SOMETHING I have dreaded for a while happened last weekend.

Our elderly laptop computer did not quite give up the ghost but started doing strange things.

It was reluctant to fire up and when it finally got going pages would suddenly disappear from the screen.

We have had the laptop for around 10 years so cannot complain that it has now gone wonky.

What I dreaded was not the expense of buying a replacement.

It was the certainty it would take me at least a year to get the hang of the new machine.

On Tuesday the General Manager purchased a new laptop and paid extra for various programmes to be loaded into it by the shop.

The GM started to familiarise herself with its workings.

I looked over her shoulder and had not a clue what she was doing or what was coming up on the screen.

I have never been able to understand why computers have to be so complicated.

Many readers will likely be considerably more computer literate than yours truly but I cannot be the only person who gets frustrated when a computer stubbornly refuses to let one carry out a simple task.

The GM has a bit of knowledge about computers but our daughter Gillian is something of a wizard on the subject. She is not employed as an IT (information technology) specialist but is the person asked to solve computer problems at her work.

I have called on Gillian’s assistance in the past but her fingers fly over the keyboard so quickly I cannot keep up with what she is doing. And that is why my face goes blank when she says I will now know what to do the next time I encounter the same difficulty.

Our fancy new laptop has a function called Skype. Apparently, if someone else has Skype, the pair of you can see and talk to each other.

The GM says that when she is next away for a couple of weeks she can call home to check if I have started to grow a beard in her absence.