Talking Point with Vicky Turrell: The mystery of Des, Charley and a broken app

‘I am Des your virtual energy specialist.’

I was trying to understand why my app was not working properly. Two days ago, it stopped telling me my daily electricity usage.  I pressed ‘Chat’ to try and find out about the problem. I met ‘Des’ who went on to say:

‘Heads up this isn’t a live chat.’ Then Des went on to ask a myriad of detailed questions about me. Surely my name and account number would be enough? I did not reply.

But the next day I got a message on the same stream from Charley and he addressed me by name. So, they did know who I was after all. He then said that the smart team could come round to our house. I did not reply. I am not sure whether Charley is real or from another world.

You can imagine I had every sympathy with the person ahead of me in the queue at the building society.

“I don’t do internet banking,” she said, “I don’t have any apps on my phone either, I am not ‘with it’ as they say.” It is a good job I am about her age because I know what ‘with it’ means. She says her daughter says she is ‘not cool’. She is right to be cautious about the internet, but I find it so useful if I proceed with care.

The swallows in our garden last weekend did not seem to have a care in the world as they swooped over our pond. I have never seen them do this here before. They started in the hot weather to drink our pond water on the wing. They swooped in just low enough to just touch the water and take a beak full then fly off to the overhead wire. I could see them through the window with their long, forked tails and glossy backs. I could even see their red throats.

Then it was the turn of the starlings. They must have just fledged as these noisy visitors surveyed our pool with their parents. Not quite sure what to do they landed on my garden seat for a while until they got the idea of flying to the shallow end and drinking from there. I remember the flocks of starlings on our farm in the 1950s. The rumour was that they carried foot and mouth disease and my father and uncle shot at them to keep them away.

Yesterday at dusk we saw a barn owl hawking over the field behind us. Its white ghostly shape making it look like a body from another world.

And another strange thing, my app is working again today without anyone seemingly doing anything.