Almost 2009

It's 9:15pm and we're sitting here waiting for 2008 to end and 2009 to begin. New Years eves always seem like a bit of an anti-climax to me - the old year kind of fizzles out, and the new one just happens. There's no magic thing that happens as such and Jan 1 usually turns out to be just another day where the highlight of the day is realizing that your hangover from the night before has finally gone away.

But it's a great time to be optimistic about all the things that you hope will happen over the next 12 months. We have a few trips in mind for 2009 but nothing very definite, we'll see what deals there might be around. We need to redo my music room and put a couple of new carpets down so we'll hopefully get that done in the first 3 months of the year. I wouldn't mind another car but there's not much wrong with the one I've got, and in anycase I don't want to spend the money if I'm honest.

But if I'm honest I guess the main thing I hope for is that everyone I know has a great year with no major problems or upsets.

Well - I've now got a netbook

Hey I got lucky on Christmas day, after leading me up the garden path by asking me which netbook her friend should buy for her son in law, Sheila got it for me! - a Samsung NC10 and it's a real gem. She got me the blue one which is actually a mauve/blue color and looks really good, certainly a major change from the all those boringblack IBM ThinkPads that I'm used to. The keyboard is almost the same size as a standard laptop to it's dead easy to get to grips with, in fact I think I'm finding it slightly better as it has a really nice feel to it, and is very quiet - practically silent. It's taking me some time to get used to the wide screen and the trackpad which are both new to me but I'm getting used to both of them very quickly now.

The main thing I do love about it though is the fact it's so portable. It weighs next to nothing and fires up in a snap - it's an excellent machine and perfectly fits the bill, and the battery is lasting for ages - 6.5 hours so far and it says there is 50 minutes left! This netbook feels like the perfect machine to fill the gap between my iPod Touch and desktop PC.