I only ask as Mr Confused. Things seem to change by the minute in an ever changing world but there are still some vestiges of the past remaining.
On our recent holiday we found a mix of places/restaurants etc. Some would only take credit or debit card, some took a mix of cash and card and some would still only take cash.
It all became very confusing because it wasn't clearly marked. We had taxi rides that only took cash and others that took both cash and card. So we had to carry both all the time. Back home I now often go out without more than a couple of pounds in cash on me.
Sometimes on holiday we were told that a card machine wasn't working or the battery was playing up which we suspected was their way of asking for cash.
Another confusing thing is space in the cloud which I used to think was a partial description of an air flight.
Now we are offered oodles of space for everything we have ever owned in this place that doesn't actually exist. Try getting your head round that one if you are a person of a certain age.
So you download an app and sign up and suddenly all the photographs you have ever taken and all the words you have ever written are dancing around in the ether somewhere along with that upright piano, 12 chairs and clothes from the 1970s.
But hold on. You've just received an e mail informing you that in six months time that space in the cloud is being withdrawn and you need to save all your stuff in the place you had it saved before.
I got one of these notices from Samsung recently informing me that the space I never knew I had was being shut down. Another one did the same and when I looked I found hundreds of photo files I didn't know I possessed Another is closing this December but I haven't a clue what it refers to. It's all very confusing for a bear like me with a small brain.
Technology frightens me in a strange sort of way. Firstly we kept stuff on floppy discs. I came across a boxful in the garage. They only held enough memory for one photograph. They became obsolete.
Then we had CD ROMs which store much more but have pretty much become obsolete. The same is going to happen with what I refer to as USB sticks and what about portable hard discs?
To me the only way to keep things is to revert to paper records in folders. That seems safe enough until you lose them or they get destroyed by plague and pestilence. All it seems you have to remember is that technology is transient in a kind of here today, gone tomorrow kind of way.
The problem is that I have a feeling that I'm quickly becoming obsolete as well.
So back to the travelogue.
Oh yes I wanted to talk about San Sebastian. What a delightful place it is during the day and what a horrid place it is at night.
Our apartment is a room in what is described as the old town. The old town is vehicle free apart from early morning road sweepers who do an essential job as I will explain.
When we arrived in San Sebastian it was after over 10 hours on two trains and an hour on a replacement bus due to problems with the train track.
We got out at San Sebastian and walked straight into a torrential downpour. So we got a taxi which dropped us across the road from the old town.
During the day the old town is fine. At night it becomes heaving with drinkers with noise going on until 4 am. Thankfully our apartment had very good soundproof windows that reduced the noise to a kind of dull thud.
San Sebastian is a very attractive town spoilt by nighttime revellers. During our stay we had a long walk round a very picturesque bay. The beach seemed to be the venue for a football tournament with hundreds of youngsters taking part.
At night we tried to find a slightly less crowded bar and succeeded. But it was on the Sunday morning we saw the seamier side of San Sebastian.
We were out of the apartment at 5 am and had to pick our way out of the old town amongst the vomit and broken bottles, all of which would be cleared up by the road sweepers.
Thoughts of getting a taxi to the railway station was a non starter because there was a large queue of youngsters trying to get one. So we walked to catch the 6.15 am train to Henday which is across the border in France.
Now if you are of a nervous disposition you might want to skip the next bit.
The train was full. Full of people returning from the previous night's revelries which is the polite way of saying they were still pissed.
Before the train arrived there were numerous youngsters throwing up on the platform. One sat in a pool of vomit which he just ignored as he continued on his mobile phone.
Boy were we glad to get off that train. The next leg of the journey home was a huge contrast. We got off the vomit express and only had 18 minutes to get the express to Paris. We needn't have worried as all we had to do was move from one building to another and there was our train waiting for us. This time no late night revellers and a pleasant four hour journey to Montparnasse station.
The Paris Metro was very busy as we travelled to the Gare de Nord. We had so much time to waste and nowhere to go as it was raining. So a very leisurely lunch was followed by a very leisurely coffee and then another leisurely coffee until our Eurostar for London left at 8.15 pm.
We rattled along and our journey included what was described as a light meal. The guy who stated he was looking after our carriage was rather a pompous man who seemed to take his task of giving out the food a touch too seriously.
The main part of our meal was some cold beef with salad.
"How was your meal? He asked everyone.
Well how can you answer such a question when that meal is cold beef and salad?
I think he was expecting us to say:
"Fabulous. The best meal I've had since I last ate at the Ritz."
Now I must point out here that I've never eaten at The Ritz, although I once had Ritz Crackers.
We nodded sagely about the meal and told him how good it was and that seemed to please him. He obviously took pride in his job which was nice to see.
We got to St Pancras in good time, got the circle line to Liverpool Street and so to home and that folks is the end of this travelogue. Thanks for sticking with it. Hope you at least enjoyed some parts of it.