Our little house is a bit full.  We basically live in 4 rooms, the kitchen/diner, lounge and 2 bedrooms upstairs.  My sister lives in the spare room so we only have use of 3, this is pretty tough since we have a lot of stuff.  OK so that’s a lie.  I have a lot of stuff!

This means that there’s nowhere for me to put a desk.  In fact, I do own a desk but it’s upstairs in my sister’s room; she’s at university.  So I do all my work from my lap, sitting on the sofa.  All the while, hubby is trying to show me things on the game he’s playing or the telly is on.  I’m sure it’s not the most productive way to work but at least it means I’m not holed away in a separate room to hubby, which isn’t exactly very sociable.  We’re both out at work during the day so I want to be spending time with him when we’re both at home, even if that just means sitting in the same room but not talking to each other!

Portable Tech

I work on a laptop.  Actually I just bought a new one.  My old one was a mammoth 17.3″ screen HP that weighs a tonne and was on it’s last legs.  I can’t afford to be without a laptop, it would be like one of my arms being cut off!  I spent a couple of weeks deliberating about which one to buy and eventually chose the Samsung Ativ Book 9 Lite.  It’s compact, light and has a touchscreen, which in my opinion is a must with Windows 8.  I’m loving it so far.  At the moment, I do most of my work from home, however my laptop is super portable so once I get a case for it I’ll be able to take it anywhere.  When we go on holiday it will definitely come, even just to watch films on while we’re camping.  Or maybe even do a little blogging while we’re away.  That will certainly be a portable office, a tent in Cumbria!

I pretty much turn on my laptop as soon as I get home from work.  I use it for writing and editing blogs, using Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and just general web browsing.  I’ve also got various budget spreadsheets set up to manage our incomings and outgoings.  All very grown up!

My most used item of portable tech is my phone.  Or phablet, although I hate that term and would never say it out loud!  I have the original Samsung Galaxy Note, which has a whopping 5.3″ screen.  I love how massive it is as I have fat fingers and struggle with the tiny keyboard on the iPhone.  Whenever I borrow hubby’s iPhone it feels so small!  I use my phone for keeping up to date with Twitter and Facebook, Instagram, and reading blogs on Bloglovin.  I’ve tried blogging from it but even on this big phone the keyboard is just too small to facilitate proper typing. The screen is large enough to watch BBC iPlayer on, which is handy if I want to catch up on TV from my bed. 🙂

I might succumb to popular culture and get an iPhone when my contract expires in June.  Is it wrong to want a phone just so you can get pretty covers?  Do you like my wallpaper?  It’s a free download from Wonder Forest.  I’ve lost some resolution because it’s meant for an iPhone 5.

 Non-Tech Must Haves

I think the humble pen and paper must have been feeling a little neglected in recent years.  I do use the calendar on my phone but for notes and quick memos it’s just easier to use my diary.  There’s something very satisfying about physically crossing something off my to do list.  This year’s diary was purchased in January for half price.  The best thing about my Great British Bake Off diary is the monthly recipes!  It’s also really pretty 🙂

Portable Office

The brilliant thing about all the portable tech we have now, and the availability of WIFI and mobile data connections, is that we can work from anywhere really.  I envy those location independent people who can do their day job from the beach, or wherever.  While I can blog from anywhere, I do still have a day job that requires going into the office everyday.

Maybe one day I could work from here?

This post is my entry for the #PortableOffice competition being run by Currys, giving bloggers the opportunity to win one of two Microsoft Surface Pro 2 tablets.  You can take part here.