The Dyson Airblade

I was in a hotel recently attending the Council meeting of one of my clients (a not-for-profit organisation, very politically correct).

Charities fall into two categories. There are those which are well-run, do good work and are extremely professional (and also pay realistic rates to outside agencies). And there are those which are more shambolic, are filled with empire-building careerists, and are always pleading poverty and asking for free work while denying themselves nothing in terms of personal comfort and job security.

This client leaned towards the latter category.

Hence the Council meeting was held in a private meeting room at a very lavish central London hotel (I knew it was expensive as I had to hire a projector for my Powerpoint presentation - at £280 per day!).

Anyway I was in the meeting most of the morning. I had to sit through the previous Minutes being read, then give my presentation on PR work-in-progress, and then answer questions. The Minutes were interminable so that I felt I was experiencing the stretching of time described in Einstein’s theory of relativity.

I was tired and bored and dearly wanted to close my eyes, although I knew it was the one thing I must not do (would probably lose me the account since charity people are easily offended). Making an excuse, I left the room and went down the hushed and deserted corridor looking for a washroom where I could splash my face with cold water. The nearest one had a sign saying “Toilet Out Of Order”.

Ignoring this (it was an emergency) I went through the door and stood at the washbasins bathing my eyes and attempting to recover from the extreme tedium I had been subjected to. When I came to dry my hands I found the Dyson Airblade pictured above. It seemed a wonderful invention - a hand dryer that actually dries your hands!

The over-ripe decadent feel of Western civilisation is characterised by the invention of ever-more silly and marginal “products” and “services” that fulfil no useful purpose other than disguise the fact that our lives are effectively meaningless. The ancient Romans walked this path before us. “When you have everything to live with, you need something to live for” as a fictional character once said.

More on the Dyson Airblade (three years research and development went into this product): http://www.dysonairblade.co.uk/?sicampaignppc=google&sicampaigntopic=airblade

Note that I have created a new label for this post - Science and Technology (mainly because I don’t know enough about either, and I ought to be better informed).

PS rereading this post, it seems unduly pessimistic - I do enjoy life really!