Wednesday, November 24, 2010

New Office

New desks purchased and assembled. Layers of crap removed from the drawers and discarded, since I’m one of those annoying people who tends to keep stuff because ‘it might come in handy’ and have reached that point where the handy thing is so buried in other handy stuff that I can’t find it.



My old desk, which I bought second-hand and has followed me through four homes and at which I’ve written every book published by Macmillan, was getting rather wobbly and tired. With its metal back I also needed to extend a few of the USB cables to reach the computer underneath. It’s also the case that it was good when I worked a lot with that archaic paper stuff and when I needed the room for a bloody great screen, but is not necessary now. I thought I’d be sad to see it go, but I’m not.


The loft next. All those handy plastic containers, all that computer hardware no one will ever want, the boxes for things purchased years ago, a big container of rusty nails retained from when I used to do fencing and a load of door handles whose history I’m a little confused about. All down the dump.

12 comments:

alibaba said...

Aah, the spinning ashtray - that takes me back! Can you still buy them or is that a refugee from the '70s as well?

Neal Asher said...

You can still buy them, though they tend to fall to bits rather quickly.

LarryS said...

Nails eh, I thought fencers used those long sword things! ;)

Fader209 said...

2 laptops?!

Is that so you can write 2 books at once? ;)

Andy

Grim's Reality said...

Those computer bits will be tomorrows techno antiques. Did you see what they got for the first Apple that went under the hammer yesterday?

£143k

Neal Asher said...

I'm a lot smaller than I look, Larry.

One laptop is Caroline's, Fader209.

But do you keep them all, just in case? You'd need a bloody warehouse. Though admittedly, I wish I'd kept my first LED digital watch, since they're selling well too.

Andrew said...

2 laptops and a tower!

What do you use them all for?

Neal Asher said...

Two houses, Andrew. I was going to leave my laptop in Crete, but then changed my mind (mainly because I didn't want to pay over 100 Euros for a lockable box to put it in).

Andrew said...

Fair enough.

Don't blame you for not shelling out the cash either.

Your readers must seem like right nosy people . . .

Neal Asher said...

Well I would be too, Andy.

Bob Lock said...

You should have Ebayed your desk, Neal, who knows what it would have raised!
Remember, William Shatner had £14k just for a kidney stone...

Neal Asher said...

Bob, it's bad enough hanging onto the books and typescripts. The loft is in danger of collapsing into the house as it is.