Cats and Computers

Beano as background.

My best friend has resisted the lure of the computer for a long time. She uses an old-fashioned word processor to write her ongoing book which features a character based on a certain Vincent D'Onofrio. She has a computer that she never uses (a donated, refurbed one from a mutual friend) and a dial-up internet connection that goes nowhere slowly. Sending her an email would be a waste of time - she would never see it. Her printer is only used for printing pictures directly from her camera's memory card.

Well, today, at her request, I took her to PC World and she chose a laptop. Once she'd seen one with a white keyboard, that and battery time were the only two "sine qua nons" of the transaction. (Her sight is not brilliant and she finds the white keyboard easier to see.)

We set the machine up at my house, as I've set up a good few machines in my time, starting with the days when you actually had to load Windows yourself! It's going to take her a while to get used to the moves, especially as she has not used a mousepad before (luckily the mouse is quite user friendly, though to see her playing Solitaire was quite long-winded for someone who can shoot through the moves pretty fast).

I lent her a book on Windows 7, and loaded a picture of my cats so that she could have a decent wallpaper. I'm sure she would have liked Vincent, but she's hoping her mother will use the machine to hunt for dolls house sites.

Which brings us on to internet connectivity. Apart from the dial-up, she has none. She will probably go for Virgin Media so she can get TV too. The cables are just outside in the street waiting to be brought in.

I think I'm going to have to go into full nag mode, because she is a procrastinator extraordinaire. Watch this space - but don't hold your breath.

Meanwhile, my 16-year old cat Amber, who has six-weekly injections for kidney failure and daily pills for thyroid, has not been thriving. I decided before Christmas that once the busy weekend was over, I would take her to the vet's for a thyroidectomy. That day fell today. As the vet's is on the route home from PC World, I collected her after doing the computer thing. Poor little mite has a long row of stitches and a livid scar down the front of her neck. Having been starved since 9pm yesterday with a condition that makes her permanently hungry anyway, she needed me to move up the timetable for her first post-op feed from 7pm to 4.30.

Amber (long) before the op.

The operation was almost exactly half the amount my friend's computer cost.

£344.

Help!