Learn to use what you have …

I am at not, I repeat not, heart a technophile. Never was and probably never will be. This is not to say I don’t use technology, just that I put off learning how to unless I absolutely have too. Although we were only overseas for a little over 12 years it seems that those 12 years were ones of momentous change in Australia, which totally bypassed us in Umtata.

So much so that when we came back and in 2003 I bought a car which had Cruise control in I never knew how to use it. No one told me how and I never bothered to find out figuring it was some lazy technology that I could get a long without. However today, on the way back from Wagga Wagga I learnt a lesson about learning to properly use what I have or else pay the penalty.

Yeah! That’s right I got a speeding ticket, genuinely not noticing at that time that I was well over the limit. Earlier I had knowingly, but not intentionally been over the limit before realizing it and slowing down again. But this time I got caught.

And to rub salt into the wound, basically the first words the Police women said after telling me why she pulled me over, was, “Do you have Cruise control in the car?” And when told yes she said, ”Then I suggest you use it when you pull out of here”. She was actually quite nice and when I said I genuinely didn’t know how, she said her Partner would show me how after she had finished writing out the ticket. Which he did and so now I know how to use the cruise control in my car, but it was an expensive way to find out how, wasn’t it?

What about you? What technology do you have available to you that for whatever reason you have not bothered to find out how to use it for your advantage and protection, whether physically or financially? So the word of wisdom I bring you from my 10-day break away is to: “Learn to use that which is available to you now or pay the penalty”. Which, whether sooner or later, you will! Walter