Vicky Goes On (Again)

Category: Life

  • I ain’t being nostalgic but… (enshittification strikes again)

    I went for an eye test the other day and, in a rare positive of ageing, my eyesight is improving. This means I need a new prescription. A weaker prescription. Weird, huh? Well, things can only get better and then they’ll get worse.

    I’ve been wearing glasses since I was 11 years old. So only 5 or 6 years 32 years. I was reminded only today that there was a time when you could get spectacles within the hour. WITHIN the hour. Do you know how long my regular, boring, single vision, no coating, no thinning lenses will take? 2 weeks. One whole fortnight. Why? How have we regressed?

    I was watching a YouTube video (now, I warn you, the topic of the video is going to sound boring but we’ve been over this. I need to be distracted and I find myself watching no end of nonsense) on the decline of 24-hour Tesco supermarkets. And I thought, “oh yeah. That was a thing. An actual, real thing that did not exist, then did exist, and now no longer exists.” And, like, I get it. They’re not economically viable. But there feels like there used to be a time when things were done, services provided, goods made – not for profit (or not solely for profit) but because that was what was for the best for society, or the customer, or whatever.

    ‘Enshittification’ was coined by a science fiction writer, Cory Doctorow, about declining in quality of services. Usually this is about web platforms, e.g. Google. Have ya noticed how shit Google searches have become? I tend to add “reddit” to the end of my searches in order to get something useful. I know, but Reddit can be useful. When I first heard about enshittification I thought, “yeah. I see that. The internet ain’t what it once was.” But, enshittification is actually everywhere now.

    Police stations no longer have service counters in them, if they’re open at all. Glasses take several weeks to be made and even then the level of care, of customer service is severely lacking. I don’t want to sound like a Boomer but it used to be that opticians, shops staff, police officers, etc at least pretended to care about the services they were offering.

    In a world that is over consuming and over selling you’d expect that they should want to give us something more. But you know why they don’t? Because we accept it. We still buy the things and overconsume so who cares that it’s shoddier now? We’re still going to buy all the tat we want.

    In the 1950s fridges were a marvel. These basic goods were built to improve the housewife’s life. These were goddamned beauties.

    Just look at this

    And now what have we got? Smart fridges? HAH

    Greggs used to sell more than just sausage rolls. The other day I went in there to buy, admittedly, sausage rolls but I also wanted to buy, like, whatever else. A cookie. A sarnie. I was at a loose end and I had money on the app. Now they’re selling pizza and whatnot but they’ve forgotten that they’re a bakery. Do you think you can buy bread from Greggs? You’d think so, wouldn’t you. What with bakers famously making bread. You’d be wrong. Not a bloomer nor a cob in sight. It’s actually bullshit. (NB I still love Greggs though I do fear they’ve become rather overrated and they’d better knock it off).

    This all began when Freddos started being used as a guide for inflation. I do not think nor want to pretend that the past was better. It wasn’t. And even if it was – who cares? We’re here now. All I’m saying is that there seems to be a lack of care in the world. There are fewer and fewer customer care phone numbers and where there are you’ll be lucky to be answered within 20 minutes and for your call to be resolved. Everything is a hoohah and a palaver. And I am sick of it.

  • More DIY and a mild breakdown (Through the Keyhole)

    Through the escutcheon

    I was supposed to really sort my bedroom out this weekend.

    Reader, I did not.

    My flatmate sorted his out and bragged to me about it. My flatmate is a tosser.

    I did learn that the metal bit surrounding a keyhole is called an escutcheon so who’s the real winner here? That’s right, me. I also learned that whoever fitted the keyhole, lock, and escutcheon on my flat door was a lunatic since they made the hole far too big for the escutcheon to be screwed into the door. I have therefore spent far too long putting Polyfilla in the hole and using a chopstick to ensure that the key can still go into the keyhole and then doing all of that all over again because I hadn’t allowed the Polyfilla to completely dry.

    What I’m saying is is that although I did not “do my room” I did do things. Because I am a procrastinator. I know, we all are nowadays. With our ADHD and neurodivergence but sometimes this comes in handy. When else am I going to fix a keyhole **escutcheon**? And look at my skills with a chopstick and Polyfilla! Fall on your knees in praise at my resourcefulness. I’m a goddamn Renaissance man. Woman. PERSON.

    Anyway, the keyhole is still not actually fixed but that is by the by. The bedroom is still a right state, but I’ll get to it later. Later. I’m off to do the washing up.

    ————————————————————————-

    P.S. When are the things actually done? Is it not true that there is always fucking something? Look, pardon my actual French but I am suddenly overwhelmed with anger about the fact that everything needs doing all of the time. When can we just be done!? OK, when we’re dead but then other people need to do an awful lot of things then too. I need a lie down.

  • Should I Stay(cation) or Should I Go?

    Basically I thought of the title of this first… so we’ll see how this goes.

    It really annoys me that people use the word ‘staycation’. It extra annoys me that they use the word ‘staycation’ when they are talking about taking a holiday in their home country.
    It is my view that a ‘staycation’ is when you take annual leave and stay at home. That’s the ‘staying’ part. If you leave your house and travel somewhere THAT’S A REGULAR VACATION. I don’t live in Cornwall (other places are available) so if I go there I am holidaying there.

    Also, and maybe I’m just showing my poverty-stricken childhood roots here, why do we have to go away for our Summer hols? And why do we feel like we’ve failed if we don’t? My mum was Spanish so when I was little we went to Spain a fair few times to stay with various aunts and uncles in very non-touristy 1980s Spain. These were resolutely not holidays. These were visiting family where there were no distractions of any kind. Except one time I found a small lizard which I touched with a blade of dried grass I found. And it wriggled.
    Good times.

    Also, we spend so much money on paying for our flats and houses and relatively little time actually being in them (unless you work from home, I suppose) – I wanna get my money’s worth, damn it. I recently had to take some time off from work for annual leave and I just hung out. I met up with some friends in the day, like we were on holiday in London. Explored places I’d never been to before. That was a staycation. I stayed at home. And, bonus, I caught the sun and it looked like I had been away somewhere.

    In fact, since I actually do live in London, an actual tourist-y place, why shouldn’t I be a tourist in my own hometown? Why do these holiday-makers get to have all the fun whilst I’m commuting and eating tuna pasta for dinner? HUH? I wanna get in office workers way on their lunch breaks.

    So, I won’t be going away this year because I am trying not to spend all of my money. Or maybe I will go somewhere in Winter? Or maybe not. I don’t know what I am doing in general.
    Should I stay or should I go? Maybe this isn’t just about holidaying.