I like to think that I am pretty good at the basics of reducing, reusing and recycling, having done so for the majority of my adult life, and having ben proactive in seeking out means of recycling before kerbside began and/or when it still doesn't happen. 

This post is not about that!

In recent weeks my nearly eight year old laptop has been getting slower and slower and slower, to the point where I was seriously thinking I might need to replace it.  And I still might.

I spent a large chunk of my day off on laptop tidying... removing programmes I no longer use, backing up all the files, and then deleting from the laptop those I am very unlikely to look at.  I even discovered that if I could open up the bottom of it and blow out the dust, it might be happier... so with some trepidation I did that.  In doing so, I realised that is has lost two of its little rubber feet so sits flat on the table, with no air able to flow underneath to help cooling, so it's now propped up on a drinks coaster!

I'm not going to claim that it's like new, it's not.  But it is certainly happier, running faster and keeping cooler.

So, for the time being at least, my laptop lives on!  It still has a way to go to match my Lazarus desktop which resurrected after several 'blue screens of death' and graunchy hard drive, to reach the grand old age of twelve before it was replaced.  And, actually, it only finally went off to the recycling centre this week when I finally, six years later, got round to taking out its hard drive!

I also finally said farewell to a 1970s black and white portable TV that has travelled with me for longer than I care to remember... the cost of adapting it for digital would be unwarranted, so off it went to be recycled, along with a 1980s 'crooklock', a laser printer, a defunct barbecue and various other bits of junk.