Well of course we all do. Yesterday I got a new mobile phone. I accidentally set the previous one on fire (don't ask). Mind you it was old and full up. So I visited the O2 shop in Norwich and came away with a pretty basic Nokia.
When I say pretty basic, it still has all the whistle and flutes. So spent most of the evening trying to set-up apps and realising I had forgotten the passwords for most of them.
How things change though. I started off with a mobile the size of a house brick. Ironically the new one is larger than the old one but nowhere as big as the brick.
In the early days you were given something like 200 minutes of talk time per month along with 200 messages. Now, when you change mobile, you don't even mention talk time or messages as it is a given that both are unlimited. Now it's all about data due to the fact that most people spend more time on social media and playing games on their phones than they do talking.
Anyway, after much consideration I got a pretty good deal which started off with low amounts of data before moving upwards until we got to 75 gb a month. As that's half what I was getting with my old phone I enquired what the additional cost would be of more data. I actually had to ask the sales assistant to repeat what she said.
"After 75 gb we don't do anything until 250gb."
I flinched as this would increase the price dramatically or so I thought.
"That would be another 1p a month," she said.
"Did you just say 1p a month for another 175 gb?" I asked.
"Looks like it," she replied.
So that's what I went with. I do find a visit to these shops very confusing at times. There are so many different phones, so many different prices and so many different plans that you need a degree in maths to compute it all (and as I mentioned the other day I have failed O' Level maths three times).
* * *
I'm not sure if I mentioned it the other day but Hethersett has lost a tireless worker with the death of Duncan Pigg. Duncan would have been 96 next week and he's been a constant presence in our lives since moving to the village back in the mists of time.
What Duncan didn't know wasn't worth knowing and many is the time he has loaned minute books and exercise books to me which contain fascinating insights into the past. I managed to turn a number of them into articles for the newspapers. I also featured Duncan in a number of articles as well.
He started the Hethersett village panto which is still going strong after over 50 years and he wrote the scripts for many many years. He was choirmaster at the church for over 30 years and was involved in so many groups and organisations that I will find it hard to list them all when I come to write my memorial piece for various publications. I remember in particular his prowess as a spin bowler for Hethersett Cricket Club and his work on South Norfolk District Council where he represented Hethersett for many years.
People like Duncan are what village life is all about. I will miss him and his store of memories and information greatly.
* * *
Am I becoming more intolerant as I get older or was today just one of those days when people annoyed me? As already mentioned I got the bus into Norwich to get a new phone. There were so many people in Norwich coming the other way who would have walked straight into me if I hadn't moved across the pavement. They were either engrossed in conversation or on their mobiles and quite oblivious to there being anyone else around. I also had to side-step two youngsters on scooters who were heading straight for me.
Mind you it was nice on the way home to have a bus driver who was pleasant and who smiled and chatted. Most of them in the Norwich area seem to be highly morose to say the least. I find the drivers up in North Norfolk (where we currently spend a lot of time) to be much more affable and friendly.