The Seven Essential Items Meme

Over at Cherie's Place, there's the challenge to name 7 essential items that make life bearable. Not things like houses, cars and jobs but things that you need (for whatever reason) and would have to replace immediately if they were lost.

I love a good meme, so here goes.

Under the rules above, stuff like good health or eyesight don't count, so I can't include them, even though I class them as most important right now. So let's move on and choose seven items that I quite simply would be lost without.

1. My magnifying glass. Essential at the moment to see the written word. My (unfortunately very much out-of-date now) spectacles too, as they're what're keeping my left eye seeing too.

2. A working connection to the internet. I get to see more written words and images then. This links in well with the next item which is...

3. A computer to write/work on. Portability of computers is a problem though, even laptops, as you can't work on a laptop on the bus to work, for example, which brings us to...

4. Pen and paper. Always be prepared to take notes, write something down, etc. People are always scrabbling round for pens and paper to jot down numbers, and until not long ago, I could always oblige. But there are two reasons why I no longer always have pen and paper with me; firstly my recent sight problems, and secondly, something which can take the place of pen and paper, namely...

5. PDA which Angie purchased for Christmas. I can only just see it at the moment, but it's an essential bit of equipment for me, in order to write, keep my diary in order, etc. It also contains a number of books I've downloaded into it, but I do prefer...

6. A book. I am a bibliophile, which makes me hunger for the written word. I actually feel uncomfortable if I don't have a book near at hand to read, even if I don't read it. Sort of a literary comfort blanket? I don't know, but I always have a small book in my coat pocket for when those moments get bad of withdrawal from the written word. Usual caveat of I can't see the text in the bloody thing at the moment, etc., so I now have a large print prayer book in my coat pocket too. As mentioned, I have books in my PDA, but I do prefer the solid paper versions, which if you are on a budget, you can't always buy, so I use my...

7. Library card. I'm a regular visitor to the library normally, even though the organisation of the shelves of the local library resemble a jumble sale (although that's not fair to jumble sales).