A sad goodbye to an old friend...

Hello everyone from dark, grey and wet rural Lincolnshire!

It seems that the new week here has kicked off with the gloomiest of starts, but to be honest I really don't mind as long as there is no repeat of the technological problems that consumed pretty much most of last week (!) when, despite the inconvenience, my trusty old laptop decided it was finally time to retire...in spectacular fashion...aka instant melt down! 

To be fair there had been niggling problems for a while, some would call them warning signs, I called them 'glitches' and I had stoically ignored them. I thought that all would be ok.  Sadly it was not.

On reflection it is funny how attached we become to our 'technology' and over the years I never really appreciated how much my laptop had became an extension of me.  Each paint splatter on the heavily worn keyboard documented the rise of a new prototype or kit design.  The thunder flies that had managed to permanently infiltrate the corner of the screen, merely the result of summer days spent working 'alfresco'... and the stubborn 'tab' key, a constant reminder to me, if I should need one, that tacky glue and laptops really don't mix.

True my trusty old laptop had never been a super model, slim line she certainly was not... neither was she the laptop equivalent of an athlete, she always did things at her own slow and steady pace. But her and I understood each other, she never complained when we burnt the midnight oil together, she even endured the odd slide off the bed without the merest whiff of drama.

But now, she is gone...and there is a new laptop in town...

The 'new' laptop and I are not getting on....

You see with the new laptop came new programmes, new upgrades and a whole load of 'newness' called 'change'...

Suddenly tasks that before would have taken seconds, now have become woefully time consuming and protracted.  Everything is not where it should be, my 'book marks' are empty and worst of all the 'differently arranged' keyboard is stringently clean.

As a result of all of the newness my 'touch typing skills' are having to be re learnt, new programmes deciphered, un stored passwords (frantically) remembered and empty folders refilled...

However, despite all of the advances in technology, processing and upgraded programmes, why is everything now so much more complicated than it needs to be?  Why do software makers insist on change? Do they not realise that if it is not broken don't fix it, upgrade it, move or rearrange it! 

So as I battle to get back up to speed, recover lost work and generally 'bond' with the soulless, sleek, black slab of new technology before me... do indulge me as I take a final moment to remember my rotund old laptop...

As despite of her cumbersome size, her negligible battery life, her antiquated programmes and a hard drive memory capacity no bigger than a current modern smart phone... she understood me, we had 'history', she made life simple and I for one will miss her...

Bea Broadwood