About 5 weeks ago I took a trip to Brisbane a few days before exams with a few friends and stayed in a hostel near the Queen Street Mall area called Chill Backpackers. As per usual, I brought my laptop along to keep up to date with e-mail. My laptop is an intriguing specimen. Its a Dell 1000, weighs 10 lbs, is 5 years old, and has 5 – 6 lines running down the screen. As well, there are about 3 of the normally many screws holding the base together and the d:/ drive is shot and won’t play DVDs.
The laptop was a hand me down, and while it wasn’t in tip top shape when I first got it much of the wear and tear can be attributed to all the plane and bus rides I’ve had to take over the past few years. Otherwise, I’m very careful…I even invested in a snazzy protective case. You’re probably wondering why I’ve decided to write a post about my laptop and are about ready to click on to the next post. But the fact of the matter is that the reason I haven’t been posting lately is pertinent to my laptop and what occurred about 5 weeks ago in the hostel.
A day before “the incident”…in tip top working form.
We had just come back from a long day of shopping down on Queen Street and were famished. Naturally, we thought to look online to find a place to eat. At the time, my laptop was off and the charger had been unplugged from the wall all day. I flipped on my laptop and as I went to plug the charger, via an English converter, into the wall a giant stream of flames shot out of the battery pack part of the power chord and lit my shorts on fire. Thank goodness for all the stop, drop and roll sessions I had in kindergarten!! Thankfully my friends where there to witness the event and where on the ball as always to chime in wittily: “Did that really just happen?”
Needless to say, my laptop, may it RIP, bit the dust 5 weeks ago (conveniently right before exams too!) and I have not been able to post since because Safari is a mystical web browser in the land of Oz and none of the computers had it nor could I download it secretly due to administrator restrictions.
For those of you who stuck with my post…thank you. I apologize for the lack of updating the last few weeks, but I am now back in Dallas. I have a computer with Safari. And I have a lot of time on my hands before I head back to Oswego. A great combination for lots of blog posting and a lot has happened in my life the past 5 weeks…
K