I remember my first computer I bought when I was still working in Saudi. It was a 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗖𝟲𝟰 which I used for writing letters to family back home and, of course, for games (𝘒𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘬𝘢, 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘙𝘰𝘢𝘥 𝘙𝘢𝘤𝘦, etc) for when there was nothing else to do because there were no bars to hang around on weekends or after work. Or too humid, too hot for a game of tennis or shoot hoops. Compared to the gadgets we have now, the selfie you took a while ago is bigger in size than this 64kB! dinky. Yeah, that big! But ancient techie nerds kill for every kilobyte they can get.

It came with a dot-matrix printer that whirs so loudly the vacuum was threatened. Also, a separate drive that feeds on 5.25" floppy disks -the kind that you can’t just put in your pocket because if they fold, you’re doomed. I forgot to mention that being hi-tech then means you’re on your own without Google or Wiki or Youtube taking the fun out of learning.

Those were the 80’s when internet was still creeping slowly into our lives and when fax and telex ruled the com world.

This is the story of my humble beginnings in this technology. I look back, once in while, to help me confidently move forward. It also keeps me from getting a bit forgetful. I never want to forget how beautiful it was to ask someone -not Google -how to fix something or what’s French for 𝙄 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪. When liking didn’t require a finger or a mouse. When a mouse was.

Here’s to the analog days. Cheers! #MyCafeNotes