Confessions of an anally-retentive mother

First haircut, first ride on Thomas the Tank Engine, first time he walked round the kitchen in his father's shoes - they have all been stored in the camera but I haven't had time to work out how to upload them, edit them, save them, print out the best and make them into an album.

It is actually very simple. I know that now - I knew that even at the time - but there are some jobs that are incompatible with looking after the kind of little boy whose greatest pleasure is pushing buttons, whether those be a camera's, a computer's or his mother's. Fiddling around with a mouse and some small print is one of them.

The only way I could get enough Arch-free time to learn how to save and print pictures from my camera was by taking holiday from work, which is what I did last week.

Ah! The bliss I experienced once the job was done! The relief I felt that the images were safe! The joy I felt that everything was tidy - the crud had been deleted, the pictures captioned and everything was in neat folders on the hard drive and on disc.

It is shameful how happy it made me. I seriously question if I am normal.

For most people, I would guess, a holiday is about letting go of control, allowing the waves of life to wash over them...

For those of an anally-retentive bent, such as myself, there is nothing more relaxing than getting a grip - or a filing system.