In which the Pensioner contemplates life without gizmos

If the rate at which things have been invented was at its fastest during the 20th century, surely the pace picked up and reached a peak during the second half. Or - to split hairs - during the last 50 years. Just think of all the gizmos and gadgets that were, for a brief period of time, "must haves" for every home in the Western world. Where now are all the fizzy drink-making machines or the fondu sets which no self-respecting suburban housewife would have been without back in the mid-1960s? (Was it then that we all held fondu parties or was it later?) How many toasted-sandwich makers lie buried beneath plastic supermarket bags, quietly rotting in the bottom of a cupboard somewhere? And what has happened to all those woks? Yes, I know. The wok wasn't an invention of the 20th century - but it might just as well have been given how it was treated in much the same way as those in-then-out-of-fashion-just-as-quickly inventions.

(We still have both the sandwich-maker and the wok. The sandwich-maker is used occasionally as it doubles as a waffle-maker, but I scraped a decade of dust off the wok when I redecorated the kitchen - before putting it back on top of the cupboard to collect another decade's worth.)

Some of those inventions have, of course, become normal, everyday fixtures in our lives: the mobile phone and the TV remote control, for example. I can fully understand why the mobile phone plays an important part in modern life although I do think its importance (or necessity) frequently over-rated. The Old Bat and I have one between us but it is intended primarily for use in emergencies. Having said that, I don't think it has ever been used in an emergency: it's main use is for booking tables at restaurants while we are in France.

The TV remote control, however, is something for which I am very grateful. When my parents bought their first television there were just two channels to choose from. That had, I think, increased to three - or maybe four - by the time the OB and I were married and contemplating buying a set. Nowadays, given the plethora of channels we are able to enjoy - no, from which we can choose - the remote control is almost essential. That is especially so for us oldies as we are less agile than we once were and find it a struggle to get out of the chair and across the room just to switch from one pointless reality show to another. Staying with the television for a moment, I am grateful for a DVD recorder. The old video tape recorders were fine in their way, but it is a whole lot easier to record to a hard drive. The time delay option which we have on our recorder is useful at times. Last night, for instance, we were watching a show ‘live' (by which I mean it was not one we had recorded) when the phone rang and I was involved in a 10-minute conversation with a fellow Lion. On returning to the living room I was able to resume watching the show from where I had left off. I grant you that my life would hardly have been changed for the worse if I had missed those ten minutes, but it was nice not to have done.

But the gizmo that I consider the absolute acme of luxury is the snooze button on the radio-alarm clock. Having, for many years, had to jump out of bed as soon as the alarm sounded, the thought that I can press that little button and turn over for another nine minutes is bliss - as is pressing it again after the first nine minutes! The guy who invented that tiny gizmo should have been awarded the Nobel prize for something or other. I would certainly vote it the greatest thing since sliced bread (another 20th century invention I really dislike).