• Small and light – something I could whip out and use quickly and easily, and not struggle to carry over the countryside with me.
• Wireless – for use in cafe’s and hotspots around America so I could communicate with friends and family back home
• Ability to transfer files between digital/video camera and an external hard disk to free up space on the memory cards within the cameras

Given the amount of competition in the market at the moment, I thought I would be buying an Asus eee and that was it. It was small, cheap, and portable. It offered everything I needed, and for a relatively small price tag. Until I saw it.

I went to Myers on a separate matter one day, happened to walk past the technology section and saw one on display. A black one, if that made any difference. And I immediately thought it looked cheap and nasty. Sure it would do what I needed, but it was UG-GLY! I was greatly disappointed.

Then my sister emailed me about the Dell e (what’s an extra two vowels anyway?) and I was over the moon. It was cheaper than the eee, and looked about a bazillion times better! I’m not a geek, the bells and whistles don’t interest me. I’m an inexperienced consumer who likes shiny sleek things, and the Dell has captured me. It has wi-fi, it’s small, and has 3 usb slots allowing for simple file transfers.

So, now I’m just waiting on a release date to be announced. Oh, and to learn how to use linux. I’m in the process of installing a copy on my laptop in a virtual environment (there’s that geek in denial thing again) so I can learn how to use it, which I’ll blog about later. It’s been overwhelming so far, to say in the least. Once I have that downpat, the world is at my feet. Well, the linux world of mini laptops anyway.

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1 – There is no way in hell our current luggage will suit both Mat and I for a month overseas. It manages to last a 2 days, a week at most if we pack extremely light. So we’ll need to buy some new bags, one for both of us as we expect to pick up a lot of stuff when we’re over there.

2 – I want to document this trip as much as I can. Yes I have a camera, but that won’t be enough. A camera doesn’t record the ridiculous things we say and do which we reflect on for years to come (I quote – “smell that bush”, or Aunty Sue dropping her ice cream, or our giggles when we found “big cock” written on the sand, or Madonna stomping on ET’s head while he was breakdancing). Hence, I’ve decided to purchase a video camera. I want to capture the fun times on film, and the mundane things, and produce a movie which we can watch together as a family. Yes, that means we’ll be having movie nights in 20 years. But no doubt this will come in handy even after the trip, as Mat will want ego videos of his 4wd’ing adventures.

3 – Partly in conjunction with the last point, as well as a desire to be able to communicate with people back at home, I want to buy a smalll compact laptop. It will serve two purposes – the tool used to transfer photos & videos from my video and digital cameras to a store device, and the wireless feature allowing me to email my friends from free internet hotspots (like starbucks).

I have been told I’m planning far too in advance, but how am I going to budget for these additional purchases if I don’t start thinking about it now? I need to research, keep my eyes open, get bargains when I can. Any suggestions anyone has (if you’re still reading this) would be fantastic, otherwise I will probably just keep you posted on any reviews and purchases I make. Cheerio!

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