The Silver Cat's Mishmash

The other day, I followed the Apple Keynote through Twitter and live blogs. I’ve never been really interested in following things, even though I’m a Mac girl since the first little MacPlus. This time though I got caught up in the general madness that surrounded the event.

Then when I saw the first pics of the new iPad I was amazed, but not very impressed. I’m poor and this would certainly be one of the fun toys for the rich kids. Then I started to read and the more I read the more hooked I got. I wanted to scream: “I want one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”. I read Stephen Fry’s great article about the iPad and agree with it, but I still feel there are a few things to add to the subject. I won’t go into the pad jokes or join in the chorus of negative thoughts about the name. I do think they could have chosen something better, but on the other hand, I’m not 12, I can say the word pad without giggling. There are other product names with the word pad in it that no one says anything about.

These are the main reasons for me to wanting to get one and those reasons are also why I think it will be a huge success:

1) The reasonable price - Not everyone can afford, for instance an iPhone or a laptop. So in this respect the iPad is better.

2) The size - It’s a lot more portable than a laptop.

3) The quality - Compared to a Netbook, the screen is a lot better if the ad videos can be trusted.

4) The programs - What other gadget can run both the iPhone apps and the wonderful Mac programs like the iWork and iLife packages?

5) Cuteness - Silly reason I know, but it’s a lot more beautiful and cute than other small devices like the ugly Kindle for instance, or the idiotic pink eees.

6) The productivity - Portability in combination with usability. Big keyboard but still easy to bring with you. Will be a must for journalists, bloggers and writers.

7 ) Practical - With the iBook program, you can read e-books just as easy as you can with a regular book on a device that is very portable.

Someone clever once said that people could be divided into two groups. Angels and balloon poppers. Angels are those who make you feel better. Those who make you strong. They are rare and wonderful people that you need to nurture to keep in your life.

The balloon poppers are those who do their best to crush your dreams. Those who drag you down. They live to make other people feel small and insignificant so they themselves can grow.

I would add a third group to that saying. Those who don’t give a damn about you, the in between people. In my world, that’s the biggest group. People who just ignore you. Those who turn their backs on you. They might talk to you when no one else is around, but as soon as someone else turns up they leave you.

I’ve already turned my back on the balloon poppers of this world long ago. Now it’s the in between people that have to go. They drain my energy and, in some ways, make me even more sad than the balloon poppers.

I might end up alone, but alone is a lot better than being sad. I still have a few angels in my life and I hope you know who you are. I’ll just wave goodbye to the in between people even though they probably won’t even know I’m gone. And it’s probably best to keep it that way.

Some of the things that “had no value”

It’s been a few weeks and now I feel more up to talking about what happened to me lately. From the first shocking phone call to the last trip before it’s all gone.

One morning, I woke up quite early to the sound of the ringing. It was the police telling me that my cottage was on fire. They didn’t know more than that, but would call me back. Several hours later they called back and told me they had managed to put out the fire. I was in shock but the only thing that was on my mind was to go there and find out about the damage.

The police told me I wasn’t allowed to go there until the technical investigation was over and would call me back. The next day I heard from them again telling me that they were unable to conduct the investigation just yet, it needed to cool down first. By that time, everything was chaos for me. I wasn’t allowed to go there and no one knew anything.

A couple of weeks of waiting followed. It was Christmas and apparently they had so many fires to investigate and the insurance company didn’t have time to conduct their own investigation. Someone sent me photographs of the exterior. It was terrible to see your cute little cottage in that state. The kitchen window was hanging half way out in the garden all black. Where the newly built extension had been was only a pile of burned something. The small new windows in the newly repaired attic were crashed and the room inside seemed all black. I cried.

I was finally allowed to go there, when they insurance company came to assess the situation. The first time I was able to see for myself was a shock. The pictures I’d seen were nothing compared to seeing it with my own eyes. It wasn’t just the kitchen window. Half of the kitchen was gone and so was half of the attic. It was almost surrealistic watching it snow where I used to cook.

Next shock was to see the living room. No one can imagine the horror of seeing their belongings all black in a totally black room. The soot was covering the floor, the walls and the ceiling as well as some of the furniture. What used to be wallpaper and paint was hanging in black stripes from walls and ceiling. My mind was went almost blank as I followed the woman from the insurance company around. “Not worth saving”, “It needs to be torn down”, “Not of any value”, “Not insured highly enough” were some of the bits and pieces I managed to pick up.

NOT Of ANY VALUE! This was my cottage she was talking about. It used to be my home during my time at the university. It had value, a lot of value to me. I started to see everything with her eyes. Of course I wouldn’t be able to save anything from that disaster. I left there with only a few keepsakes from the undamaged room and the knowledge that the cottage would have to be torn down and that I wouldn’t get enough money to rebuild it.

I wasn’t in any shape to do anything for a long time. Christmas was coming and I tried to block out everything that had to do with the fire until after the holidays, but first day after Christmas I found some people that could help me move my smoke smelling furniture from the cottage. They were amazing. They worked fast and were very nice to me when I pointed at all the black things that I wasn’t ready to part with. When I finally had all the furniture home I started to think more clearly. What I had been afraid of was burned and damaged wood was just soot. Most of it cleaned off really easily and the rest can be repainted. So much for no value…

Then the next problem occurred to me. I had a lot of textiles in my drawers. The wood had taken up so much water when they tried to put out the fire that I couldn’t open them. I knew that if I waited until spring to get them opened, I’d lose what was inside them. So for weeks now I’ve tried to warm the drawers enough to open them. Yesterday I managed to open two of them. Only two left now. Just hoping it won’t be too late. Some of the textiles had started to smell funny and that wasn’t from the smoke.

The day before yesterday I went to see the cottage one last time before it will be torn down. I wanted to make sure that I had brought everything that was worth saving only to realize that I had forgotten more than I thought I had. The chest of drawers with the marble top for instance that I had believed was beyond saving was actually not damaged at all. Sooty but not burned. I filled my rucksack with all the little things that were left and moved the furniture to the barn. I don’t have a car and will wait until spring to bring the last things to my mother’s home. I was happy to see that the two stools that my late grandfather had built weren’t too badly damaged.

Yesterday things sort of fell apart for me. I thought it was all over. That I had actually handled all the difficulties pretty well. I spent most of the day crying and wasn’t able to do any of the things I had planned to do. I think that all the tension I had felt the last weeks left me and I started to feel again. The crying was good for me. It was like I had a good cleansing that was washing away all the sadness. There were actually things to be grateful about. No one was hurt. I was able to save a lot of things from the cottage and even though I won’t get money enough to rebuild it. I still have the land. And the money I’ll get from the insurance will improve my difficult financial situation a little. I’ll survive this:)