The iMac cometh

Never, ever, ever, go shopping with your daughter, and whilst standing in an electrical shop say to the assistant that offers to help you that you are 'just dreaming'. It's pretty much an invitation for them to tell you how you don't need to dream with their 6 months interest free option.. blah, blah, blah, blah.

To give him his due, he was very helpful, but I did kind of get the idea that he didn't entirely know what he was talking about. Not only did he try to tell me that the iMac I was looking at didn't come with a wireless keyboard or magic mouse, but when comparing payment plans he showed me a lovely chart for a repayment amount that was different to the value of the machine, and an APR that was a good 10% lower than the one quoted on the details. 

I have been dreaming about getting a new computer ever since my Mac Mini died last year. It's never seemed like a sensible thing to do when I was trying to buy the flat, and then move. I'm wouldn't exactly call it sensible now, but....

Well, I work hard, I deserve it. Anyway, I'm not going to justify myself to you, who do you think you are, my mother ?

So many choices. iMac, Macbook, Macbook Pro. Do I get in a shop on 6 month interest free, knowing full well I am not going to be able to raise the rest of the money by the end of the 6 months, so will get stung with loads of interest (which is racked up from the day you purchase the machine) ? Do I go for the option of paying about £500 now, and then paying a monthly contract fee with a mobile network provider ? (There was an option to buy one of the laptops for about £400 less, and then pay about £41 a month to get 5gb of data - this would have made sense if I actually had that sort of money knocking around).


So I did what every responsible adult should do. No I didn't flip a coin. I came home, and rationally set out a pros and cons list for each option. It became pretty obvious that as sexy as a Macbook or Macbook Pro look, how likely was it that I was actually going to take it anywhere ? Would I not be too nervous of damaging or losing my new purchase, or even that someone would steal it. (shock horror). Laptops are cool, and er... mobile, but a desktop is actually the machine that needs replacing, and the power on the iMac is substantially more than the laptop machines. With the bigger screen the iMac is also more suited to me using it for video editing. The activity I hate so much in connection with M27 videos, but a necessary evil. With an iMac that experience would surely be less painful that it was on my poor little macmini, and definitely more so than on a windoze machine.

So that's what I did. I went and ordered (online) an iMac. The really hard bit starts now. The waiting for it to arrive.

I want it here NOW !!!!!!!

Step away from the keyboard with your hands up !!!

Having pined on and off ever since my Mac Mini died on me about 6 months ago for the courage, and the money to purchase a new Mac I have narrowly avoided buying one today.

Having looked through flEaBAY, and scrumpymacs and Apple's own reconditioned computer section I had become attached to the idea of actually purchasing one. Not a new, new one, you understand, god knows there's no way I can afford that. (Don't you Mr Jobs ?). But a reconditioned, or second hand mac, is not only cheaper, but better for the environment too. Well that's how I tried to justify it to my accountant self. He wasn't having none of it. He flicked over to his spreadsheet and in a flash, was tutting and shaking his head.

Now look. In an ideal world, the right to own a Mac would be part of the constitution. In a slightly more idealistic world, The United Kingdom would actually have a constitution.

I did make one daring bid on a Mac Mini, which with 4GB or Ram had twice the ummph of the one that died. This bid was quickly lost in a torrent of bids that came in around the end of the auction. In the end said Mac Mini went to a new home, with the new owner paying some £40 more than Spread-Sheet-Simon was willing to part with.

It took me long enough to decide if I want/need a macbook or a mac-mini. Macbooks are much dearer than MacMinis, but you do get more of the Mac experience, having the proper keyboard and screen.

Dammit. Apple, tempting little devils that they are, are offering finance available on new Macs. This arrangement, apparently does not stretch to the machines in their reconditioned section. Boo hoo.

Common sense, and a level head, would tell me to hang fire until the next month is out of the way, when I have that horrible bill from the council to pay, and it will be more of standard month without any big ticket items throwing out all those calculations that Spread-Sheet-Simon is so feverishly trying to compute.

After all, what is it that I intend to do on this new, (new to me) toy, that I cannot do on my Asus netbook, or on my old Packard Bell (this very machine) ? It's not like I need to do any editing any time soon.

I will have to wait.


Until I win the Lottery at this rate, which will be a while, seeing as I don't buy tickets.

Day two

Second day of the holiday.

I have gotten up much later than I had wanted. Having gone to bed a bit later. Still up in time to catch 'Homes Under The Hammer', just because I'm nosey enough to want to look at what other people are doing with their money, and how they are able to make more by refurbishing neglected properties. It's all good stuff. I like watching it, but think that I am teasing myself a little because I know full well, that as much as I would like to try something like that myself, I just don't have the money.

End of 2009, and I'm still renting. Still stuck without even a foot or hand on the property ladder. The hope that house prices would have crashed enough to allow me to buy something of my own has evaporated with the offers to lend money by all the banks that got us into this mess.

My current home is nice enough, but it would be good to be able to do the things that only owners can do. Decorate !

I want to be able to stick things on walls without worrying that pulling off paint or plaster will mean the loss of my deposit. I'd really like to be able to have a whole wall as a blackboard, so that I can 'brain storm' or 'mind shower' (depending how politically correct you are).

I've also got this idea of putting all my DVDs on a wall, with the covers showing, in order to give this collage effect which actually shows a passage of time marked in film releases. I like going round other people's houses and nosing through their book collections. Others like to look at their music - as indeed some people have with mine.

With everything going digital, and being stored on a computer, there isn't this conversation piece. It's such a shame. I just think there's something fundamentally beautiful about a well stocked bookcase. Something about the hodge podge of colours and styles. I guess that's like life itself, in that things aren't (thankfully) uniform and monotone. As much as I love my Mac Mini, or my Netbook, they're pretty soulless. All they say about me is that I can't resist a gadget or two.

If I were to entertain any visitors now, the thing that they would gather mostly about me, and the type of person that I am is that I am messy, and don't clean enough. I never did get around to the cleaning yesterday. I am trying to convince myself to get on with that, and at the same time to get into town and start my Christmas shopping. I am tempted to purchase a copy of the Star Trek film that has recently come out on DVD.

Do I buy it, or do I wait, and let someone buy it for me for Christmas ? Decisions, decisions. Every year my Mother asks me to give her a list of things that I want, for Christmas. Each year, I struggle to find things, because I don't sit around, waiting for Christmas to come about in order to get things that I need. I just go out and buy them myself. There are plenty of things that I want, but don't necessarily need. These things I usually learn to do without. Why would I want something that I don't actually need to have for Christmas.

It seems that procrastination is indeed an art form at which I excel.