Once Works Well was pure technology. Now it seeks merely to divert.
Pansy subjects - Verse! Opera! Domestic trivia! - are now commonplace.
The 300-word limit for posts is retained. The ego is enlarged

Sunday 1 March 2009

Electronics to tranquillise Zach

Now this does work and we the adults are very grateful.

For the third year running the five of us (the BBs, daughter, son-in-law and offsprig Zach) will holiday in the Languedoc. It’s a long two-day journey from Hereford and Zach’s behaviour during this ordeal has depended very much on the screen you see hanging behind the front passenger seat. As I’m sure you’ve guessed the screen is attached to a DVD player and for Zach, the unwinding autoroute is as nothing.

For me, one of two designated drivers, the tinkle of CBeebies discs endlessly recycling themelves was a small price to pay in Year One and Derek Jacobi’s soothing voice narrating In the night garden was a measure of normalcy. In Year Two I was less enamoured by The Wiggles and xenophobic tendencies had to be suppressed. This year Zach will be 3¼ and a cultural step-up is indicated. If not as far as Pulp Fiction surely he’s ripe for Citizen Kane? In the interim we shall test his ability to follow narrative.

The DVD player is plugged into an extension lead from the cigarette lighter. Another of the lead’s sockets accommodates the plug for the satnav. On the dashboard the computer calculates fuel consumption (trip and elapsed), reports the external temperature and tells us how much diesel we have left. An incredible amount of data processing whereas the only message from my Austin Cambridge in the early sixties was that I’d bought a rotten car.

7 comments:

herhimnbryn said...

Dear Sir Bonden,
My humble apologies on behalf of the Wiggles.

Sir Hugh said...

herhimnbryn.

When was he knighted?

Roderick Robinson said...

Sir Hugh: It's a colonial knighthood. I'm not supposed to wear it in the UK.

HHB: I take it that the multi-stripers not only protect you from Perth's frosts but also from dropped Le Creusets

herhimnbryn said...

Stripies offer no protection against cast iron pots, but are good for cold mornings ( 10 today).

Colonial knighthood indeed!

Julia said...

We're fans of Little Einsteins (classical music and art mixed together, great as long as you can stand hearing Dvorak's New World Symphony referred to as Lalala.)

Roderick Robinson said...

HHB: Surely WA has thinned your blood. At 10 deg C in Hereford we'd be getting out the sun-shades. As to the knighthood, my leftwingism would forbid it, provoking no doubt a further international incident.

Julia: Or LVB's sixth sung to "The countree, the countree, It's better than the town." On the whole it's a good idea but sooner rather than later (age 3 at most) he going to have to switch to you playing the Ives piano sonata.

Avus said...

I am so glad HHnB has reported 10c mornings in Perth. It will be so much warmer than the present 1c mornings in Southern Kent. Something to look forward to.
I agree, BB, she's gone soft in all that Aussie sun!