I’ve just posted a parcel.

An object that came into my family some 70 years ago is starting a new stage of its journey. Where it will end up?

70 years ago, an old man brought a wooden toy to my grandfather’s shop to be repaired. Time went by and the man never returned and my grandfather’s shop closed. I don’t know what the arrangement was, but the toy hadn’t been repaired.

No one knew what to do with it so it was brought home. It sat on a shelf, then was put in a box and moved house several times and passed through the family. No one wanted to throw it away as it was made and decorated by hand.

10 years ago my Mum took it to an open antiques valuation, but the ‘expert’ was sniffy and didn’t rate it. It went back into its box for another decade.

Several weeks ago, while clearing out, I thought that someone must want and value this toy so I brought it home and posted in on an eBay auction. It has now sold, not for a great sum, but nine bidders obviously saw value in it. The buyer will have to do a lot of work to restore it, but then it will be worth even more. At least it did not go to the tip to be broken up or burnt.

I hope that in a few days it will reach the buyer and soon return to a state where it can be displayed and enjoyed again. I wonder what child treasured it 70 or more years ago. It feels good that it faces a definite future.

Where did it come from and where will it go? That’s the mystery of life’s journey.

You can also add my Zarywacz business page to your circles.

If I see you around, I’ll add you to mine.

It’s surprising that many people still don’t take change in their stride. I admit to being able to remember when, in the mid-1980s, some travel agents objected to having their dumb terminal travel reservation systems replaced by PCs. They had become attached to these boxes and didn’t want new boxes to replace them.

Since then we’ve gone from DOS to Windows, seen the Mac OS, Linux and mobile operating systems arrive, flocked online to build html web pages, then abandoned them for content management systems and are now immersing ourselves in social media services.

I’m sure social media won’t be the final development or change we see. Computing and communication change daily: a new feature appears and a familiar one disappears. Changes are not always for the better, but those who make them hope they are. Where these make life easier and are useful, people tend to go along with them; where they make usage impossible, people can respond by abandoning that service.

Do I like the new Google+? I liked the clean design of the previous version, but I’ve just written a workshop on using Google+ and find I am now using it more. For me, it is becoming more usable.

I’m glad that the new version was released before I wrote the workshop, but it has reminded me that the material I’ve written now will soon have to change to reflect future developments. Nothing stays the same.

We used to have a number of different kitchen gadgets, but they spent most of the time gathering dust in cupboards. Some gadgets are useful, but their convenience is often minimised by the time spent cleaning them after use. Now we have very few gadgets.

I was reminded of this yesterday when wondering what to do with leftover double cream. I like clotted cream, but most other cream holds little attraction for me. Then I had the idea of whipping the cream and adding it to our dessert of baked bananas in Grand Marnier.

Out came the balloon whisk from the drawer and a good workout began whisking the cream until it was substantial. Yes, it takes some work but the trusty whisk invariably produces a smooth sauce or mixture of whatever I am preparing. It’s good exercise, uses no electricity and does not use horrible batteries, so it’s pretty environmentally friendly. And, what’s more, only takes a few seconds to wash up.

By the time the bananas were baked, I had also worked up an appetite and the cream was delicious.

Reality can be so demanding and inflexible.

What’s the best way for managing it effectively to minimise its impact?

Here are my suggested top 10 reality management tools:

1. What do you do when people talk to you rather than email, message or send a DM? Don’t worry, speech is an amazing tool for developing a conversation in real time. Use your tongue, lips, jaw and other organs to produce words in a high quality audio format (currently incompatible with iTunes) that other people can receive via their ears. Quaint, although unlikely to replace the typed word.

2. Online is so clean. I mean, when was the last time you had to dust your web site? Reality is full of dirt, which often produces smells. This is where soap and water can help. Washing and showering can keep the smells away (unless you’ve eaten garlic, strong cheese, pickles or all three).

3. One of the most exhilarating yet scary aspects of reality is its live mode. Online you can reload, replay and edit stuff, but in live mode you only have one chance to get it right: copy, cut and paste options are not available. Use it well and life’s a breeze, but when it goes wrong there’s no ‘undo’. (The alternative to live mode is best avoided.)

4. It’s so easy to have thousands of friends online, even if you have no idea who they are. In the real world, you can attract friends instantly when you buy a round of drinks. Soon you’ll have as many friend as you do online, but you’ll still have no idea who they are.

5. Online you can schedule automatic status updates and tweet the same message every day, throughout the day. OK, you’ll annoy people but they can’t touch you. In reality, restraint can stop your incessant repetition of tedious sales messages and prevent a trip to Accident and Emergency for facial reconstruction.

6. Avatars don’t age, especially when you use a photo that is 10 or 20 years old. Unfortunately, some people are clever enough to realise this by comparing your real-life comb over hairstyle with the wavy locks of glossy hair in your online photo. One option is to wear a wig or toupee to retain that fine head of hair sported by your avatar.

7. Online you can ‘like’ something on Facebook and ‘+1’ it on Google to help your friends, even if you don’t like it. In reality you can really ‘like’ something and I mean ‘really’. After installing the emotion plugin, you’ll find ‘liking’ electric. You even have the option of upgrading to the pro love plugin, although this requires monthly credit card payments.

8. Blocking or unfollowing annoying people is not possible in reality: you can’t simply hide them from your timeline. Instead use excuse scripting. Because it sounds authentic, an effective excuse enables you to get away from someone annoying without risk of trauma for them or you. Note: excuses are likely to conflict with your ‘honesty’ settings.

9. To recharge a smartphone you plug it into the wall, but unfortunately your navel is not a USB charger port (that surprised even me!). Instead you have to eat. Eating is far less messy using cutlery. Use a knife to reduce food to bite-size pieces which you can spear with a fork to transfer to your mouth. Even cleverer, use a spoon to scoop up hot soup to avoid burning your fingers.

10. Eyelids and fingers are the answer when reality becomes too much to handle. Shut your eyelids to stop seeing and poke your fingers in your ears to block out external sounds. Cut off from reality, you can imagine being back in the safety of your virtual world and hope you return there fast.

So good luck when you venture into the real world and take care: there are many strange people offline.