The first ray of dawn, the first drop of rain, the first hint of a chocolate cake with the whiff of vanilla. I think it is the newness of things that acts like a magnet dragging my attention to something different.

I’ve always been a gizmo freak and my children say that if I’d been born a generation later, they wouldn’t have been born at all! It was perhaps the confidence my father had in me an 8 year old school girl who was allowed to take the new slide projector to school for a show and tell session. Now this was in the good old days when slide projectors were rarely owned by families and if they were, they were operated by none other than the Paterfamilias. This complete trust of a new gadget only served to heighten my interest and since then, I’ve always been fascinated by new technologies. Anything that makes a job easier, faster and more accurate.

When computers first made their mark in our world, they were restricted to those huge big IBM machines that needed colder than cold comfort to operate and had punched sheets and all kinds of coded language which made computer scientists demi gods. It was the Personal Computer that not only revolutionised technology but revolutionised life and for a while every second child was doing computers.

Doing computers was something all families announced with pride little knowing that most children just fiddled around on the key board staring at the monitor either playing games or talking to friends – but they were busy all day long doing “computers!” So when I wanted a computer my then six year old niece who had one of her own asked me ” What are YOU going to do with a computer?”

Well what was I going to do with a computer? I honestly didn’t know because at that time I’d much rather have had an electronic typewriter but was discouraged from buying one by the typewriter salesman who told me that I’d get much more use out of a computer.

And I did get a computer not knowing what I’d do with it. But I did a lot. I learnt how to operate a 486, a huge bulky desk top that seemed like the Hulk and soon mastered the keyboard and operations that let me send out emails. I made power point presentations, played solitaire and Tetris, was hooked on for a while onto the Prince of Persia, helped run a business with my “computer” skills and eventually became so addicted that one day without a computer was like a day of fasting.

When I graduated to an iPad, I didn’t know what I’d do with it but once again I’m surfing the net, writing emails, playing Bridge and generally relaxing in the comfort of my bed and doing my own thing in my own time with my iPad.

So basically why do I want an ASUS TransformerBook T100? I honestly don’t know.

But one thing I do know – I want it just because it is new, it is shiny, sleek, slim and sophisticated.

And learning to operate another gadget will be another challenge I’d love to face!