I started out with lots of enthusiasm and determination but I have to admit my blood pressure has risen significantly since I started planning for this trip.
I thought it would be a good idea to blog my road trip and keep in touch with everyone whilst I was away. To do this I needed to travel very lightly – I’m only taking hand luggage – and wanted to avoid all the bits and pieces of equipment as in plugs, leads, adaptors etc. Why not get a net book? I thought, which is lighter than the laptop, and download iTunes and books to save carrying MP3 and Kindle. It arrived yesterday and I’ve gone from feeling quite self-confident to absolutely manic and de-skilled. And all because I hate touchscreen or touchpads.
To those of you who are proficient in the art of touching (screens, not people), I may seem an old dinosaur, but I just can’t get the hang of it. I hoped that the netbook would have a USB port that my wireless mouse ‘dongle’ thingy would fit but it doesn’t seem to and I’ve had to set up the netbook without it. And to add insult to injury, I can’t get the battery to connect properly! So in the interests of my health I’ve eaten humble pie and asked a friend to come round this evening and help me. Fortunately he isn’t one of those who smile pityingly when I don’t understand the vocabulary of computers and he’s extremely patient with me and my attempts, so perhaps I might get somewhere.
This morning I was getting very frustrated and my 7 year-old grandson smiled at me, saying, ‘Why don’t you just get used to it, Grandma – I use touchscreen all the time.’
Out of the mouths of babes…
diary of an invisible woman 
Trust me, you get used to it! I wanted to fling my touchscreen phone across the room when I first got it – and the other day I was trying to work my other half’s phone and couldn’t work out why it wouldn’t work at all … because it still needed me to press the buttons. How bizarre!