3rd hour into my Apple desktop experience! Trying not to come across all fanboyish is going to be hard. I am practically melting in my very uncomfortable moulded plastic chair which is a feat in itself. My pleasure is tinged with a twist of guilt about having overspent for the month and the thought of having to tighten the old belt for the foreseeable future.My day started off in turmoil with the 2 hemispheres of my brain in a bar-room style brawl. One was for instant gratification while the other went on about the cost it would incur. Names were called and punches were thrown. A few Jackie Chan moves later, the hedonistic one had his frugal opponent pinned to the floor.

‘ Take that, you pansy!‘ he hissed into the ear of his fallen enemy.

When the clock struck 11 am I bounded out of the house and made a beeline to the local Apple store and put down hard cold cash for a 20″ 2.4 GHz iMac. Along the way I had to endure the hard sell courtesy of a youthful Apple staff for the AppleCare Protection Plan. They were having a 50% discount off the plan and I jumped in feet first. Now came the hard part. I had to lug the machine all the way to the underground carpark and I came to the realization that I am severely out of shape. To make things more interesting, I took a wrong turn in the maze of parked vehicles and ended up asking for directions from a security guard with questionable immigration status. He stared at me as if I was from a distant planet and pointed to a suitably vague direction. By this time I was sweating like the proverbial pig with 2 embarrassing wet patches under my arms. I had lost all sensations from the shoulders down and my spine was about to take the last train to Shanghai in protest. Thankfully I found the car and with the last few remaining ounces of strength in me I hoisted the damn thing onto the back seat.

Back home my hands started to tremble mainly from the lactic acid buildup in my muscles and partly from the excitement of getting to play with my new best mate. The machine started up with the familiar metallic ‘theng!’ of the Mac OS. The clarity of the screen blew my mind wide open. It was looking through a window pane which has just been wiped clean with industrial strength cleaning solution. It took me about an hour to upgrade to the much touted Leopard OS with the installation DVD that came with the package. Besides the new reflective dock, things looked pretty much the same although there are reported to be 300 plus new features under the hood. Lots of time for exploration later. Right now I just would like to soak in the splendor that is my very first Apple desktop.