Sunday 27 March 2011

Week #13 of my NEW52 life ...

A couple of NEW52 experiences from me this week.

First up, I finally got round to buying myself a proper carry case for my laptop. For the past year, whenever I've taken my lovely shiny Dell Inspiron laptop anywhere, I've done so in a rather flimsy, albeit pretty, shopping bag ... #GASP# ... I know, it offers no protection what-so-ever!!! It's not that I didn't want a proper carry case, it's just that I wanted a pretty one, a girly one, a colourful one and whenever I searched for a case big enough to accommodate my 17 inch wide-screen laptop, the only colour was black. Boring!

Until I saw this ...

OK, so it's black & white ... but it's got a really funky pattern ... AND ... the inside is baby pink!!!! (in the image above, you can just see the zipper ends which are the same colour as the interior lining). My laptop fits snugly inside, it has an internal elastic "skirt" to keep my laptop from moving / shifting, a detachable shoulder strap and a front zipped compartment for power cables / USB mouse etc. It's a riot and I love it!

My second "new" this week is the completing of my 2011 census form. Once every 10 years, every single household in the UK is required [by law] to complete a rather l.o.n.g. winded 32 page questionnaire about who you are, what you do, where you work, your ethnic background, your religion, your qualifications etc etc ... it's a heck of a document! Right now you're probably thinking how can this be new? After all, the census is taken every 10 years ... well, the new for me is that this year, I'm completing it ONLINE for the first time!

The official census day is actually today, 27th March 2011 and the idea is that information gathered during the census will be used to help to plan and fund vital services such as transport, education and health.


The other use of the census information is of course in a genealogical sense. The information captured is made public after 100 years. So in 2111, future generations will be able to read about what my life was like, and likewise, I can find out about my ancestors from the 1911 census. I haven't check it out yet, but I have looked at 1891 census and discovered that my great-great- grandfather, William Walton Applebee was born on New Year's Eve in 1845. Wow ... I don't feel so bad about having to give-up all this information.

6 comments:

kym said...

Hi Sue, it was great catching up with all your latest and greatest NEW52. The print on your lap top bag is very similar to mine. How funny we would have the same taste and dislike the plain old boring black. We do a census form here in the US as well, every 10 years. Nothing beats a NEW pair of undies, especially pretty supportive ones. The chicken looks yummy, I'll have to give it a try.

Unknown said...

That's a pretty laptop bag! I know the headache of finding a nice one. I spent months looking for one that I liked. I finally stumpled on Golla's wealth of beautiful bags and found one that was perfect for me!

jill said...

super cute laptop bag, you had a productive NEW week! :)

Melissa Shanhun said...

Awesome new case! Here from Peppermint's blog :)

Christi said...

Ohhhh I love that bag. We just did our census last year or the year before. I thought it was going to suck but it was actually not bad.

Helen said...

Lovely to catch up on all your news ..... love that bag! Hope you have a great Sunday and even better week ahead.