Technology – making life harder in so many ways.

Password misery, as funny as the Ikea clown

Two little things, that’s all I had to do this evening. Tiny little two-minute jobs, easy peasy.

I needed to book some tickets to see Phantom of the Opera next month and to subscribe to a magazine on line. What could possibly go wrong?

First the tickets, by the way it’s pricey to go to the theatre, isn’t it?

Stalls, circle or balcony? £15 or £75. Ooh, you decide, but do it fast or the site will tell you that you’ve run out of time, again and again. Before you can say ‘let’s google a seating plan to see if the extra £10 is worth it’ you’re back to the beginning.

So after that, a relaxing read of a favourite magazine would be soothing, wouldn’t it?

You’d have thought so. And having become the owner of an iPad recently enough for it still to be a novelty, I thought the digital version would be ideal.

Find magazine home page – simple. Click through to dead end – a doddle. Go back, read small writing, click again – no problem. Find app store, search for magazine, find it, remember app store pass word – download magazine to newsstand, a scoosh.

So far, so much more time consuming than going to the newsagent.

But the goal was in sight and I had already invested a chunk of evening. Anyhow it seemed it was just a case of clicking the ‘buy now’ button.

Or not. 

Suddenly I disappeared down the rabbit hole of misery that is signing into iTunes on a new device. Password forgotten obviously. How does anyone remember all of them?

Not to worry, I’ll confirm it with my other email address. What was that then? Some time later I learn it is the Panther’s email address and he’s in the pub. He forwards the link to me.

Only, by then, too much time had passed and I was back to the beginning. So rather than draw the panther from his huddle I tried the ‘answer the question you first thought of’ option.

Right – what was your first concert? Easy – David Essex, Sands Centre Carlisle 1985-ish, though I may very well have said Siouxie Soux Aberdeen Capitol 1986, which is a much cooler option. It’s obviously important to appear cool to a computer.

The other question asked where where I was on Jan 1, 2000.  I know where I was, but what did I actually say? I could have said Mum’s house, Cumbria. The name of the house or the town. Which was it?

Anyhow, by the time I’d tried all permutations to no avail both iTunes and I had had enough and declared the game a Bogey for the night. Sigh. I just had to read an old-fashioned book.