In a wonderful ‘it does what it says on the tin’ moment, I spotted this on a very old player piano at Paul Corin’s place today. Well, to say I spotted it today isn’t really accurate because I spotted and photographed it only a few weeks ago – but this time I did it a bit better!

Last time we were at the home of the Magnificent Music Machines, I deeply regretted not having taken a tripod so today, the folks gave us the perfect excuse to go back and have another go, this time kitted out with a tripod!

Paul Corin doesn’t like photos of bits of his organs (oops I did it again) and player pianos and eschews the ‘modern trend’ for such shots. I am sorry to disappoint him with my shot on that basis but am not at all sorry for making this my photo of the day.

I know I’m nothing more than a sad old git but I really hate the ‘oh well, it’s not ‘top spec’ enough so I’m going to throw it away and get a new one’ culture that pervades our society these days. I can’t abide the ‘oh I needed a new mobile because the last one couldn’t get the internet on it’ or ‘well, I just decided I fancied one in blue’….you know what I mean!

So, to see this, designed to last a lifetime made me hanker after a time when someone cared enough about their product to want to make it last forever.

These days, manufacturers of white/brown goods want it to die after 5-6 years so you can buy another one. In this bygone day, they wanted to make people happy for a lifetime – ahhhh – those were the days.

Mind you, apparently this cost so much money that it would have cost the equivalent of a semi-detached house! Perhaps this is the point – if you make something VERY expensive, but highly desirable, then you don’t need to make sure they break after 5 years?

Last year, although not quite in Paul Corin's TOTPs, I reckon he'd have approved of our day!