Keep Taking The Tablets!

Words fascinate me. We put things down on a table [from the Latin ‘tabula’] a large flat object…and the diminutive of that is tablet.

So Moses had the 10 commandments on tablets of stone [here we see Charlton Heston demonstrating this!]

Then ‘tablet’ became the word for a notebook or pad of paper.

And also the word for a small flat object – like an aspirin tablet or a tablet of soap.

Both of these have been abbreviated to tab

as in “Put it on my tab” i.e. write it in the notebook, that I will pay for this later.

and “Finish dishwasher tabs give you the Diamond Standard of cleanliness” where ‘tab’ is clearly the shortened form of ‘tablet’

Then along came the world of personal computing – and after the laptop came the smaller notebook, and after the notebook, came the tablet. Bob has been talking about one of these for absolutely ages.

“No” I said – “we cannot spend money on that when the motorbike needs new shock absorbers.” So there has been a tin on the mantelpiece for months labelled “Shock Absorber Fund” and I have been squirrelling away odd bits and pieces of cash in there to purchase this vital part for the bike.

Except the bike has been officially “Written Off” and there seems no likelihood that we will be replacing it.

So I relabelled the tin and gave it to Bob yesterday after the insurance assessor left.

And when we opened it and counted the contents…there was exactly enough cash inside to purchase the Nexus7 tablet he wanted!

Which I am really pleased about.

Because somehow giving up the bike feels like the end of an era, and it is good to mark it with something pleasant.

Steph gave Bob a gift at the weekend – because she was sad he’d lost the bike, but so grateful she’d still got her Dad! It is a lovely Willow Tree figure called “Quest”. He may have a tablet now, but books are still pretty important round here!