NOWADAYS, there are gadgets everywhere...

In shops, there are the handheld price scanners that you carry around with you to add up your shopping as you troddle around.

And don’t even get me started on the self-serve checkouts because I absolutely refuse to use one of those.

No, I like to see a person in front of me so I can have a little conversation about this and that.

A flipping machine isn’t going to ask how I’m doing is it? And I don’t count ‘please place your shopping in the bagging area’ or ‘an assistant will be with you shortly’ as a conversation. And let’s face it, for some people, the only contact that they will have with another person all week is the one sitting at the checkout.

There are ticket machines in bus and train stations, all saying that you could have bought your ticket on an app before you’ve even left the house.

I really don’t do all this techno stuff. In fact I’ve all on to use the television remote and God help us all if I had to record a programme, we’d never watch anything.

Our homes are full of gadgets from fancy kettles that do everything apart from pouring the boiling water into your cup, to widgets on your mobile that will set the heating to come on for when you get home.

You can even buy a device that allows you to see who’s standing at your front door through your phone.

Oh, it makes my head spin. I’ve all on to use the flaming toaster right. I absolutely love cappuccino coffees but I have no desire to have one of those fancy coffee machines. Plus where the Dickens would I keep it?

All these gadgets take up a lot of space. I think that the manufacturers must believe that we all have huge kitchens.

I did, however, have a toastie-making gadget, and it did make gorgeous toasties but the cleaning down of it afterwards seriously made me wonder if it was worth it. Melted cheese went everywhere.

Years ago, everyone seemed to be buying deep fat fryers which replaced the old chip pan, but still caused a lot of fires.

Then, of course, there’s the microwave. Yes, it’s the best invention for heating up soup and milk because basically that’s all I use it for.

The one thing that I’m still pondering over is the slow cooker. I can see lots of advantages in getting one but it’s the storing of it again, and if I’m already in the house why not just cook whatever in the oven?

I have succumbed however to buying an air fryer after being talked into it by Pete and Lindsey.

Yes, there it sits on my kitchen work top. I have hardly ever used it. It frightens me to death.

They both seem very happy using it whereas I look at it and sort of make a growling noise as I pass to, yes, you guessed it, put the oven on.

“It’s easy,” they keep telling me. But I just can’t seem to get to grips with it. I have tried. I did some jacket potatoes and once some frozen chips in it. They turned out alright I suppose.

But what I can’t understand is this. When Pete uses the air fryer, he still puts the oven on. “Why?” I asked him.

“To keep things warm that I have already cooked whilst I cook the rest,” he told me.

Oh, for goodness sake...

Is it not defeating the object? I think that I will just stay with my oven. I know where I stand with that.