IF WORDS WERE GOLDEN.....

.....then Kiwi blokes would save a fortune.

I had a haircut today at one of those quick turnaround barbers. The guy cutting my hair was pretty rough, but good. He was Northern Irish but I didn't get to talk to him about sectarian politics, the film The Journey that we saw recently or about Van Morrison's music - in fact we didn't say anything at all.
I was actually quite pleased at this as I hate it when you get one of those chatty barbers and you have to sort of go along with what he's saying whether it's about politics, religion or sex because he's the one standing behind you with sharp implements just by your head.

It was the barber next to me who was extremely chatty, rambling on about music (not double basses or violins), films and god knows what else. The guy whose hair he was cutting responded with a series of ..."Yep". "Too right". "No worries". "Yeah". "Sort of". Yeah nah" etc. It was like having the late Fred Dagg sitting there saying "Yeah Gidday" and "Story".

My barber was going furiously at my hair and I could feel it getting shorter and shorter. Now I've lost a lot of hair but The Old Girl likes me to keep what's left at a medium level. It grows wildly out at the sides and back but has retreated (like the Eyeties at El Agheila in WW2) at the top. It's like my Curmudgeon image at the left.
I thought that I'd be in trouble when I picked The Old Girl up from the bus tonight and sure enough when he'd finished and showed me with a flourish what he'd done and asked me what I thought my worst fears were realised. I said "I've changed my mind, can you put it back". He looked at me strangely and passed me on to the cashier who robbed me of $24.

*************************

Before I went to the barbers I visited Harvey Norman's for the Black Friday sale. Luckily I didn't get scalped twice today as the tv I bought was a real bargain. It cost $799 down from nearly $1300. I'd been researching these and knew that there was no better price to be had for a new one.

It's a 'smart' tv which I know sounds like an oxymoron but I wanted something that would serve more as a monitor rather than a TV. Monitors though, of the size I wanted are hellishly expensive so we decided to do the TV thing. We don't have TV up north and have got out of the habit of watching it. We only watch films or TV series through the computer via Netflix, Lightbox or TV on demand which means that we only 'fire the machine up' when there is something we really want to watch otherwise it stays silent and we read or listen to music or National Programme on the radio.

The problem is though that even though I've been doing this through the 24" Apple mac, which is OK when I'm watching it by sitting at the table, when the two of us are watching from armchairs the screen just isn't big enough.

The other problem is that I've had the computer set up in the dining area at the dining table and have gradually built up piles of files and paper and all the crap that congregates around a computer. The Old Girl hasn't been pleased with this. The computer can now go back into the study where it belongs.

The smart tv I bought doesn't need to be connected to aerials or satellite dishes as it has WiFi connectivity. The sellers assured me that all I had to do was plug it in and the TV would basically sort itself out and I'd be up and running.

Yeah right.

As usual I unpacked the bloody thing, put it together, located it after moving the stereo system (which we hardly use anymore since we've been using iPods) and plugged it in. I strolled through the settings ....and strolled....and strolled and couldn't get the fucking thing to work. I really thought that I'd been misled and did internet searches on set-ups which were all horror stories about other people never getting their smart TVs to work. I got onto a chat link with the manufacturers and was told a different set of instructions than either the manual or the 'smart arse' tv's menu was telling me.

After about 2 and a half hours I got frustrated and just pressed random buttons when, bingo, it worked. I'm now up and running and can show The Old Girl when she arrives tonight. This smart tv doesn't need to be linked to a computer. I can access Netflix, Lightbox, TV on demand, You Tube, Google and lots of other programmes and channels direct. via the Broadband WiFi we have in the house.

I set it up in a corner of the room away from the lounge seating area so as not to dominate the lounge.

We will only turn it on when we want to watch something decent - I hate those houses where there's a tv blasting away when no-ones watching it and I've given up on the crap news programmes we have today - Mike Hoskings Ugh!.

Stuck away in a corner whee it belongs

No doubt Lynn will make other arrangements and I'll be moving furniture around but I think I did good today.

Pity about the haircut.