The Pace of Life

Posted by Ian and Steve on Aug 10, 2011 in Hints and Tips | 0 comments

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A couple of weeks back I was playing my stereo amplifier (are there any mono ones out there?) and suddenly the Mute light flashed on and off, cutting out the sound to the speakers.

The amplifier was 3 years old and produced a marvellous sound out of the speakers I had bought nearly 20 years ago.

I rang the place where I bought the amplifier in Witham in Essex.

Mark, the sales assistant was excellent. “Sounds like a dry connection but we can send it back to our repair centre in Sevenoaks and they will check it out for you” he said understandingly.

I delivered it back to them at the weekend and expect a report back soon on the fault and cost of repair.

My son Christopher casually remarked, “No problem in waiting, you only play the thing about once a month.”

Interesting point, there are rare moments when I am in the house on my own (not essential for listening but helpful ) when I play music through the “stereo system”.

I tend to listen to most of my music through headphones/earphones connected to my iPhone or iPod in a quality that in years past I would not have given house room in those hi fidelity days.

In addition I realised that I am also tending to listen to music mostly when I am on trains and planes, rarely in the home – complete with background noise, high volume mobile calls and the odd (literally) station announcements by the train guard.

Perhaps we rush about too much and do not create the time to sit down in the home and listen to music through great sound systems anymore?

It may be that the pace of life now makes us feel guilty about sitting there, without the TV on, without a book or newspaper in our hand, without checking the mails on the iPhone instead of taking some time out to experience music in the old way …

Perhaps I need to read A Useful Guide to Work Life Balance     if I can put down the iPod, the iPhone or turn the TV off for long enough.