I had an iphone for Christmas – part present, part treat.  I’ve had an ipod touch for a while and it’s turned out to be the best geeky toy I’ve ever owned and that’s saying a lot coming from a fickle technophile who has drawers full  of shiny black plastic objects complete with their associated chargers and unopened instruction books.

Although I’ve wanted an iphone for a while it was never a desperate need – I don’t use a mobile phone that much and the expense seemed unjustifiable, even for me.  But then I was won over by the ads for apps that could only be used with the iphone, the maps, all the gps stuff and I succumbed.  I explained to G that he’d no longer have to be irritated when we were going out and I didn’t have my phone charged and I would only have to slip one piece of technology into my bag.  Perfect reason, eh?

It wasn’t until I’d been playing with it for a while that I remembered it had a camera too.  So here’s one of my first snaps – Christmas table art!

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to integrate my blog with facebook. I’m not even sure of the facebook etiquette regarding blogs? Is it okay to link your blog? And then there’s the whole thorny issue of privacy. I’ve blogged, on and off since 2003 (I wanted to put ‘the turn of the century’) and have always done that semi-anonymously. What I mean is that if anyone was determined enough to find who the author of the blog was then it wouldn’t have proven too difficult but I didn’t actually broadcast my full name. Not that I have any deep dark secrets neither do I have to be concerned that my employer will be reading about drunken debauched evenings – I don’t have either! Yet it still feels exposing and vulnerable. Maybe blogging is passe now and I should really get used to expressing myself in 160 characters?

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Age related ads!  Dear Facebook advertiser, do you really think that when I pop on for a quick (cough) game of Bejewelled I want to be forced to look at ads for magic menopause cream or any item that is free ‘if  you’re over <insert age here>’!  The answer is not only no but if I ever feel the need for these products I will cheerfully buy from your competitor as punishment for your crassness.  I also have to wonder when exactly I’ll reach the next threshold and pass from menopause ads to what?  Incontinence pads?  Can’t wait.

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a grumpy old woman?   I’m beginning to feel disappointed.  Is this common for us all after we’ve whizzed through middle age?  I don’t mean disappointed with my own life, cos generally that’s ticking along, give or take the odd hiccup.   How can I put this?  Okay here’s an example.  When I was a teenager in the 70’s there was overt racism in the UK.  It was palpable and scary.  Maybe I was terribly naive but at the time I thought that this would all be over by Christmas in less than a generation.  In my narrow little world I saw racist attitudes and actions perpetuated by older people through fear and ignorance and I believed that when my generation were ‘in charge’ everything would be different.  We were cool, right?  I believed our children would be part of  a multicultural paradise and  ‘teach the world to sing’.  I wasn’t even a hippie!  Fast forward forty years and where are we?  The BNP, freshly booted and suited, is apparently gaining in popularity (really?  I mean, really?) and the unthinking (?) casual racism that I see sometimes in young people fills me with despair.   So is it the dashed hopes we had for the world that turn us grumpy and/or ranting, or maybe I’m just, ya know, street rat crazy.  <insert maniacal laugh>

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losing blogs.  My own blogs, I mean.  It’s horribly careless of me and I’ll try to do better in the future.  So here’s the new one and you never know I might even make regular posts.

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