One of my greatest failings is that I am hopeless at following instructions. I suspect I am far too impatient and as I have aged, so has the problem got more noticeable. But it has always been there.
Often the computer throws up a problem - for example I got several e cards for my birthday earlier this week but was unable to open any of them. Since I went over to Windows 10 I seem to need another Adobe update but although I click on it, when the instructions come up for getting started somehow I just can't understand them and I lose patience.
Another example occurred today. The farmer gave me money for my birthday and I decided to send for a sweater I liked. It came this morning, just as the farmer and I were off to my Friday morning coffee and tea cake meeting. At lunch time I tried it on, loved it but it doesn't feel right and just doesn't fit well enough. So it has to go back.
It was only when I came to pack it in its original wrapping that I found I had opened the parcel at the wrong end and therefore the adhesive strip to fasten it down again was not able to be used. Why was I so impatient? Why didn't I wait long enough when I first picked up the parcel to read which end to open the bag?
And why, yesterday, when I cooked a whole chicken in a bag in the Aga for lunch, in spite of an instruction in capital letters which read 'COOK THIS WAY UP' did I manage to cook the thing upside down?
Answers on a postcard please.
I do that stuff everyday. Wouldn't it be nice to have an assistant?
ReplyDeleteIt's because you are an intelligent and creative person.
ReplyDelete(Oh dear, I see I was supposed to send in my answer on a postcard).
If the chicken in a bag are the same one's that I buy all the time, they come sitting in a foil dish inside the bag. If that was the case I can't believe that you put it in the oven upside down with the foil dish on the top.
ReplyDeleteDoes it really matter which way up a chicken is cooked? I'm sure it tasted good and was cooked through.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean by instructions - I have to read them two or three times to get the message across! Even then I mumble them to myself as I go through the procedure and keep glancing at the printed instructions in case I have missed something.
Sometimes you just have to realise your brain is just too full of information.
ReplyDeleteThat is my story and I am sticking to it.
cheers, parsnip
Welcome to my world...welcome to my all over the place world
ReplyDeleteWritten instructions are just too small for me to read nowadays. That's my excuse anyway.
ReplyDeleteGreat Nazi you would make!
ReplyDeleteI am so just like this and as you say, the older I get the worse I get.
ReplyDeletePat, I truly don't think that some instructions get enough of a test drive before they are printing on paper. Some are quite clear and helpful, but those others just get in the way of my solving certain mysteries on my own.
ReplyDeleteHoping you were able to exchange that sweater for one that will be perfect.
Happy Weekend. xo
I think my frustration comes from too many friggin' features. I just want to make A PHONE CALL. Or, I just want to take A PICTURE. I don't need directions to the nearest restaurant, or hire a cab, or tell me what I have in my fridge. Now, you need an instruction manual the size of a telephone book, or an app, or app update, every time you turn around.
ReplyDeleteDid I tell you I'm old?
Sorry Weaver Pat. I am laughing inappropriately. AGAIN. The parcel opening was the inappropriate laughter straw.
ReplyDeleteAlphie
Instructions are for people who can't think for themselves. Long Live upside down roasted Chickens!
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand there are the people that believe instruction to be extraneous garbage and rely on their creativity to do things, or put things together. Charles was a good example!!!
ReplyDeleteI am amazed and a teacher to boot.
ReplyDeleteYour post ties in nicely with my day at the office yesterday. My boss and I were setting up and installing a new office printer, and while we are both "computer people" and used to doing things on and with all sorts of devices, we have a different approach: My boss is highly gifted and has a degree in Theoretical Physics; he is too impatient (and thinks he is too intelligent) for instructions someone else has written. So he plunges right in, and sometimes this does not work, as was the case yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI am more the type of person who has a step-by-step attitude, and I have never had any trouble following written instructions. So we did this together; it was a long fight but we won the battle, and at 7:30 pm the printer was up and running :-)
I can relate to all those things you mention ... opening the bag at the 'wrong' end, cooking something with, perhaps, that bit of paper stuck under the chicken still on when it's I the oven, not reading instructions, and failing to understand any instructions handed out via the computer! I thought it was just me, but obviously not!
ReplyDeleteMargaret P
Join the club!
ReplyDeleteBut a belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY.
Do hope you end up with a sweater that really looks wonderful and fits well.
Warmest greetings from the land of the hideous election that is still going on.
People here have gone quite mad.
New York is utterly safe because we have mostly intelligent people here and lots of diversity.
Let the people who hate everyone live elsewhere.
Cheers!
You're an anarchist Mrs Weaver! And Wolverhampton let you teach its children!
ReplyDeleteNo Derek, it did not have a foil dish which it was sitting in - I am not that daft (yet!)
ReplyDeleteThe chicken was cooked but sadly the brown crispy'topping' was, by default, 'bottoming'.
It is a relief that I am not alone in my way of doing things. When I bought my latest telephone (landline not mobile) I just could not understand the instructions.
My son said he would set it up for me but refused to read the instructions - so it is still not right.
Thanks for joining in, postcards or not.
Senior moments I'm afraid. I have them all the time. Problem is, they started when I was a teenager! I'm 71 on Monday, so I have no expectation of any improvement. lol. Instructions are for the stupid! Unless, of course it says 'Fragile' on the package. Oh Boy, I've misread that so many times. In my brain it seems to compute as 'This parcel would just love to be thrown around, batted about and generally mistreated' So I do. Then I'm amazed to find that 'fragile' really did mean 'fragile'
ReplyDelete