A Tale of Two Laptops

Two laptops © Ricky Yates

As Sybille declared this evening, I look like a geek! On the desk in my office is not one laptop computer, but two! So a blog post of explanation.

Nearly five years ago, I started to use my first ever laptop computer. As I explained back then, it was purchased as a result of a generous donation by a member of the St Clement’s congregation, supplemented by a contribution from Sybille and myself. It has served me well since May 2012, both for running the Prague Anglican Chaplaincy, and for reasonably regularly updating this blog. But right from the day of purchase, we agreed that it belonged to the Chaplaincy, not to me.

Therefore with my forthcoming retirement now less than three weeks away, I have started the difficult task of separating my personal and Church life. So last Wednesday, I bought myself my own personal laptop computer, the one on the left in the photo above.

Earlier on Monday this week, we left both computers in the care of Hardware & Software Services, for them to transfer everything from the Chaplaincy computer, onto my new laptop. Also at our request, they kindly removed unnecessary and unusable software and services of both Microsoft & Hewlett Packard, from my new laptop. It cost CZK 1000, just under £32.00 – money well spent I believe.

Today, aided by Sybille, my two email accounts were separated. After Sunday 30th April, I will no longer be chaplain(at)anglican(dot)cz. Therefore, whilst all my past email correspondence to this address has been downloaded onto my new laptop, no new emails can be. They can only be accessed by using the Chaplaincy computer.

Likewise, my new private email address, ry(at)rickyyates(dot)com, set up four years ago but hardly ever used until now, can only be accessed from my new personal laptop. The small amount of past correspondence on the Chaplaincy computer has been transferred to my new laptop, and then deleted from the Chaplaincy computer.

Over the next few days, I have the task of carefully deleting from the Chaplaincy computer, all my personal material, letters and files, leaving only material which will be useful to a locum Chaplain and my eventual successor.

Also, from now on, each time I arrive at my desk, I will first of all have to decide on which computer I should be working, depending on what I’m doing 🙂 The next few weeks should be fun!

Helpful instructions in Czech & Slovak 🙂 © Ricky Yates

2 comments to A Tale of Two Laptops

  • Oh, what fun! Isn’t life complicated at times? Good luck with the next few weeks.

    • Ricky

      I’m not sure I’d call it fun, Perpetua 😉 But certainly somewhat complicated. I haven’t yet started clearing the Chaplaincy laptop of all my personal stuff – that can wait until after Easter. But at least the email separation has gone smoothly.