Dear LPG,

Have you noticed how things change right in front of your eyes without your even realising sometimes. 

It seems like only yesterday, although it must be at least 30 years ago, that all the mod cons of the time reacted as soon as you pressed, twiddled or dialled. These days the appliances we have in our homes do so much more but take so much longer to react to our commands.

Do you remember the days when, if you wanted to change the channel on your television you just had to press the appropriate channel button?  These days you have to press and wait at least 15 seconds for the thing to react and you bet, if you press the appropriate button and leave it to its own devices, you are likely to have to go back to the remote control and click the button again. In the days I am talking about though, there were only 5 channel choices. It seems like only the other day but in the mid-1970s, I remember having two televisions for the first time, and even though the commercial breaks were a lot shorter in those days, it was possible for me to watch until the ‘end of part one’, get all the way up or down the stairs, turn on the other set and have it up and running in good time not to miss the beginning of part two.  I know I was a lot spritelier then, but even so, I am sure most will admit that getting your television started is a much slower and more complicated process now.

We knew the phone numbers of our nearest and dearest, and once we picked up the receiver and dialled the numbers the ringing tone (or the engaged tone) was almost instantaneous, while the average modern mobile smart-phone requires us to, unlock the screen (if we have a lock on the phone), turn it on, find the main menu, search for the contact you want to phone and choose how you want to make contact (phone or text, not to mention all the video calling methods available), and all that before you can make the final click which starts the ring tone. 

…And then there was the Microwave. Do you remember when they had just three dials and because they were a new concept we thought them challenging to master, but in the beginning there was one button, dial or nob to control the temperature, one to control the duration of the process and possibly one to operate opening the door.  Most now no longer have dials, but I challenge you to take a look at yours and count just how many button controls it has now. 

There are so many gadgets in our homes these days which are so much more complicated and require so much more effort when it comes to operating them, and it has to be said that, as we get older our ability to do all that extra operating is likely to slow us down even more, which, I suppose makes the whole process even slower.

Do you, like me, sometimes find yourself cursing one of those gadgets, that we all take for granted these days while having a bit of a battle with getting it to do what you want it to?  The next time I find myself in that situation I will try to remember that, while many of those gismos take longer to react they also do a lot more than they used to and, as I get a bit older, the time I take to press the appropriate buttons forces me to admit that it takes me so much longer to stay in control…

CP, New Cross