Have you noticed how slow women are to join in some technology, & how quickly they take to other stuff. None of the ladies I know would have a clew how to actually check the oil, water or tyre pressure of a car they are using, but they know how to use the Bluetooth, whatever that is, in a car before they even sit in it.

The other night my 20 something daughter, my wife & her visiting mother were all in the lounge in front of a soapy. They were actually tapping away on their mobiles, staring at their little screens.

They were just enough aware of their surroundings to complain when I changed channel, but not enough aware to know that the dreadful soap had finished a couple of minutes ago.

Surely they are not silly enough to think I would take a soap off a woman, even if she is not really watching it. I have no desire to die a painful death. The only more dangerous thing you could do would be to get between a woman & her mobile phone.

My daughters gave me a mobile phone for my last birthday. It is incase one of my old cars breaks down they told me. Hell I'd have more chance of fixing the car, than turning the phone on

My daughter is 21, Hasbeen.
I don't understand how you have missed out on learning how to use mobile phones with a 20 something daughter around?

I had to learn it to keep in touch with her, and then had to use it in my job.
I can change a tyre and check oil etc, and so can my daughter.

I guess it depends on how 'cool' you are? : )

Hasbeen
As a woman the only thing I value soap for is for hygiene.:)

Hasbeen,

Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't watch soaps.

Have a simple mobile, not a touch screen (one in the cupboard if I ever get back to it)....although do know how to use them as my son has an ipad.

Did work at service station in teens and know how to check oil, water, air pressure, degrease motors, change tyres...used to know exactly which side each model of car had it's petrol cap, not to mention Holdens had theirs under the back number plate (and used to get mighty peed off when dozy ladies would habitually pull in on the "wrong side" and who would then complain when you had to stretch the hose over their car (back in the days before self-serve)

Hasbeen,

Not buying in to this discussion but I have worked with female pilots and was even taught to fly by a female instructor. She was a better pilot than most of her male counterparts.

I shall follow the posts with interest.

Take it easy.

SD

I HATE SOAPS! HATE THEM! :-)
As to the cars, with all this computerising cars these days you almost need a IT diploma to know what the bloody things are doing. With a sensor for this and an alarm for that and enough electrical gismos to sink a battleship I can understand why people stick to knowing phones! Bring back real cars!
What I think you have here is more of a generation problem then one of gender. (I'm Gen Y before you all start spitting chips). My mother wouldn't even know what a dipstick looks like let alone what to do with it, not because she is stupid but because my father and my Pa wouldn't dream of letting a "woman" service the car, she should be cooking tea or washing the sheets. I can still remember Dad leaving for work and telling Mum he would change the flat tire on the car when he got home. I think I was 12 or so. I told him I would do it...he threatened to ground me for months if I did. It only took me an hour. LOL
I rarely ever find a person over 50 that needs automotive assistance, and if I do the bonnets up, they have grease on their hands and they are shaking the heads and asking for a tow or lift to the nearest mechanic. If however I come across a younger person they are playing games or updating Facebook waiting for roadside assist or Mum and or Dad. Jumper leads and jacks get most of these people rolling again and yet they show amazement that A) I'm female and B) I "fixed" their car.
Please note, I am well aware that there are some very capable Gen Y's out there and kudos to you. I wish there where more of us.

It was my amusement at all three ladies absorbed with their phones, while sitting in front of the TV, not noticing the show was over that amused me.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to live with a lady who pumped her tyres up before destroying them by driving on them flat?

I'm going to put the 2 I have at home now right in it. When we had a mice/rat plague a while back, my wife drove her Toyota Cressida for a full week before remembering to tell me it was running "FUNNY", & getting worse.

When I looked I found a mouse nest between the cam covers, & 3 spark plug leads, that run through there, eaten through. Having been to town 5 times, she had done 250Km with the poor thing like that.

A couple of years back my daughter was changing units, & wanted to dump some furniture. As I had no trailer wiring on my TR7 at the time, we used her earlier type Holden Cruise, the Suzuki built sort of 4WD thing, with a Holden badge, to tow my old horse float.

I drove for her, & noticed on the service sticker it was 22,000Km since the poor thing had had an oil change. I insisted on picking up some oil, & changing it when we got home.

After draining, I poured some oil into one of those old glass oil bottles I use to avoid spilling oil on the engine when filling. When she saw the oil, my daughter said we must have the wrong oil, hers was black, not honey coloured like the stuff I'd bought.

I hope you wonderful ladies who have resisted addiction to soaps, are equally disinterested in the dreadful morning talk shows, I assume are designed to appeal to stay at home ladies. I reckon they are enough to drive intelligent ladies back into the workforce, just to get away from them.

Morning TV, Don't get me started on that rubbish! Maybe they are designed by me hoping that we will escape to the shed and work out where the bonnet catch is! Hehe.
And yes I can share your amusement about the phones. With a hint of sadness.
I must say, your car did very well to run at all with 3 spark leads chewed through! I have sold the whole spark problem with diesel power, much less temperamental. My father in law had a falcon on gas that he ran almost 30000kms over an oil change, I borrowed it for the weekend and to my horror spend almost an hour scooping jelly like oil out of the sump! His excuse, it wasn't black. The poor car smashed up a piston rather badly not long after that, I think it died of shock.

Hi Bec, those old Cressidas were pretty tough things. I still use that one around the paddocks with 377,000Km on it.

Yes it's not only the ladies I suppose. My father was a great horseman, in the light horse before WW11, but he was not too mechanically minded.

Whenever I drove one of his cars I would find the brake pedal almost on the floor. He would not notice they needed adjusting. About half the time the clutch would be slipping. He found it easier to slip the clutch, rather than change back a gear or two, in the old things he drove. It was a real relief to get him into something automatic, with disc [self adjusting] brakes.

I still remember when I was at school, him not understanding how to work the manual spark advance/retard lever on the steering wheel of his 1930 Dodge. The thing would climb the hill out of town, if you retarded it enough soon enough, but not for him.

Sorry you can have your diesel. I have enough of the stinking stuff in tractors & pumps, without getting it on me when filling the car. I'll stick to my 9000 RPM variable valve timing little Honda, or my old Triumphs in the car department

Lots of people have natural aptitude to manipulate a gadget designed for people who don't actually think. To be able to use an electronic gadget vs watching mindless TV is no indication of any degree of intelligence.
I as does shaggy dog know women who fly, dive, drive or in fact do anything as good as the best male. They're the intelligent ones. To make it big in today's society you don't need to be logical or competent, you just need to speak jargon & you're in. Even the PM's office is not out of reach in that regard, just look at the recent situation.

Of course, the funny thing is that in order to contribute to this thread, we are all indulging in tap-tapping away electronically.

PC - smart phone, it's all part of the same phenomenon.

So the next time you walk past someone tapping on a smart phone - they could be posting a comment on OLO

(Bec, it's nice to see you've become a regular. You may have noticed that were a bit light on women around here:)

As an old lady needing care my mother went into a nursing home. After one of my visits a staff member told me my mother was antisocial. I asked her why she said that. "Your mother stays in her room and reads rather than watch the soaps with the others." Since my mother had never had much interest in soaps it seemed unreasonable to expect her to develop an interest in them at her advanced age.

Sorry individual, I can't agree with you there. Intelligence has nothing to do with flying a plane, or driving a car. It takes a certain kind of manual dexterity, & perception, rather than any mental ability. I knew some pretty dumb fighter pilots, back in the day.

This is one statement where Poirot will have to agree with me, as I still hold a Bathurst lap record I set in 1967, & was pretty good at getting the old Sea Venoms down onto HMAS Melbourne before that, so intelligence is not a prerequisite.

Actually dexterity is one thing that interests me in this context. I can drive & fly pretty well, but my writing is dreadful, & I am hopeless with a tennis racket. My lady was runner up in the NSW ladies tennis championships as a teenager, & can do a great job on the helm of a yacht in a howling gale, but is very average with a car.

So why is it that all ladies are so good with the little buttons on a mobile phone. I can get 3 at once with the little micro phone my daughters gave me.

I see your point on electronic gadgets Poirot, but can't agree they are the same. The computer is something we use when we have spare time. The mobile is used to be in constant communication, really quite different things.

Actually, it's interesting, Hasbeen.

While I still maintain that the PC and the smart phone are part of the same phenomenon - internet communication. The sheer mobility and convenience of smart phones seem to have morphed into a real tool to communicate...almost an extension of the mind, wherein moment to moment thoughts and dalliances are broadcast to whoever is there to receive them.

I bought a smart phone a while back, but was infuriatd by the small keyboard, spellcheck, etc, so have reverted back to a simpler phone, which suits me as I don't use it all that much.

You have to remember that smart phones are used more these days for accessing the net, reading, communicating online than they are for making "phone calls".

Dexterity,
Hasbeen,
Cheers for that, it's the word I was actually looking for rather than intelligence. Would you believe this is the first time I have heard this word after navigating my bit of intelligence around the english language over 40 years.

Glad to oblige Indy.

Now all we have to do is instill a little verbal dexterity into Tony Abbott, & we will have it all.

Hasbeen,

I assume you were a RAN pilot.
When was that?
Sea Venoms go back aways. You are showing your age if you flew them.
The modern airliner/military aircraft is pretty high tech these days. Many pilots hold degrees as a matter of course.
Take it easy.

SD

I personally know a lady that flies a Spitfire, in UK. It participated in the D Day landing and latter was converted to a 2 seater trainer. Saw a TY show recently about the lady pilots that delivered planes of all sorts around the UK, during WW11.

Hasbeen,

"Now all we have to do is instill a little verbal dexterity into Tony Abbott...."

Might I suggest a suppository?

(Sorry, couldn't resist:)

Good one Poirot, nothing to be sorry about.

It is not often a post actually has me laughing out loud, but that one did. Well done.

Yes Shaggy, I'm way past my use by date.

I joined the navy on, would you believe, April fools day, 1958.

They delayed the signing on until after midday, as I believe the fool bit is only till midday.

Many pilots hold degrees as a matter of course.
Take it easy.
Shaggy Dog,
That's why they gradually watering down the term Pilot. They're flight deck managers now.
I have mates who fly the big ones & they all say it's like a computer game now.

Hasbeen,

Started with Qantas in Feb '58 as an apprentice.
Handed my Maintenance Engineers License in about 4 years back.
50 years in the biz with the odd sabbatical here and there.
Saw some changes.

Take it easy.

SD