Gains and losses

Man, it's been a week. More school visits, a new boiler, a christmas party, and not enough time for it all. Replaced our router today and the new one doesn't work, so now the new boiler, fitted this week and wifi-controlled, also doesn't work. So no heating in the middle of December until I call the helpline tomorrow and see when they can get an engineer out. Some upgrade.

Reminds me of visiting Aladdin's Cave (knik-knack shop) in the Vicki Centre Market while in town a couple of weeks back. Walked in on a conversation about computers between the owner's son and an old dear in there. He's explaining how he's given up upgrading his software because it's so complicated, so he just runs it on ancient versions of everything. She says she doesn't even have a computer. He laughs and says they're pointless and starts lambasting the marketing of wifi-connected home appliances that he keeps seeing on TV. I'm all for mod cons, but my experience today has me questioning our reliance on them. Handy as they can be, they are single points of failure that can hugely disrupt our lives when they go wrong. I should know. I'm sat here in the cold writing this because our wifi is down. 

Funny conversation between the Aladdin's cave guy and a customer who briefly stuck his head in to enquire about some paint…

"You got any radiator paint?"

"Paint, nah, don't sell it."

"Hmm… I normally get it from Wilko's, but they're gone now, eh?"

"Yea. Not that they had much by the end, anyway."

"They had radiator paint."

That last line was delivered with perfect deadpan timing as the guy walked away, back already turned to the cashier. The rest of the market is all but gone now, but it's great to see Aladdin's Cave still there. Like stepping back in time, but still a time that I remember growing up. It seems so out of place—otherwordly, even—today. But everywhere was like that little place when I was growing up. How much the world has changed in a few fast years. And, like my wifi-operated boiler that doesn't work, that change is a double-edged sword. Progress with a cost. Gains and losses. If you net it out, I'm not sure we end up coming out ahead. But someone somewhere does, that's for sure.

Still, as ever, I was able to get what I needed from there—a washing line to replace the one I chopped through when trimming the patio bushes a week earlier and some elastic to make kids' masks—something I wouldn't know where to look for if Aladdin's Cave didn't exist. Who knows where people will find such items when that place finally closes. It really will be the end of an era never to be seen again.

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