so as it turns out

it really helps to have access to a computer if you are trying to post daily.

my laptop died a few weeks ago - i knew it was coming - it required perfect conditions to start up during its last weeks - incantations and crossed fingers and silent heartfelt pleas and a promise that this time - absolutely this time i would back up all my files if only you will just start one more time. i did back up almost everything - all the important stuff - emails from my dad, pictures.

i miss it terribly - it's probably immoral to miss a piece of equipment this much. but we went through two degrees together, wrote two dissertations, traversed a few oceans and plains and had all manor of adventures. it is missing a hinge, has some frightening gaps where there was probably something important at one time, has one side completely cracked and a few dents, but it still kept on plugging. until now.

n has put one of his old pcs upstairs for me - which was very nice of him, but no replacement. it refuses point blank to talk to blogger, or open any facebook link, and it views photos with open hostility. we are not getting on all that well.

so i sneak in on n's pc downstairs - the good one - but i have to creep behind photo software and downloads and some terrifying ww2 game that shouts every 5 minutes "the only good soldier is a dead one". it's not ideal.

i will persevere, but i may actually have to learn to use my smart phone at this rate. i should be able to buy a replacement before christmas (hopefully) and i am eying up a delightfully cheeky little tablet/keyboard dock number (is this betrayal?) but funds do not yet stretch.

all this to say i may have been a little hasty in my last promises.