The joy of laptops

I just got my first laptop about three weeks ago. I never had any particular desire to own one before - I have my PC upstairs, and Skry and I can sit side by side on our computers and play games, surf the internet, work, whatever we happen to be doing. No big deal. But when I handed in my notice at work about six weeks ago, I realised that I had some holiday pay coming to me, and I decided to spend it on a laptop.

After a surprisingly short amount of humming and hawing, I went for an Acer Travelmate, and I'm happy with my choice (apart from it having Windows Vista pre-installed - memory hog or what?!). Large clear screen, built-in webcam, all the usual features that one might expect, and it's very slim and light too.

What surprises me is how much I am using this thing. I imagined that I was buying a replacement for my soon-to-be-turned-into-a-fileserver PC, and the laptop would spend most of its time hooked up to a docking station in the computer room. Not so! It has been a permanent fixture on the dining table since I brought it home. I can surf and watch the soaps at the same time, Skry uses it to display recipes when he's cooking, I can Skype friends and relatives in foreign lands without having to put down whatever I'm doing - it is just so handy. And of course I can cart it about if I want to as well. Tonight I watched a whole episode of Grey's Anatomy with the laptop perched on the toilet seat while I lay back in a bubble bath with a glass of wine. Nice....!

In other words, laptops are the way forward. Go get one. Now.