Is it an age thing?

I like going home to my mum's. She is 85, Italian and an avid reader of crime novels. She devours them. She has also become somewhat of a soap fiend (having been very disparaging about them throughout her life). I think the soap thing is something that happens to old people. I remember reading a biography about PG Wodehouse where it stated that he spent his last years following soaps with the volume at full pelt.

Anyway, this lifestyle I can cope with. I even enjoy. The absence of a computer and anything web-based means that it is a calm haven in a world where I can feel myself drowning.

Back in The Cupboard I find myself trying to keep up with the technological world from running the website (it's backend, fortunately like most backends, is a mystery). Today's task is to research social bookmarking on sites such as Digg and Stumbleupon (both of which I had never heard of before yesterday). Chris, who will be running The Cupboard while we paddle in Lake Como, has encouraged me to link into them. But instead of stumbling upon, I stumbled at the first hurdle and couldn't quite fathom what it was all about.

Which is leaving me anxious. A few years ago the most one had to do was register on Friendsreunited.com. Now you have to blog, twitter, bookmark and goodness knows what will be next. Is it just me (on the cusp of 50) or do other people find it totally overwhelming. While the Italians set up the Slow Food movement in the 80s, perhaps it is time for a new movement that doesn't drag us down the information superhighway quite so fast. More at a pushbike speed.

It really is time to take a break and watch the sunshine sparkle on Lake Como.