Gadget freak? Techno geek? Moi?

It's a type of addiction I suppose. This desire to have something which bypasses rational thought. We all have our weaknesses: those personal comfort blankets that we crave when life is cloudy or the sun doesn't shine or we realise we are finally getting old. For some it might be alcohol or cigarettes, for others it might be status cars or fancy clothes: for me, it is gadgets.

Expose me to a new gadget and within days I am imagining what it would be like to own it, how it would change my life, make me the tidy, organised, confident, successful person I always should have been - and never became because of the absence of this particular calculator, laptop, notepad, tablet, smartphone or whatever. It's not that I want to show my new gadgets off, like all good addicts I tend to hide my habit, cocooning the shiny new electronic piece of kit in the pockets of my jacket, like the guilty secret that it is. But as addictions go, it is relatively mild. The need for a gadget fix is often separated by months of normality.  I have learnt to live with it, like my cute freckles, my rippling pecs or my scar from a childhood fall.

And what has brought this confession to the fore? My latest gadget purchase: a portable scanner. It will enable me to scan records directly onto a memory stick when I'm researching information for the book I am writing (more of that at another time). Or for when I want to add to my collection of cereal packet labels. Or for when I want to capture a memorable train ticket for posterity. There are 1001 reasons for owning one, none of which bear close examination but I've bought it anyway.

Gadget freak or techno geek? I'll accept neither epithet: 'Early adopter' sounds much more like it. You'll all have one soon, believe me.