I’ve been mulling what we’ll have to pack (again) when the time comes, and it’s led me to a worrying discovery. Back in the day (circa 1984) my ideal computer to have at home (and I remember saying this) was a BBC model B, which was all we had a college besides a couple of Nimbus RM1s and a DEC PDP-11. Dotted about the place I currently have the following devices which can be termed  ‘computers’:

• Apple iMac G5 Intel-based 20″ (which I’m typing on at the moment);
• Apple iMac G5 17″
• Apple iMac G4 17″
• Sony Vaio laptop
• Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop
• iPhone 3G
• Compaq iPaq 3970 PDA
• Compaq iPaq something-or-other
• A Navman PiN 168, which actually a re-badged Mio Digiwalker 168. A PDA with a GPS aerial folded into the back, which ran Navman 3 and later TomTom 6 before I invested in a TomTom Go 520, which Ive deemed to be out of scope of this confession

Work also sees fit to supply me with a Compaq 6910p laptop, and for recreational purposes there’s

• a PS3
• a PS2
• a Nintendo Wii
• three Nintendo DS Lites (one pink, one silver, one green)

If I add iPods into the mix I’d have to admit to a:

• White 30GB fifth generation
• White 20GB third generation (dead in a cupboard after going through the washing machine)
• 4GB first generation Mini (a pink one)
• 2GB first generation Nano (black)
• 2GB second generation Shuffle (silver, and I plead not guilty to this as I won it in a raffle at Christmas)

I’d guess we got the first of these (the G4 iMac) about five years ago, and I’m certainly not going to put myself through the pain of adding up the average annual cost and checking what holidays we could have traded them for. We’re not talking a Stephen Fry budget here, and it doesn’t exactly evidence the simpler life I’ve been harping on about, does it?

But hey, they’re all good friends (which is why the dead iPod is still in the cupboard) and we’ve had some good times together.