Elb n' Apples......

I am looked upon with something like suspicion by friends, relatives and work colleagues: for I am not like other women my age.

I am not a “girly” girl, which is probably just as well, working as I do in a male-dominated engineering environment. I like to think I am sometimes seen as an Honorary Bloke in that I can give as good as I get with regard to bawdy workshop banter, and I enjoy “Top Gear” - not a programme about haute couture, but cars. (Sshh! Don’t let on, but I watch it mainly to lust after the presenter known affectionately as “The Hamster”, Richard Hammond.) I do however, draw the line at football......

But what really floats my boat (aside from a certain Scottish actor) are gadgets and gizmos - the more gadgety and gizmo-ey the better! So imagine my delight when my daughter presented me not with the customary bunch of flowers or box of chocolates for Mothering Sunday, but an iPod Shuffle, Apple’s entry-level MP3 player which plays your choice of music, but just to be contrary, in a totally random order - hence the name “Shuffle”!

I have worshipped at the altar of Apple for many years now, having been introduced to them by my then boyfriend, a graphic designer. The unfaithful slimeball boyfriend is long gone, but my allegiance to everything Apple remains resolute. My house is like an AppleMac rest home, as I lovingly nurse each elderly computer into retirement, then store them in a back room that resembles a scrapyard more than the dining room it once was.... I cannot bear to take them to the local tip, as they each have personalities and quirks of their own, and each in their time, has served me well. I secretly delight in the superior speed and abilities of the newer model whilst suffering pangs of guilt that my fickle affections can be transposed so easily.

My latest acquisition is the oh-so-cute Mac Mini which masquerades as a sandwich box (I believe I may have enthused about it before?) but which has oodles more oomph than all my *coughsevencough* previous computers added together, yet is a fraction of the size. It also cost less new than my previous, secondhand iMac!

Which STILL sits on my desk alongside the young Mac interloper, valiantly putting up a fight to the bitter end, before it too is shuffled quietly into the Twilight Home for Terminals downstairs. And talking of which, it must be time for me to play with my new gadgetry and fill the wee Shuffly Thingy with “bangin’ choons” so I can once more play the auditory variant on Russian Roulette!