First I notice an erratic battery percentage.

I had seventeen percent, enough juice to batter out a few paragraphs and respond to a handful of emails, but in the blink of a computer screen it has has plunged to zero. Then keys start feeling shoogly, threatening to pop off. I recognise these symptoms with a sigh. Once again my electronics are breaking down. I prepare myself for the inevitable and expensive demise by ignoring the signs until I am forced to repair or replace my laptop in order to get any work done.

Last time this happened, I kept typing until three keys were utterly kaput. Eventually I lost the will to keep popping the plasticy little tiles back on, like a game of Scrabble I was scoring zero in. I’d get one reattached, placed carefully in line over the sensor, hooked into tiny metal levers, before another leapt off. I’d be head down, working on a long document, and having to physically wrangle my keyboard as weak keys lifted back up, sticking to the tension of my fingers and clattering to the floor. Frustrating at home, hunting Fs and Cs down between sofa cushions, but even more so in a cafe, scraping chairs and tables to pick up an errant R or P, hoping nobody nearby noticed the ridiculous predicament of my letters pinging off.

Returning to pen and paper could be the remedy for failing tech - Laura Waddell