Wolf of Wall Street and several other ‘must see’ films to the list of crap I have no desire to sit through. HOWEVER [saving grace coming up-pay attention at the back] that isn’t because I’m antisocial,nor even that my braincell overloads…it’s because I have Alexander Kent,Adam Hall,Douglas Adams,Terry Pratchett,Stephen King,Sven Hassel,Dick Francis,C S Forester-and even Spike Milligna,that well known spelling mistake-to capture my imagination…and they are but a few of the authors who adorn my shelves. On the other wall are all the books regarding physics,sciences,astronomy,etc,etc. I reckon,if I try REALLY hard,in another ten years I just MIGHT finally make it into the 1990’s. [give or take a decade] Oh - and although I have a Freeview box,I have NO idea how the darned thing works,so it just sits there under the tv,silent and slightly miffed. TV just can not compete with a 12-string acoustic guitar across my knee,idly strummed as I sit playing chess on a laptop,sometimes against an opponent from forn lands,sometimes against the computer.
[shit. I really MUST try this ‘socialising’ thing that I keep hearing about…]
dunna forget the full monty laddie and whilst we are on films I would recommend Ladykillers with Tom Hanks a very humourous take on the deep south usa and the grand budapest hotel again another humourous take on past glories and kingdoms. and just to finish on guitar riffs - my son acquired dvd Legends with EC and accompanying musicians at Montreux -live 1997 - this is the original and raw EC I also have another Montreux with gary moore?? - very ear piercing!!
Ok,you win,gumbud. The fibromyalgia’s playing up today…tad uncomfy…so you can have the victory. These days,my guitars just get used for me to keep my hands mobile,if truth were told. Merely because I point-blank refuse to give in to this pain-not able any longer to ‘flash’ chords,or incorporate minor 7ths into a bridging sequence. Of late,since my hands became so much less able to cope with mobility and things hands are supposed to do without thought,I find playing lazy blues just lifts me,when the pain really sets in. Today is one of those days. Soddit. it’s days like this I understand why people walk off high bridges or under trains. SOD the thought of waking up to this pain for another 20 years. Meh. ANYHOO…to raise the mood somewhat - ‘The Ladykillers’. To me,that’s an Ealing Comedy,starring Alec Guinness,Cecil Parker & Katie Johnson…I think,though I’m not sure,it was released in 1955…so at LEAST twenty years before I was born.
[SHUDDUP!]
That puts me in mind of the late Joe Orton, a man whose real life was madder than his writings.
One of his first plays was “Entertaining Mr SLoane”, Films included “Prick up your ears”
It took me a while for the penny to drop.
Y’see this muppet?
Y’DO???
Oh,dear. He’s CERTAIN no-one can see him.
[This is Bugger-Off Cat,giving it ‘zzzz’ with all his might]
he hasn’t moved for 4 hrs!!
No need for him to move,gumbud,he’s safe there-he knows nobody can see him…