Some ideas are excellent no matter how old they may be.............

 The waitress nonchalantly and from the corner of her mouth

told me to just ''swipe the phone with the QR stamp''.

''Sorry'' I said, ''I don't have a smartphone''.

(Well, I do, but I had left it at home that day.)

''Is there another way of signing in perhaps?'' I asked.

I was handed an iPad and a minute later I was signed in.

For almost two years our little family lived in the UK, North Devon.

 Actually, to be more precise, we lived in a quaint little village called Braunton.

Braunton is near the Saunton Sands, which is where my spouse's

elderly parents lived in a small, white-chalked cottage

with a view of the open Celtic Sea. 

Occasionally, some brave surfer dressed in rubber from top to

toe would ride the waves and I couldn't help but admire

his or her resolve to ignore the chilling weather.

 The transition from a sunny, warm and tropical Queensland

to a cold, wet and windy North Devon, was quite the challenge.

(I think I was shivering with cold for our first two weeks in

Britain.)

But, we were there on a mission, 

we wanted our boy to have some time 

with his grand-parents before it would be too late.

We found a reasonably priced but surprisingly wonderful place to rent

 in Braunton, and once I had set up my little recording studio and practice room,

I felt settled. 

My partner started to look for a job, we enrolled our

son in ''kindie'' and I started to work on an album.(music)

We bought a Triumph Stag and decided to explore Devon.

Though it took some time to get used to safely navigating the mostly

single and very narrow lanes, the beauty of the landscape was

awe inspiring. 

At times it felt almost as if we might have entered into a Constable, 

Turner or Gainsborough painting. Even the bright red telephone

booths scattered through the villages and hamlets seemed to belong,

although they perhaps signified a more contemporary time than

the landscape in which they stood tall.

These days, most of those red telephone booths have been

removed. And, as far as I can ascertain, phone booths in general

and in many countries, are often viewed as obsolete.

Which in my view is a shame.

When I was a kid, a phone booth offered privacy, a shelter from

nasty weather, a hiding place from bullies, a secret meeting place

for friends, and a point of access for getting help. (Police, hospitals, etc. etc.)

Taking or making phone calls, if I remember right, was generally

 viewed as more of a private rather than a public undertaking.

These days, whether we like it or not, we are often exposed

to other peoples phone conversations.

(I don't know about you, but I find it quite embarrassing.

Before phones became mobile, they used to be designated to

specific places such as the hallway, the office, or the bedroom.

So, whoever was making or receiving a call, would do so in private.)

The development of the capabilities of the mobile phone has

perhaps been so rapid that we haven't had the time to figure

out whether we need to attach some form of etiquette to its use.

Is it okay for instance to:

Accept a call when in the middle of a face to face conversation?

Discuss private/personal matters when strangers can hear it?

Receive and make calls when in a restaurant, coffee shop, 

movie theater, doctor's surgery, etc. etc. ?

I guess the only answer to those questions is: it depends.

There is no doubt that the mobile phone is very handy

in a number of ways. However, walking around a very large

shopping center the other day looking for a public phone

and not finding even one, I can't help but wonder the wisdom

in removing all public phones.

I mean, batteries can die, reception can be iffy, some folks

can't afford expensive smart phones, sometimes we may forget

to bring our phones, etc. etc. 

It's late at night. You're driving through some uninhabited land.

Suddenly you have a tyre blow out. You pull over.

When you get your spare out you discover that it is flat.

You try to call for road assistance on your mobile

 but there's no reception. What will you do?

Probably, you'll lock the car and start walking.

Wouldn't it be nice if just up the road you see

an all lit up phone booth?

Train stations, bus terminals, airports, hotels, motels,

hospitals, etc. etc. used to have lots of public phones and or phonebooths.

Today........... not so much.

I think this is a mistake. 

Some ideas are excellent no matter how old they may be.

''We can only blame ourselves for all the crime and violence today.

We removed all the phone booths and now Superman

has nowhere to change.''

(Quotemaster)

about the image: acrylic on canvas, some editing