When I bought my current laptop (a Compaq Evo N200) I told myself that if it lasted 3 years and I made reasonable use of it then I could justify buying another one. 3 years have passed and while I'm still very fond of my N200 it's getting a bit long in the tooth. Aside from the fact the batteries are going (I used to be able to get 4-5 hours out of it, now it's very temperamental and can die without warning), the lack of memory expansion options (192MB is the max and that's how it came) is annoying and has been so for a while now. In addition it would be nice to have built in wireless/bluetooth.

So, I've been looking around for a replacement for the past few month in preparation for this. Originally I'd been quite keen on the look of the HP TC1100 Tablet but it was pointed out that they're actually quite bulky. Laptops Direct has a neat comparison feature where you can limit by things like weight, so I tried that. It seems that I can get a 12" screen these days (the N200 is 10.4") without that much larger a machine, which might be nice. Currently I'm leaning towards a Toshiba Portégé R200 which has built in wireless/bluetooth, 512MB RAM and seems generally quite funky. It'll probably be discontinued next week knowing my previous luck.

Anyway. Windows. When we moved in 2+ years ago one of the things the survey flagged up was that the windows on the back of the house needed replaced (very visibly so). The front had been double glazed, but the back was still timber frame single glazing. We've been putting it off and putting it off since then. So I decided that I needed a carrot/stick approach - until the windows are sorted, I can't have a new laptop. However we've now had 4 quotes, selected a company and signed up. Survey happened on Saturday, so hopefully within 6 weeks the house will be fully double glazed (and I can have a new laptop). Yay!