Taki Taki

The joy of an unplugged life

issue 14 January 2023

Gstaad

‘Living my life in person’ is not a redundancy of expression. What it actually means is living without social media. Why have I chosen the unplugged life? That’s an easy one to answer, but first a little history: I think I was the last one to switch to writing on a word processor when the then back-of-the-book editor Liz issued an ultimatum. (I’ve had seven sainted male editors in 46 years, but only four ladies fixing the column: Jenny, Gina, Liz and Lucy, and never a cross word between any of the aforementioned 11 and poor little me.) Bron Waugh used to send in his copy in long hand, or so I was told, but I typed mine with two fingers until that, too, became ‘unreceivable’.

This happened sometime during the 1990s. My faithful secretary-friend Fiona Ward Jackson first showed me the ropes, then stood over me for days on end, and finally typed out the instructions: hit the letter ‘A’, then the letter ‘C’.

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