So, this is a Skype conversation Oh Patient One and I had recently before our trip to Australia.
Oh Patient One (all excited): ¨Guess what?¨
Me: ¨What?¨
Oh Patient One: ¨We won´t have to drag our laptops all around Australia because I´ve bought a netbook. In fact I´m Skyping you from it right now.¨
Me (smiling indulgently, because Oh Patient One has wanted a netbook for ages, and his laptop is ancient): ¨That´s fantastic. But I think I´ll still take Daisy with me. (Daisy is my laptop. Yes, I gave my laptop a name.)
Oh Patient One: ¨But Daisy´s too heavy and big.¨
Me: ¨No, she´s fine. She´s a lot newer than your laptop, and not at all heavy. I don´t mind carrying her around. And what if we both want to work at the same time and we´ve only got one computer? We´re going to be there for three and a half weeks, so it makes sense to take two computers.¨
Oh Patient One: ¨That´s a good point. . .¨
Anyway. A few days later, just before Oh Patient One came over to spend a few days in our UK house before we were due to depart for Australia, we Skyped again.
Oh Patient One (all excited): ¨Guess what?¨
Me: ¨What?¨
Oh Patient One: ¨Well, I was going to wait until I arrived in England to surprise you, but I thought, ´why wait?´ I´ve got you an early birthday present.¨
Me (now all excited, too, because I love surprises): What is it?
Oh Patient One: ¨Well, you won´t have to drag Daisy all around Australia because I´ve bought you a netbook, too. You´ll love it. It´s about the size of a Trade Paperback and it´s really light. In fact I´m Skyping you from it right now.¨
Me (speechless, on account of the lump in my throat and the tears in my eyes): !!
I love my new netbook. Oh Patient One was right—carrying her around is like carrying a book around.
By the way I called her Annemieke because she is a Dutch netbook. . .