In the midst of our studio sort-out, we uncovered this little gem. This is the G3 Lombard from 1999. This was the first gadget that I stole from Mr C, in the early days of our relationship. It was also the first Mac I ever used, and it was a good one. Lovely keyboard, beautiful curviness, and little flaps to cover up all the ports and holes. Plus I do love black gadgets.

Currently, Mr C and I are working through some redecorating, organising boxes of things that have been stored away, and generally trying to make our lives a bit simpler. Simplicity is always the goal. I stumbled across some old school books of mine. I didn’t keep many of them, but I did keep my English books, presumably because deep down I always knew I wanted to be a writer and that it would be important, even if I kept telling myself that numbers were my thing.

A conversation about skiing over on Sidepodcast got me thinking. I have only ever tried skiing once, on a dry ski slope and it was during a school trip. My school had this Activity Week thing, where you forked over a lot of money to go on nice trips abroad, and if you couldn’t afford to do that, you stayed in school and did something like chess club for a week.

I was like any other young girl in the world, and wanted to be a famous pop star when I grew up. I would prance around my bedroom, with my hairbrush as my microphone. I would get very excited about finding a karaoke album with up to date pop songs, so that I could really show off how great I was. Problem was, I could never actually sing out loud in front of other people.

The nights were drawing in closer, and the afternoons never really brightened up, leaving a dull mist over the entire town. But through the dingy weather, a brightness would spring up and make all the locals smile: It was carnival time. The streets were filled with flags, the local brass band was practicing every night, and the fair was setting up on the local rec field. For us kids, it was especially exciting, as it was half term.