Remember how my laptop was stolen when I returned to South Africa on Christmas Day 2005?

And remember how this past Christmas Day its successor died?

Well, I’ve finally figured out why Christmases and laptops and I don’t mix.

There’s a perfectly simple explanation, really. The Universe has obviously conspired with Santa to try and prevent me from attempting to write anything else ever again.

Unfortunately for them and for you poor folks who get to suffer through some of my scribblings, reversed psychology has always worked really well on me.

So when I hear things like: “Don’t stay in the United States for longer than one year!” or “Don’t write, you foolish girl!,” I end up staying in the United States for nine years and when I lose two laptops within a year to prevent me from writing, I withdraw all my savings and go and buy myself a new laptop. And I stubbornly continue to try this writing thing. And I’m going to continue, until I can eventually (hopefully!) get it right.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Redsaid’s new Writing Machine. It is so new, it gleams. Even though it isn’t my first laptop, it’s the first brand new, out-of-the-box one I’ve ever owned and I couldn’t be more pleased. No other people's cooties are on it. It has none of the usual quirks (like flickering screens, temperamental batteries, strange sounds whenever one presses Enter) one tends to inherit when one owns a second- or thirdhand laptop. In fact, I'm still getting delightfully high on the new laptop smell!

Don't you just adore the picture on my desktop? Now it's my Lab-top, har har.

Anyway, brace yerselves darlings, because I’m back for good!

Or at least until Christmas 2007, then.