A painful and exciting day: my iPad died quietly yesterday evening, after I wrote to you.

 

The iPad is closely woven into every waking hour around here. I get up in the morning, get dressed, feed the cats, sit down at the kitchen table with plenty of time before breakfast, and look at my email. Then I do Wordle, post the result to my little group, enter the day’s word and my score in a list I keep in the Notes app, then settle down with the morning paper. That’s five different applications before I’ve had breakfast. My current reading book, Old Filth, is in there, and my current knitting pattern. My camera: I couldn’t take a picture of my knitting today after all. No 14=year-old could be more devoted to a telephone.

 

The difficulty is that it won’t respond to the screen. I can’t log in. By pushing various buttons I can get a screen that says “Slide to power off” – but it won’t slide. Both Daniela and a computer-savvy friend have suggested waiting until it runs out of power. That will force a Power Off which might prove useful.

 

But it will take days longer than I can bear to wait. Helen has gone up to John Lewis and bought me a new one. She will be here soon. The next problem is that I have no idea what my Apple Identity is, so it may prove difficult to reinstate my life.

 

Knitting, although unphotographed, progresses well (and I won’t need to look at the pattern for several days). I fancy that I begin to be aware that there are fewer stitches, just as I am certainly aware that the days are lighter. I think maybe the new feature mentioned yesterday is going to look all right after all.

 

Elizabeth in Oregon, thank you. “Hide My Eyes” (comment Sunday) was indeed the Marjorie Allingham novel I was trying to think of.

 

Wordle: I did it this morning on this laptop computer – an easy three. But what’s the use without my stats or my little group?