I simply can't open anything these days.

The other morning I bought some packaged ham and to open it all I had to do was simply to pull a tag where it said "open here".

Five minutes later and I've tossed it across the room in a fit of temper.

Eventually out came the scissors to put an end to my frustration.

You almost have to have the strength of Hercules to open anything because it's all wrapped up so tightly.

And when you have finally mastered the art of opening the said package it’s always only half full anyway.

Bought a large box of Cornflakes lately?

Almost everything you buy is difficult to open and it's not just food.

Have you ever tried to open a box containing a new business shirt? It comes complete with a thousand pins, six pieces of cardboard and bits of plastic all around the buttonholes.

Electrical appliances are the same. 

When you ultimately break-in to your new television, you are left with enough packaging to fill every recycling bin in your street.

Once you proudly plug in your lovely new appliance then you go to the owner's manual.

Another experience. 

The book is always 100 pages thick and it usually contains the most complicated mix of diagrams, graphs, charts and illustrations.

Usually when I finish reading it I'm more confused than when I started.

Don't the manufacturers understand the concept of keeping it simple?

Really all I want is a cheat sheet. 

I bought a new watch recently – a simple process – or so I thought.

Again I got the booklet; it was in French, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Korean and finally English.

I could have read the Korean section because the English version made me none the wiser.

To buy a new car you almost have to be an electrical engineer because there are just so many gadgets to get your head around.

Blue tooth, GPS, self-parking, reverse cameras, electric this, electric that – the list is endless and most people don't use them all anyway.

As one wag said to me, all that means is there are extra things that can go wrong.

And he's right. 

Gone are the days when you spent five minutes with the salesman and away you went.

Unfortunately nothing is really simple anymore and isn't that a pity.