Cold light of morning

This is what the exterior of the window looks like - a real mess. The window guy came around to survey the damage and give us a quote - he used many expletives to describe the thieves. I found my garden trowel under the garden table below the window and its tip was bent. So that's what they used to prise out the frame. The insurance guy who secured the window last night said that he never keeps tools around the garden and double locks them in his shed. I now see his point.

I spent the morning at the Apple Store buying and setting up a replacement laptop. Since I work freelance, a laptop is crucial and I'm so grateful to the staff at Apple who were so lovely and understanding and taught me a few new tricks and gave me a gift of Applecare. It made a shitty situation so much easier to deal with. I got home, loaded my backup on to the new computer and, hey presto, I'm up and running again. The new computer is much more up-to-date than my old one so the PowerPC applications (Word, Excel, etc) don't work - I'll need to upgrade those. Most other stuff is OK, though, and I've lost photos from the past week or so, but the rest are there. I will back up religiously every week from now on!

Fred and I have learned a few lessons with this nasty business. We've been a bit lazy with a few things: hiding valuables from view of windows, double-locking the front door (the bikes might not have been nicked if they hadn't been able to open the door), putting away garden tools, backing up more regularly... I'm sure we'll think of others.