Fuddland

There’s nothing like a freshly reformatted hard disc—free from months of needless clutter and with a new policy of reinstalling software only when you want to use it for the first time rather than on the off-chance you might need to convert all those MP3s to MIDI files or write a LaTeX document in Cyrillic using four different text editors—to really make you appreciate how nifty your PC really is, despite being a few years old now.

The only downside is when you get so distracted downloading all the patches and updates or locating those registration codes that disappeared into your email archives several months ago, that you forget you’ve left a rather large pot of water boiling on the hob [to remove the chlorine before cooling and topping up the fishtank], and only remember when you notice the mirror seems to be dripping in condensation and you realise that’s a bit odd for quite a warm May afternoon.