For the first months I was delighted with my computer version of the Model T Ford or the Brownie box camera - a 10-year-old IIcx who I knew affectionately as 'Erica', with a monster 21" black-and-white screen, a free black-and-white scanner which nobody wanted, and a single programme, a word-processor; but very soon after that I fell victim to the offers of bargain prices in Swedish Telecom's campaign 'Internet for All'... - also a delight in many ways, but rather a struggle to get any worthwhile function with a processor so slow that you wondered if it had forgotten you were there, an 80 Mb hard disc and 8 Mb RAM...

It was with trepidation that I said 'yes to electronic life' when I saw an 'ultra-fast' Performa 630 in a shop, half-price to clear the stock: but that also opened a world of new delights, and I could even start to work with colour, with sound and with multimedia CDs ... Far away at the rainbow's end there was always the utopian Power Macintosh, which was needed for a number of things I wanted to do, but still, I wasn't in that league, and there was plenty I could be getting on with for the time being ...

Six months later, Lydia, my valued Mac dealer and guru in Tallinn, told me there was a PowerMac 5260 going - at half-price to clear the stock! - and she even had a buyer for the Performa 630... and so I became a 'power user'... And have been very amazed at everything I could do - I discovered that 'Erica' wasn't a box of transistors and wires, but the essential spirit of David's Mac, Erica's previous embodiments became known as 'Erica's Auntie' and 'Grannie' respectively, and for 18 months PowerErica has been my trusted companion and friend in many an adventure...

But for a while now I've been conscious that far too much time has been going to waiting for Photoshop 5 to do what I asked it, and in the meanwhile I've forgotten what was supposed to come next...

A lot of fuss has been made in the Mac press about the revolutionary new Macs - G3 (= 'third generation', with a processor which can do jobs as quickly as you can think that they need doing), including the iMac ('i' is for 'internet') with its new external design, and a clarity on the screen which you can't describe, but which is like coming into the sun after gaslight ...

So when Apple wrote to say they would give me a watch if I would just go and test the new iMac, I guess I was hooked...

My closest advisors - Beverly in Texas on the technical side and Dagmar on the personal side - were of the opinion that

a) the work I'm now doing is not only starting to bring in a bit of money, but is also of a complexity and quality which makes it worth a good computer; and

b) I'll probably carry on working till I die, and the savings I have from selling my cottage in England 15 years ago are only losing value all the time, so it's better to invest them in something which is going forward...

The new iMacs are very tempting, with their assorted flavours and colours, and the basic price is remarkable; but it uses a new kind of connection - very efficient, but incompatible with anything previously made! - and by the time you've got all the connectors or replaced your printer, scanner and back-up storage units, it really isn't cheap any more; and it is still essentially a machine for domestic users...

So then I looked at the regular G3 - better than the first release, and cheaper...

And now Apple has got the cost of their watch back, I'm a little bit poorer in financial terms, immeasurably richer in terms of job satisfaction, functionality and efficiency, writing this on a kind of turbo-computer, or maybe a TGV/inter-city express Mac - stable, smooth, responsive; I think it and Erica does it - all at once, perfect harmony...

There are a few oddities, like the mouse is now round, so you have to keep a finger on the cable to know which is 'up', and the slimline keyboard is missing the duplicate modifier keys ('cmnd' and 'ctrl' on the right of the spacer bar) so many habitual one-handed key commands are now two-handed jobs, and there's no forward delete (!!!!!); but otherwise it's like walking on a cloud...

But the most telling was the reaction of the PC technician they use at Dagmar's work-place - a lovely guy, who came to see why my PC was silent, and said he'd never used a Mac, but was planning on getting one when he could afford it; he knelt down to inspect the tower of the G3 in almost religious reverence, lowered the single panel which reveals *all* the innerds, and after a few moments said in hushed tones -

'Every detail has been thought through ... it's like the very fastest PC before it's ever been used ... I knew that this technology existed, but I'd never seen it .... you need have no doubts that it's worth its price and more ...'