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

Tuesday 10 August 2010

I am middle-class, honest


On the left, our Kingston-upon-Thames 1930s semi, sold in 1998. The estate agent noted the property had been modernised “but would benefit from some cosmetic redecoration.” - in other words the vendor’s a slob. ‘Twas a mercy the buyer was desperate and didn’t give a damn.

Twelve years on, scarred by that unkind judgment, I search our present house (new when we moved in) for tasks to prove I’m a caring owner. More and more obscure tasks, it seems. I paid right royally to have the brick driveway installed but now I’m faced with sealing it. Why? I had hoped sealing would inhibit weed growth. It doesn’t. In Tudor England, lacking a driveway, Sir Thomas More flogged himself with a leather whip. Times have changed but I don’t rule out a visit to the tack shop.

LOOK ON MY WORKS… I love France, inordinately, irrationally, irredeemably. I used to think of the USA as the Can-Do country but France is up there. The Millau bridge (already posted) provides grand proof, but here’s humdrum evidence. This low-loader carrying a gigantic yacht has been forced into the centre of a country road and is virtually brushing the plane trees on either side. The latter suggest that this could only be l’Hexagone, but there’s more. The lorry bears the rubric Convoi Exceptionnel. Many more syllables than Long Load, much more style.

POP-UP PERSECUTION It may be a penance for Windows 7 users but is anyone else suffering from the insistent Windows Live Messenger pop-up? It demands I sign up for the service which, as far as I can see, makes me subservient to Microsoft for the rest of my natural. Recommendations?

6 comments:

Rouchswalwe said...

BB, have you heard of Firefox's Add on, Adblock? http://adblockplus.org/en/
It seems to be working for me thus far.

christopher said...

What I did was sign up for Messenger and promptly turn it off as the first thing I do on start up. Lately there was a persistent porno pop up inviting me to view live web cams. I went in and blocked from inside the program. Otherwise it is no big deal unless you hate the very idea. I have messaged back and forth to two friends from time to time but I have found using Messenger boring.

Nothing else happens. But I have no first born child.

Julia said...

The Messenger ad should expire eventually, how long have you had 7 installed? I will let my MS friends know about the plague!

Thomas More was definitely too coddled. Brick driveways at least have their preventative uses!

Roderick Robinson said...

RW (zS): Alas, Firefox, interferes mightily with transfer of posts, carefully honed in MS Word, to Blogger.

Christopher: I suppose that's an improvement on having the pop-up pop up however many times it's closed down. But I hate the idea of making myself even temporarily vulnerable to MS. Perhaps inertia will work (see below).

Julia: I've had Seven only a month - who has the stronger nerve, me or MS?

The driveway has really only function: Proclaiming "Look, I've got dough and don't I splash it around."

Lucy said...

Re France as 'can do' nation: not sure 'can do' equates with 'can't do officially but don't really give a stuff if you do or not because I'm off to lunch...'

Avus said...

Weeds on brick driveways - I have same problem, but a grandson in need of extras cash removed with an old dinner knife. Still come back of course, but I find a spray with weed killer twice a year "works well" and is economical.