How Other People See Us

I was sitting here this morning, reading through my research notes and trying to plot out the beginning of the story when there was a knock on the door. Now the only people who ever call during the day are either people trying to sell something or delivery men who want to leave a parcel for a neighbour, so reluctantly tearing myself away from my notes I went to answer the door.

And there, waiting patiently, were two women, sorry, correction, a woman (who I vaguely recognised) and a lady, a very well dressed, beautifully coiffured middle aged lady, who had obviously spent hours getting ready to come out this morning. Her gunmetal hair had been recently styled and her outfit looked like something that Doris Day would have worn if she were a middle aged English woman (if you see what I mean)

I stood transfixed as she started asking me if I worried about what children were looking at on the Internet, the Internet? did this lady even own a computer? well apparently so, because she then told me that when she checked her inbox this morning it was full of adverts from various companies trying to sell her things. She then went on to tell me that we should be careful how our children use the computer and would I like to look at a booklet called 'Awake' that might help...of course, who wouldn't, it could be really useful for when I try and tell my twenty two year old son what not to look at on the interwebby thingy,...and tucked inside 'Awake!' there was a copy of The Watchtower that I might also find helpful. She was so polite, so kind, and so damned smart how could I possibly refuse!

I watched as they walked back down the drive and smiled as I realised that I had been mugged by the god squad, fabulous, here am I trying to write a book about how things are not always what they seem, how we can misjudge people because of the way they look or even presume things about them just because of their age, they're over 60 what can they possibly know about modern technology, and I fall into the same trap.

A lesson well learnt - so much so that I want to start writing now and continue the research alongside. What do you think, can I do it?

(Just a thought but I wonder if she gets any of the adverts that we used to get in work, before they put a better spam filter on the system and if she does can she explain to me whether the man with the tattoo of a snake enjoyed the pain? and has she bought any herbal viagra recently)