I had to buy a new 'phone earlier this year and go through the process of adding all the apps which I use on a daily basis. The biggest problem was with my bank. I do all my banking through the app but adding it to the new 'phone was a total pain. I eventually had to go into the branch in Launceston and get one of the staff to talk me through it.
Yesterday, I had a message from them that they were updating the app. Fair enough, but now I have to go through the whole process of setting it up again. The problem is that I can't remember passwords and, if I write them down, I can't remember where I left them. And I can never remember which of the passwords I have written down is the most recent.
I've heard of things called Password Managers. I assume they are programs rather than people but, if I installed one of these, would I have to password-protect it? If so, I'm no better off.
I wrote the following little story yesterday as an exercise. The first sentence (in italics) is the prompt.
There is an urban legend floating around about a taxi that doesn’t take you where you want to go, but rather where you need to go. Write about a character that gets into this taxi.
Jeremy thought it was just a joke. He couldn’t believe there could be any truth in the story that there was a taxi in town which wouldn’t take you where you wanted to go. Instead, it would take you where you needed to go. Not only was it a joke, he decided, it was a zen joke. He could imagine a bald monk in a robe, nodding wisely and saying, “There are things, brother, over which we have no control and a wise man accepts that wisdom. None of us is so clever that he knows everything.”
Anyway, thought Jeremy, what’s the difference? If you tell the driver that you want to go to a certain spot, surely that’s where you need to go.
“Oh, how naïve you can be, sometimes, Jeremy.” The voice of the bald monk seemed to echo in Jeremy’s head.
It was rare for Jeremy to catch a taxi nowadays but, every now and again, if he planned to have a drink or two, it was sensible to leave his car at home and ring a cab. In fact, today was Saturday; this evening he was meeting his friends at a Steakhouse for dinner, and he had heard there was a 2 for 1 drinks special on at the moment. He didn’t intend to get drunk, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
The taxi arrived promptly. The driver was someone Jeremy had not met before. He was bald and looked Asian, perhaps from Thailand or Myanmar. Often Asian immigrants gravitated to jobs like taxi-driving, thought Jeremy. I hope he knows his way around the city; I don’t want to have to give him directions.
“I want to go to the Aussie Steakhouse,” he told the driver, who didn’t acknowledge, but simply drove forward as soon as the door was closed.
“You should have taken that turn.” Jeremy didn’t usually tell taxi drivers which way to go but this fellow seemed all at sea. He was driving too fast, as well, and was hunched forward over the steering wheel as if he was anxious to get to his destination.
“Slow down, man!” shouted Jeremy, starting to become a little worried about his safety.
“Sorry, sir,” apologised the taxi driver. “This is my first day on the job and I’m a little nervous.”
To Jeremy’s horror, the driver turned around to look at him and Jeremy saw his eyes widen as he caught sight of a car coming up quickly on their left. Frantically, the terrified driver threw his steering wheel to the right and Jeremy found himself hurtling forward, striking his head on the rear vision mirror.
By good fortune, the cars did not collide but Jeremy felt a hot rush of blood from his forehead running down his face. The driver looked aghast and started to accelerate down the street.
“What are doing, you fool,” shouted Jeremy. “This is not the way to the restaurant.”
“I’m taking you to the hospital,” the driver shouted. “You need to have your head looked at.”
It was only later that Jeremy realised that, instead of the taxi driver taking him to where he wanted to go, he took him to where he needed to go. Jeremy, in his imagination, could see a tall, bald, monk nodding his head wisely.
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