Tuesday 31 August 2010

Looking through key-holes


The other day I was sitting in a friend's balcony. One of those balconies tucked away at the back of the building, where it shares a somewhat limited space with other balconies, also tucked away in the back of their respective buildings. As we were talking, my eyes fell upon a door opposite me, shutters drawn. Don't know why I was looking there; maybe because I could hear a baby cry and I remember my baby crying in a hot summer's day.

When a man in his briefs opened the shutters and stood semi-naked in front of his window, I was amused. He saw me sitting there and immediately covered himself up with the curtain. I was more amused. I think the voyeur in me was amused more than anything else. Soon after that I fully refocused in my ongoing discussion.

What is it that grabs our interest when we see people act pretty much like we act when we think noone is looking? Why do we need to know? Or is it just me? Maybe the writer in me and the voyeur in me are in fact the same person!

Tuesday 17 August 2010

WiFi and other curses....

I am convinced I hate WiFi, Blackberrys, 'smart' phones and 'web access'! I am also pretty tired of netbooks, constant updates and 'take your office with you' mentality. If I wanted to take my office with me I would stay with my office and then nobody would have to move at all!

Our away time is being infected by all this access, and wireless connection and keyboards of all shapes and sizes. I only had a short holiday this summer and in the ferry ride I received a semi-frantic phonecall from a client about an assignment. "I have sent you an email", "I am on the boat" and the killer response to that "Does this mean that you cannot do it?"... A few years back nobody would assume that a job might be done while in a bathing suit trying to unwind. But not anymore... I did do the job and I lost juuuuust a little bit of my holiday; the next day the delivered document had formatting issues so a liiiiiiittle bit more time was lost trying to fix it and follow up on it. So what I hear you say... which is fair enough... so nothing.... but.... is there a line we should/could/must draw? When is a break defined as such? I think that a holiday must mean that I touch no keyboard for as long as possible, I receive no phonecalls apart from mum and friends, I check no formats and I send no emails and I certainly do not update my Facebook status.

But I guess I am dreaming...

About Me

There is not much to say that is not covered in my posts... this blog was created because, well because writing has been a passion of mine and communicating is high up there on the list too...