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Not so simple I 'celebrated' my 80th last year. Or, rather, I didn't, because of lockdown. (I think parties were held on my behalf in Downing Street instead.)

As I slide ever further down the -as Tom Lehrer put it -'razor blade of life', I fmd previously straightforward things becoming increasingly and unnecessarily complicated. Everything is online.

But heaven help you if you wish to plan a bus journey involving several changes without a paper copy of a bus timetable and map.

It used to be simple to obtain a GP's appointment. Now 'you are number 20 in the queue'. Then, if lucky, you are invited to have a 'phone consultation'.

I am not technophobic nor a Luddite. Until I retired, I was an applied physicist and worked on the development of the high-density magnetic disk. Fifty years ago I could fix a piece of electronics at component level. Now the solution is 'replace the device' -not very green.

I have a 51-year-old Land Rover and I am intimately familiar with its inner workings. But I dare not touch my Skoda Yeti. Beneath its bonnet lie mysteries and electronic control units. It annually unburdens its computer's soul expensively at my local main dealer.

My television has a world of channels available, mostly rubbish, yet it is easy to fall into a world of grief with its keypad/controller.

Happy landings Do you jump for joy when your magazine arrives?

GETTY, ALAMY

One requires a helpful teenage grandchild on standby for many aspects of digital life.

Until recently, one stood in line at a supermarket's attended checkout. Now it is 'unexpected items in the bagging area' at the self-service till. And then 'card declined' - 'computer says no'.

Are things really better with the increasing complexity of life?