Ordinary everyday things I no longer know how to do

lixy

And I'm not even going to mention the rigmarole I go through to park the car in a car park these days!

Grief yes. Hate car parks now. Those barriers really stress me out, and I can’t follow instructions on those machines when there’s people hovering behind.

Was once stuck in a queue of people, because the barrier wouldn’t go up, no matter what the poor people in the car tried to do. In the end, we had to wait for a human being to sort it out!

No...I cycle or walk now. So much easier.

I was recently flummoxed when asked to add an electronic signature to a document online - no idea how!

Walking in high heels can now officially be added to the list of "things I can no longer do." Having made an absolute mess of slapping on make-up earlier today, I now find that when I tried to walk in stilettos, I look like I'm channelling Dick Emery.

Kim19
That’s how I leant to use a computer. I still do it now if it’s something new. After all, you can’t break it.

I haven't wobbled around in heels for years.

I fancy a pair of Susan Calman's glittery trainers for posh evenings!

Zoejory

I can't write any more. I gaze at the pen I've picked up. Almost a foreign object. I put it to paper. End up with a nasty ham fisted scrawl. I only have to write birthday and Christmas cards these days and it's so difficult.

I used to be rather nifty with calligraphy. Now my handwriting looks like a 4 year olds done it.

I was getting the same and my writing always caused amusement because my school taught something called Marion Richardson and it just looks as though I have just left the infants. Though I could do calligraphy.
Now it is so messy I have given in and bought a three-sided ballpoint which you give to infants in the reception class as it is easier to grip. My writing though still childish is at least legible

Kim19

Well..... I was given a lovely bicycle recently. Thought all I had to do was get on board and pedal off with past proficiency. Not a chance. I seem to have lost all powers of balance and confess to not understanding this at all.

could you take the peddles off and lower the saddle an inch, so making it into a balance bike, until you can get with the programme again.
perhaps practice on level grass in park, pro tem.
good luck.

Chewbacca

Walking in high heels can now officially be added to the list of "things I can no longer do." Having made an absolute mess of slapping on make-up earlier today, I now find that when I tried to walk in stilettos, I look like I'm channelling Dick Emery.

MissAdventure

I couldn't even work my daughters vacuum cleaner when I was left in charge.
When she used it, a light would come on and then it transformed into all different shapes to fit into nooks and crannies.
I had to use a dust pan and brush.

still have a trusty bex bissell carpet sweeper;
it beats as it sweeps ! remember ?

Ooh yes, they're great aren't they?
The sweepit carper, as my daughter used to call it.
My mum swore by hers, and it was good!

Now I've moved to a town I've applied for my bus pass.

I don't think I've been on a bus since I left school so I downloaded the app which serves as a timetable but I can't work out how to use it.

Recently took a flight by myself and am so proud that I sorted out the easyjet app and boarding pass on the phone and managed to book in a case without talking to anyone .
However I can't do my tyre pressures at a garage anymore as can't bend to fix the gauge to the tyre. Then I would have to find glasses so I could see the readings ! Hopeless !

I once came home from the wilds of scotland on a series of buses and trains, and I think I only made it because a kindly woman told me to pull myself together and go and ask the guard where I needed to go, instead of sitting against a wall,. hyperventilating

If a failure to cope with the things listed here is as common as this thread suggests, I must be way too young for Gransnet. I enjoy learning how to do new stuff. A recent holiday in London gave me the chance to get the hang of Deliveroo and Uber, neither of which are available in my own neck of the woods.

I think the things we can do with technology are awesome. I wish I could go back to my 12 year old self and tell her that one day, I’d have a device in my pocket that could not only make phone calls without being stuck at the bottom of the stairs, but could also be used to navigate, pay in shops, do banking, write instant ‘letters’, make video calls, provide the full text of daily church services, read books out loud to me, take photos, play live radio and recorded music and translate into other languages. Oh, and do maths. My Dad had just bought one of the first pocket electronic calculators, and I thought THAT was magic!

I’m feeling quite smug, my daughter put the car parking app on my phone, so easy, no more hunting around for change.
What is scary though, if she hadn’t been with us, and downloaded the app, we wouldn’t have been able to park.
We left a restaurant recently because they told us we had to order on the app.

MissAdventure

Oh yes.
My daughters TV would pop up and inform me it was going to switch off as I hadnt done anything to it for a while.
I hadnt done anything to it because I was watching a programme!

the tv sounds like a sulky spouse.
reminds me of when nick abbot on LBC, used to be suddenly plunged into darkness while broadcasting, had to wave his arms around.
must have been very distracting, live on air; stupid system.
all these stories are making me laugh. thanks.

Dave Allen spoke about his car telling him to put his seatbelt on, almost as soon as he opened the car door, and getting increasingly insistent if he didnt.
He said he was tempted to climb through the window just to trick it.

greenlady102

nothing...and If I wanted to know how to do something I would go online and find out

but that won't help being steady up a step ladder to change light-bulb etc. just saying.
be careful. pride goeth before a fall.

welbeck

greenlady102

nothing...and If I wanted to know how to do something I would go online and find out

but that won't help being steady up a step ladder to change light-bulb etc. just saying.
be careful. pride goeth before a fall.

I still know how to do those things but I choose not to do them which is different.

Working in a charity shop we sometimes get given pushchairs or prams and I cannot for the life of me manage to unfold them and get them into normal position When mine were babies the pushchairs simply folded in two, and that was it, but now they have multiple folds and locks it’s like the crystal maze You need an A level in folding or unfolding a pram or pushchair

Welbeck, thanks. I'll just do that very thing with the bike. I actually believed it was a skill that was retained but have since heard from a scientist friend that balance frequently deteriorates with maturity. As if we didn't have enough to contend with!

Sara- you are not the only one-some of the cafes in our local town require downloading an App or swiping a QR code to order!
During Covid the only way to pay for parking at my local station was via an app - as the parking machines were put out of use as a touch free Covid precaution. Unfortunately, having to download this on my phone and enter all my details in the pouring rain on my first day back after shielding, I mistyped my number plate ( screen too small to see properly) and not only missed my intended train -got fined for effectively paying for the wrong car plate! I used the car park several times before the error came to light, so had a huge fine due to struggling with wet reading glasses in the rain! I needed a human to sort that one out!
I’ve almost given up listening to the radio!
I often struggle without written instructions as many require a download or perhaps ESP!

lixy

Our car has a manual gear stick and a key that needs to go into a keyhole to start it.
DD and DS have cars that seem to go by magic.
I'm dreading our car deciding that it has had enough.

I'm there and it's almost put me off driving. DH insists that driving it really is no different but it is for me. There's six gears too. I was happy with four and reverse.

I'm ok with the TV but it took a while.

Those little bar code squares were a mystery until yesterday. I took my 8 year old twin DGC into town and we had lunch out. I was expecting a human being to come and take the order so I just sat there. Then DGD said mamar you need to order on your phone. Thankfully between the three of us we managed. I'm sure I could do it again.

Bluebelle
I once had to ring my daughter when I got to school, because I couldn’t put the pushchair back down. I tried to force it into the back, I contemplated taking it back into the school and asking them to keep it till the next day. My daughters instructions, something like, twist this while pushing that, simultaneously releasing a lever, were useless. I felt like sitting in the road and crying.
Eventually between the two older children and myself, we managed it, but I was straight off to John Lewis at the weekend, to buy a lovely simple to operate pushchair.

I can do it all, but I’ve got so many apps on my phone now and have to be very careful typing in details.