Steve's News

Sam blames Covid for his lack of confidence when it comes to DIY (Picture: JustFix) A student has confessed to paying a tradesman £180 just to change the batteries in his carbon monoxide alarm, fearing he might get it wrong. Sam Daley told Metro he does not want to speak to anyone on the phone. He also lacks the confidence to negotiate, even though he studies law part time. Sam, from Nottingham, said: ‘There are skills that have been lost throughout the years, and it’s not just me. This anxiety has forced the 22-year-old hospitality worker to turn to an app for help even for the most mundane tasks like swapping batteries. ‘Especially with Covid-19 hitting us, it has taken two years out of my life, I guess in theory I could’ve used that for learning practical skills but I was a teenager at the time. ‘I have got to the point now when I have got so used to using Amazon and stuff I’m less inclined to figure things out for myself and I outsource that to other people. ‘I could learn how to do it, but it is too easy to go on the apps.’ Sam sourced a tradesman through JustFix – which matches people with tradesmen in their local area – and paid them £180 to put up a shelf and change the batteries. Sam said both he and his girlfriend lack confidence with ringing people up and would rather use an app (Picture: JustFix) He explained that he uses apps like ‘for everything and I have to call someone out for absolutely every job’. ‘I live in a house with my girlfriend and I had to use it to get someone in to put up a shelf,’ he added. ‘I even had to have someone in to replace the battery in a carbon monoxide alarm, which I subsequently found out is an easy thing to do – it’s just screwing things in. ‘I just feel lost with DIY as

The recent news about the sad deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife, indicating that they perished days apart in the same house, with Hackman, dying second, not seeking help, has an even stranger precedent in the passing of once-famous conjoined twins, Daisy and Violet Hilton. You can read their entire story at Wikipedia. But the salient part for our purposes is this paragraph: On January 4, 1969, after they did not report to work and attempts to reach them by telephone failed, the police were called to investigate. The twins were found dead in their home, victims of the Hong Kong flu. According to the autopsy, Daisy died first; Violet died between two and four days later.[15] Violet had not called for any help.[14] Realistically speaking, what could Violet do? Perhaps the corpse of her sister could have been amputated safely, perhaps not. Sharing no organs with her twin, Violet might have survived. But she made a choice.