A Mini Disaster Movie of My Very Own

I had intended on filing one last entry prior to leaving for the land of garlic and onions, but my beloved Ferrari-branded laptop was temporarily out of action due to a bizarre and unfortunate circumstance.

I had switched the machine on so it was able to go through its boot-up routine as usual while I was preparing my luncheon. My mug of steaming hot tea (no milk, no sugar) was placed alongside the laptop on its dedicated coaster while I finished toasting several slices of wholemeal bread while continuing to amuse pet bulldog Babs by throwing and kicking her rubber ball. As I made my way back towards the dining table, I flipped the ball with my foot in an attempt to clear Babs’ square head, but with a prestigious leap that Alan Gilzean would have been proud of, she butted the ball towards the dining room table.

The ball next bounced off the top edge of a dining chair, then clipped the top of an odd-looking frosted glass vase (a Christmas gift from Colleen and Rupert) before coming to rest on the carpet after a few further detours courtesy of the walls.

Meanwhile, the vase’s contents – a number of unpeeled lychees (don’t ask) – flew in all directions and Babs disappeared into the sanctuary of her bed. The vase rolled around the table top, tracing a circumference wide enough to knock my mug of tea off from its coaster and sideways onto the table top.

Not only was this an awful waste of tea, but the surprisingly large amount of dark brown liquid was distributed across most of the table’s surface, and from there on to a white dining chair, onto the white carpet and especially relevantly, my trusty laptop.

Not really sure which to attend to first, I unplugged the laptop, mopped the table top with ultra-absorbent kitchen roll to prevent further drippage, attended to the carpet with Shaw’s Stain Eliminator, and finally removed the chair cover to wash after first spraying with De-solv-it.

When finally able to review the damage to my portable computer, I made sure it was perfectly dry and switched it on. I was greeted with an extraordinary fizzing and crackling and so switched it off again. After attempting to dismantle it by removing several dozen screws, I had to admit defeat and reassemble it. After several further false starts when the notebook’s wireless card and touchpad pointing device persisted in behaving rather erratically and unpredictably, I decided to pack it away until after my French sojourn.

Fortunately, my presumably now fully dried-out computer has been working fine since my return and posting to my blog is once more possible. Hurrah!