MY LAPTOPS AND I....Part 1

I love gadgets and I would probably go out and buy one every time I have money. Maybe this is why I don’t have a lot of money….yet. Anyway I do. And maybe this is something I inherited from my Dad cos I remember growing up, gadgets were our way of knowing if Dad had money or not. We would roll our eyes as he explained why he could not live without his latest addition to his stash. But give it a few weeks and he was bored already and more than ready to move onto the next. 

So, I have this love for gadgets and always come up with a reason to get one or the other but I do always try to ensure its not a frivolous craving and I am always willing or able to pay for what I want.

But my laptops…..I have always considered a laptop more than a gadget. I felt it was so fundamental. So necessary (hmmmmm! Even me, I see a pattern here oh! I am my father’s daughter, right?). It is more than a tool, it is like a companion in the walk (work) of life. I remember many moons ago when I felt getting a personal computer would aid the ex to stay home more and got some money together to get one for our house. It did no such thing. He still went out and I ended up making friends with the computer to keep sane.

I think the first laptop I got was the one I bought from a loan I had received from the Distance Learning Center of my place of work. I think the money was about 12500 (a huge amount at the time as my full pay then was probably about 3000 if at all. I got the loan and decided to buy a laptop and ex carefully stirred me till it became two. One for me and another for him. I just wanted a laptop, he wanted a ‘name’ and so I asked my mum’s help and she bought mine and brought it with her when she came home on holiday. It was a Gateway. My first time of ever hearing of that brand of laptops at all but it turned out to be an impressive gateway. Ex got his DELL after a circuitous journey and more money than I was willing to spend. This was probably circa 2006 or 7 as I remember my trip to Canada being around that time. 

That laptop served me ehn?! It opened my eyes to how big the world is and how much knowledge was available at the touch of a button. I had it and did everything with it and it never once did not work. I had it till I wanted a netbook and got one. Again through Mum and did I mention, the name laptop the ex got konked out and I would loan him my Gateway from time to time. He still has it, claiming it as evidence in his silly scheme of events that can only be described as delusionary but that’s another story for a different day altogether.  

So, my netbook was the second in my line of laptops. It was portable, chic in a red colour and absolutely fab. I loved it and it loved me back. I am trying and failing to recall its make now but I do remember it was not a ‘name’ either. I was coming in contact with the brand also for the first time when I got it but it proved to be a worthy brand such that when I arrived in the US for my Fulbright scholarship and got my laptop stipend and grabbed Mayowa to go to Best Buy, I wasn’t going to consider any other brand. Oh! Why can’t I remember the name of this brand oh!

Yes! It was an ASUS! One of their Eee netbooks or so. Don’t be fooled, I had to Google that. We won’t talk much about my memory either. I had left my dependable netbook for the girls to keep in touch when I travelled but they had restricted access to it @$##&%!!!!

Of course Mayowa was scandalized that I wanted an ASUS when I could get a DELL, which I wasn’t very enthusiastic about cos of the experience my ex had with his and so we settled for another name, HP. As luck would have it, I took it home and it wouldn’t start so we went back to the store and I capitulated and got a DELL. I had no high expectations and this laptop matched it. Not outstandingly brilliant but did what I wanted and needed done.

This laptop served me pretty okay till it had battery issues and I even got a replacement battery for it. By the time our relationship ended, it was just pretty much a laptop for the girls to watch movies and for me to search for stuff I could not find on my external hard drive that I was sure I had. My sister whom I had contacted about wanting a new laptop had called me excitedly the very next day to say that Bros Toks, her amazing husband had gone out to look for one for me and found the perfect one on a flash sale and had bought it immediatlely! Luckily, someone was Naija-bound who was able to bring me it. Which is how I got a brand new Acer touch screen laptop as a gift from my sister and Bros Toks. I fell for this one too. Unlike my past laptops, I had heard of Acer but just never had one but aside of not having a CD drive, which was a rude shock, it was so very perfect. It is a touch screen and I am typing on it right now.

Some weeks back, my younger daughter was home for half-term and had a few projects to work on, I hate for anyone to approach my laptop cos with all my work on there, it interferes with my breathing and well-being but I knew Madam had to get her work done and so I gave it up and when she was done, she returned it to me but I had no urgent work and so, I bagged it and life continued. The next day, I went to work and a student required a letter for something or the other and I sent this student to get my laptop from my car downstairs. He brought it, I opened it and my heart broke into many tiny pieces.