I got an email from my mobile phone network supplier, the Three Network, with whom I have only had difficulties over their not-very-dementia-sufferer friendly app. The email said I was out of contract and due an upgrade.
I shared the information with my eldest son, who is very good with all this stuff, and he suggested we just pop into the branch in Winchester where we’d originally taken out the contract. He lives in Winchester, so was happy to come with me to guide me through the process.
We were both very impressed with them. Cliff, the guy I had first dealt with, was still there and we met Connor, a new member of the team too. His opening words were ‘you’re paying a lot’ and explained it was a less competitive deal from the old days. So he proposed a new plan which saved me more than £30 a month - he also explained he wasn’t on commission, looked at my phone over and said it didn’t need replacing, although the battery could do with replacement in probably six to nine months, when we should come back.
Alex agreed with all of this and was impressed - as was I. As far as the app was concerned, the guy said to just call or drop by if I have any problems. Let me just say the clarity, kindness and honesty were a breath of fresh air for this dementia sufferer. I wish more on the high street were like my phone buddies Cliff and Connor at Three.
It was a different story when we went to Superdrug to stock up on Nicorettes, which helped me maintain my non-smoking resolve. They aren’t on the shop shelf and, like the old days of buying CDs on the high street, you have to take something to the counter and the assistant then goes to find the product in the stock room. That took an age, and when she returned, she had to get permission from her manager not to age check me.
Alastair Stewart reflects on the difficulties of navigating technology in this week's Living With Dementia
GB NEWSNo wonder parts of the High Street are in terminal decline! Those of us with Dementia aren’t stupid - just a little slower than most on the uptake and, even if retired, we still have money to spend. Plus, thanks to outlets like this diary, we can spread the word, good and bad.
Talking of good and bad, I have been disappointed with much of the coverage of the invasion of Ukraine and continuing war. Since that debacle in the Oval office, Trump and Vance seem to me to have escaped lightly while Zelensky has been cast as the whipping boy.
Trump has paused military and intelligence support for Ukraine while the EU and the UK see a gap in the market and an opportunity to nip in, casting themselves as new saviors on the block.
Labour, now in Government, have discovered a new appetite for defence spending and NATO, not always flavours of the month in the history of the party. Russia has mocked European efforts and Foreign Minister Lavrov has said the New World Order needs to reflect the new realities of the USA playing into Russia's hands at the expense of Ukraine.
Trump and Vance’s behaviour in the Oval Office, and Vance’s muddled comments about random countries who hadn’t fought a war in decades, were roundly and richly mocked - not least by former Polish leader Lech Walesa in an open letter.
He is one of my heroes of the post-Second World War era, having started the velvet revolution which saw the Berlin Wall, the USSR and Communism fall when he founded the free trade union Solidarity in the Gdansk shipyard of Poland.
It is increasingly clear that the ‘New World Order’ Lavrov and Putin want is the return of the Old-World Order of the Soviet Empire. In my days as a lefty student leader, I visited Russia and many of its East-European ally nations.
I always thought it was an effort to recruit or sweeten a new generation of leaders and influencers. With me they failed, but who knows about others. There’s talk of Trump being a super mole - silly but amusing if you remember Harold Wilson et al. in the Cold War era.
Away from geopolitics, I loved seeing Mick Jagger give out an award at the Oscars in place of Bob Dylan who wrote ‘Like a Rolling Stone’. I'd have loved it if Jagger had sung ‘pleased to meet you, let me introduce myself’. But, of course, he needed no introduction and was a triumph.
I had hoped Conclave would have done better, but perhaps with the current Pope in such poor health, it would have been in poor taste. I interviewed Pope John Paul II on his way back from the pre-Falklands War visit to the UK in 1982, which I covered.
I still remember, and cherish, every detail of it.
