Despite the remarkable advances in technology that we have witnessed in recent times, there remains one annoyance in the home which has so far not been resolved. I speak of light bulbs. These devices still fail at regular intervals – often far shorter than their advertised lifetimes – and need to be replaced. Apart from keeping a set of spares, there is little one can do to mitigate the problem.

In recent days, two bulbs have failed in our flat. I replaced them with spares, putting the duds aside until I was ready to go to the shop for replacements. I did that today.

Ryness, electrical suppliers

Our nearest supplier of electrical goods is this shop on the corner of Baron Street and White Lion Street. It is a branch of Ryness, who sell both wholesale and retail.

To visit the shop, I put on a face mask, as we are supposed to do these days. When I arrived, there were a couple of customers in the shop but the premises is large enough to allow that number of people to keep distance as we are supposed to and so I went in. The customers also wore masks.

I noted with approval that the once open counter has now been surmounted by a transparent barrier in which two small apertures allow smaller articles to pass between customer and assistant and that in front of this, on the customer’s side, a pedestal has been installed, on top of which is a machine for electronic payments.

Dotted about were several notices requesting customers to wear face masks in the shop and offering to sell you one if you are without.

I had to await my turn and so had time to notice all this. I also noticed that the shop assistant was not wearing a mask. Am I right to find this odd?

The goods I required were an ordinary bulb for the kitchen area and a tubular light for the bathroom. The latter consists of a tube folded into a rectangle about 5½ inches square. As I usually do, I gave the assistant the duds to make sure he knew which items I needed. (Also because they retain them for recycling.)

That little lot came to £12.87 which I paid by tapping my credit card on the aforementioned payment machine. If I didn’t blink at the price it is because at the rate at which these things fail, I have had plenty of opportunities to become inured to their price. I won’t bother telling you what these things used to cost for fear if being dismissed as a whingeing old fogey.

Tigger had to go in to the office today and so I have spent it on my own. I am looking forward to her return at about 7pm. Tomorrow, we have an appointment at the Apple store in Covent Garden. This time, it is Tigger’s phone that needs seeing to but I will say more about that in due course.

By the way, I have just seen a news item to the effect that “Apple becomes the first US company to be valued at $2 trillion”. Not sure I can think of anything useful to say to that! 🙂