Jimmy Hall

Before reading this please note that my lovely new iPhone has arrived and works wonderfully.  Thank you Orange.  However, the road to happiness is a sometimes a troubled path.

Ok, so I applied the friends and family discount at orange (which, take note is a web-only offer) and it all seemed to go through fine and dandy.  Then a message came up, “There’s a problem with your order, please phone 08….blah blah blah.”  So I did.  They took some extra information off me, more addresses etc and then said, “That’s fine sir.  Your charge will be £45 a month and nothing for the phone.”

“Great!” said I, “That will be reduced to £36 a month after the discount right?”

“Erm, no sorry sir, we cannot apply the friends and family discount over the phone.”

“Hmm” says I, “I didn’t order it over the phone, I ordered it over the internet.”

“Yes but you are ordering on the phone now”, says Orange moron.

“Only because you told me to ring you!” says an increasingly exasperated wannabe Orange customer.

“I’m sorry sir the Friends and Family is an on-line discount only” he replies.

“…” says I.

“I pulled strings so you’d get through the credit check sir!” he says.

“….” says I.

“Sir?”

“Can I reapply on-line with my friends and family discount?” I ask meekly.

“No sir, once you’ve applied once the system will automatically redirect you every time to us.”

 *SMASH, SMASH, GNASH, GNASH*

 “Thank-you but goodbye” says I.

 “Sir?”

Perspective is a funny thing - especially when used by someone clever to mess up your brain.  This is exactly what artist Patrick Hughes has been doing for the past 40 years. 

Hughes is the inventor of a visual technique called reverspective.  It’s a difficult concept to describe and I don’t pretend to understand it in the slightest.  However, I’m more than willing to give a half-baked and underwhelming explanation.  Fundamentally, he builds corrugated canvasses (zig-zagging towards and from you) and paints reverse perspectives on them.  So a point coming towards you would have have something that looks like it’s going away from you painted on it.  The result is unnerving and a little odd, the best way to understand is to have a look at the video on his site. 

Sometimes you look at something and it makes you go, “Wow!”. I think this qualifies.