Total Pageviews

Sunday 1 April 2012

Bijou Typewriter Sparkles as the Perfect Green Machine for Earth Hour

Sydney politician and typewriter collector RICHARD AMERY reached into his bountiful bag of his magic charms today to turn what had been a bit of bad luck for me into the perfect Earth Hour 2012.
I had hurriedly arranged to meet Richard in Tarago, between Canberra and Sydney, to hand over a typewriter for our mutual friend, typewriter technician TERRY COOKSLEY, to fix. It was a Torpedo portable which had arrived by post on Friday in excellent working condition, but which had all too soon suffered one of those unforeseeable little accidents. After an afternoon of extreme frustration in trying to get working again, I realised it needed Terry's expert care and attention.
When Richard arrived in Tarago for our meeting, he surprised me yet again with his generosity - by giving me an early 64th birthday present: his stunningly beautiful green Bijou portable that I have conveted for years.
I realised straightaway it was the ideal machine to use for my demonstration later that night of what we should all be doing to help save the planet - using a manual typewriter, at least during Earth Hour each year. Every little bit helps.


4 comments:

maschinengeschrieben said...

Cute machine. Happy Earth Hour!

Richard P said...

That's neat, I did not know that the "Bijou" name for Erikas continued into the '50s like this.

And of course, manual typewriters are a great way to promote sustainability and responsibility. (Some will say they waste paper, but not so -- computers, which make it so easy to print, are responsible for huge amounts of needless paper waste, some of which can be recycled as typing paper.)

Bill M said...

Great post Robert. That is a really nice typewriter. This is the first time I heard of Earth Hour. I have heard of Earth Day which has now become more of a politcal and entertainment event than a day to focus on a clean environment (at least in the States)

Right-on Richard. Computers = a paperless society. Only in the minds of the early promoters. Paper consumption has skyrocketed in exponential proportions since the introduction of the PC and affordable printers.

Rob Bowker said...

Stunning, beautiful and green. Apt.