Mouldy Fruit

Ever since 1993, when I had my first regular brush with an Apple Mac LCII at college, I was sold on Macs. The only problem for this struggling photographer at the time was that they were so darn expensive and it wasn’t until about 5 years later until I could afford me an IBM PC. From that moment I always intended to get back to Apple.

Moving, as I did, to my new job, gave me that opportunity.  New job are firm believers in the humble Macbook and one was soon to be mine. It took a while for me to get back into the Apple groove but I’ve got the hang of a selection of short cuts and software and the fact that the @ key and the ” key are in different places (makes it tricky to send emails with an ” in the middle).

There have been a few annoyances. Things like it not waking up when it goes to sleep and sometimes not letting you log in the first time. Yes, this MacBook has been behaving like a petulant teenager! And the shame of it is that on the whole it works quite well and looks fantastic. Even people who aren’t interested in computers at all look enviously at my MacBook!

So it was with more than a little disappointment that I discovered that my iSight camera had packed in today. I’d used it last week to take a horrible photo of myself to register for Glastonbury and since then updated the OSX software. Today, when I tried to use the camera the MacBook was not registering the camera as being there at all. I followed the (very good) instructions on the Apple website but normal service was not restored. I spoke to very nice man in a far off land, who talked me through a few things but in the end I decided to chance my arm with the Genii at the Apple Store in Regent St. Yes… the Apple Store with a 5 day waiting list for help! On the advice of my boss I wandered up to the Genius Bar with my best puppy dog eyes and managed to get a spot at the bar. A man claiming to be a genius took a look at my MacBook and tried his hardest to get the thing to see me but even his best efforts were not successful.

It was then my computer was admitted to the Apple infirmary for sick MacBooks… and emotional moment… but then I suppose that is what it means to be a MacBook owner. You get aquainted with your machine and grow to love its good looks then it lets you down and you have to see it off, in its padded white bag, for repair.

Quite a few people I know have also had to put up with nasty Mac faliures worse than mine, involving various replacements and repairs. So really I’ve not come off that badly, but I do hope this isn’t a sign of things to come. I might have to consider the unthinkable…

I’m expecting my MacBook back in a week or so.