Nothing like a bit of technology to lift the spirits! New HP Photosmart C7280 thingymibob

The other day, the printer broke down. I switched it on and it started making a strange grinding sound, and then like a scratched 12" (you do remember those?!) it got stuck in a mechanistic crunching loop.

And you know, I was all calm about it instead of flying of the handle and moaning about the short life of goods these days, and the fact that it's cheaper to replace stuff rather than repair it - and what about the environment and waste and recycling??!.

I was calm because the printer - an HP PSC 2110 All-in-One - has been a superb little piece of kit, and it was 3 or 4 years old. It cost around £100 so I figured I'd see what I could get for the same money...

It was my lucky day as it turned out, and I ended up getting this little baby for half price by trading in my old (and very broken) printer - to be recycled apparently so double bonus. So for £150 I got an all singing, all dancing, does everything bar make the tea printer!

This little baby is ten times easier to use than the old one despite the fact that it's fifty times more complicated!

The photo prints are excellent, and the ink usage seems to be as good as the old one. I was stroking the box in the shop like some printer fetishist but did I care? Teenage daughter bowed head in shame, but the lad on the till laughed (at me? with me? it's laughter - who cares?!)

So I've been printing all sorts of photos - lovely to feel them in your hands rather than gazing at a screen.

I suppose you'll all be up to date in the printer department, and you'll be yawning at this post, going well of course you can just plug your phone or camera into it and it'll print out your pics with the touch of a button and of course it knows what type of photo-paper you've used just by 'sensing' it. I gave up trying to print photos on the other one because I could never get the paper the right way around, or the photos to fit, but this new printer has made it idiot proof, which is yet another stroke of luck!

So that's been my Sunday. Playing with the printer inbetween crashing my BMX on the little-un's Nintendo Wii (another very fun piece of tech to have in the house - honestly!).

And eating spinach, cabbage, kayle, and some other green leaves I can't name (it's on the packet though). It doesn't taste too bad as it turns out...

Almost did some writing today, so confident I'm getting there at last, ha ha! Feeling in very high spirits since seeing the oncologist so hoping this calm will last a while. Who knows. Today is a good day and I'm sure there'll be plenty more to follow.

Now just going to find something else I can scan/print/transfer/fax...

(Oh God - it's like the laminator all over again when we spent an entire week laminating anything flat enough to get through the machine!)