It's a bit of a tangent - but as a 1970s child, one thing my friends and I completely took for granted were cassette tapes for audio books and music. I think we had an early reel-to-reel too. As we do, I assumed they had been around forever, but in fact, it had just been mainstreamed before I as born. They were a massive part of my first 30 years. They were pretty much a defunct format by the end of the 1990s - so cassettes were only really a thing for thirty years or so, which is quite amazing.
I still have loads of cassette tapes @Fire because I copied all my singles and LPs onto tapes so that a they wouldn't get scratched and b I could play them in the car. These days cars don't even have a CD player, let alone tapes but I still have a tape player so I'm keeping them.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
We recently went that way too although our diffuser sits in a glass teapot. We suddenly woke up to just how much microplastic was going into our bodies and the environment from teabags.
Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
I had my cassette deck serviced last year to digitise the hundreds of cassettes that we still have. The original UK distributor from the 1980's still supports them which is nothing short of amazing in our throwaway society today. Copying CDs to the PC is quick and easy but tapes have to be played in real time then edited to create tracks making it a very slow process. Came in handy for a foreign language learning series which only came out on cassette. I might get around to the reel to reel tapes eventually but the 78s (Jimmy Shand anyone?) will remain in storage
When we first moved to Scotland we went to view a house in Auchtermuchty that was owned by Jimmy Shand. I'd no idea who he was, and didn't like the house anyway.
I casually mentioned this to work colleagues the next day. They were all in awe, and excitedly asked if we were buying the house. I had to ask who he was, and they were all gobsmacked that I didn't know. I explained that he might be big licks in Scotland, but in Liverpool he was unheard of.
This was just one of many occasions when I put my English foot in it.
Bee x
Gardener and beekeeper in beautiful Scottish Borders
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
My Kindle. The best invention ever for reading fiction. Say what you like about Amazon but through them I've discovered & read so many great novels that I would otherwise have missed.
And the wonderful adjustable stand I bought for it which folds down neatly to a pocketable rectangle.
Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
I bought my first Kindles 12 years ago when living in Europe - an absolute Godsend for getting English language books. Having renewed them recently, the newer versions are a PITA - too complicated and including too much tech which is not necessary - eg the reading time of a book !! Why on earth would anyone need that info ? Apart from anything else, the need to Tap everything and the lack of a keyboard is a huge disadvantage - for me at least. I find myself cursing more often than reading. Such a disappointment.
I also really like the thermal cooker we have - it's a saucepan, that you put inside a thermos - keeps food cooking for hours, a modern version of a hay box.
...and the vacuum insulated electric kettle - saves loads of energy.
Ooooo, a "vacuum insulated electric kettle" is new to me. I have a metal thermos which is brilliant. It has no fragile parts and keeps tea properly hot for many hours.
- - - -
I've been thinking of some other surprising things. I haven't owned them all, but have used them and found the to be super useful.
🛠 Ikea motion sensor lights. I have these around the house and find them brilliant, especially for use with lodgers through the night so all the mains don't have to put on when others are sleeping. I use them in sheds and outside storage. The rechargable batteries last for months and the light has a soft tone. So good not to have to faff around wiring in new lights.
🛠 Anker battery pack. I borrowed one of these for an off grid camping trip. You can different sizes/weights that holds days of charge. From some makes of battery packs you can you can jump start a car, as well as charge your phone.
🛠 Giant silicone keyring. I got one of these years ago and have not lost my keys since. As it's larger than my hand, I can find it in the depths of any bag. Mine is bright green, so easy to spot on a shelf. Made of silicone, so it doesn't weight much. It's not really a 'gadget' but hey.
🛠 Siri. Apple's Macs and iphone have a voice activated app called Siri (like Alexa). You can ask it questions or to do tasks for you. I have shunned voice activation to date as it wigs me out and seems to be the start of a slippery slope. But this week I found one great use for it myself. I had a huge long list of number to calculate. I wasn't sure if my spreadsheet was set up right and wanted to check the total. I read out the whole list to Siri and she told me the total. So much easier for me to do the than using a visual calculator.
🛠 Text to speech functions. Because my eyes don't work brilliiantly, I find it really useful that Macs can read back documents out loud. If I have a long letter or article where it's important to have no errors at all, I ask Alex to read it back to me. A total lifesaver.
🛠 Thermal imaging cameras. Last winter I borrowed a thermal imaging camera from a local env group. It was great and showed me all sorts of surprising aspects of heat loss in my house. You also can buy (or borrow) a little attachment to fit into smart phone, if you want to adapt your own phone rather than buy a thermal camera. Great if you are planning insulation works, wondering how well your old windows are working to hold in heat, or pondering where your drafts are coming from.
🛠 Wifi calling. If you are with companies like BT, you will have a function on your package that allows you to call on your mobile by using your home wifi router. So if you have rubbish mobile reception at home (like me), you can use your mobile like a landline. Another lifesaver. Lots of people don't know their landline package offers this option.
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I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
When we first moved to Scotland we went to view a house in Auchtermuchty that was owned by Jimmy Shand.
I'd no idea who he was, and didn't like the house anyway.
I casually mentioned this to work colleagues the next day.
They were all in awe, and excitedly asked if we were buying the house.
I had to ask who he was, and they were all gobsmacked that I didn't know.
I explained that he might be big licks in Scotland, but in Liverpool he was unheard of.
This was just one of many occasions when I put my English foot in it.
Bee x
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
And the wonderful adjustable stand I bought for it which folds down neatly to a pocketable rectangle.
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
Having renewed them recently, the newer versions are a PITA - too complicated and including too much tech which is not necessary - eg the reading time of a book !! Why on earth would anyone need that info ? Apart from anything else, the need to Tap everything and the lack of a keyboard is a huge disadvantage - for me at least.
I find myself cursing more often than reading. Such a disappointment.
🛠 Wifi calling. If you are with companies like BT, you will have a function on your package that allows you to call on your mobile by using your home wifi router. So if you have rubbish mobile reception at home (like me), you can use your mobile like a landline. Another lifesaver. Lots of people don't know their landline package offers this option.