Today has been a frustrating day. I am what might be described as reasonably computer-literate. That generally means I can get the PC to respond to my needs with the minimum of fuss. Not today, however! Today nothing has gone right!

Years ago, before the advent of the PC, when computers took up whole rooms, reacted extremely badly if they either overheated or got cold, I worked as a programmer. The first code I wrote was onto paper, to be handed to someone who transferred it onto magnetic tape. From there it finally connected (somehow - I never asked how) to the mainframe and I was able to run (or in most cases not run) my programme.

Soon after this we began working on our own consoles and things got a lot easier. But the PC was still a distant dream. There was still a room full of shining machines into which you could walk and wonder at its size and beauty.

I moved on, became a teacher, and bought one of the very early PCs. Oh, how wonderful it was, bugs and all, to have my own machine, manageable and almost portable. Since then I have kept up to date and now own a lovely laptop which is very portable and goes everywhere with me, complete with its 'dongle' so I can get onto the Internet at any time.

Wonderful, isn't it? Yes, mainly. Most of the time the Internet brings information and education and entertainment at the press of a few keys. It is reliable, easy to use and well worth the effort to get it right. This morning, however, it has been the journey from hell!

Absolutely nothing has been simple today. I know that you must not expect intelligence from a machine. I do not. But I do expect that when I put in a simple instruction a simple result will follow. Who knows what went wrong this morning. But I do not think that one thing I tried to do worked right first time. I know that machines cannot think, no matter what the science fiction stories tell you. I know that they cannot make decisions unless wethattell them to.

So why do I feel that I am dealing with a naughty two-year-old who is having a strop? To go into detail would be boring, so I won't , but suffice it to say that I have patiently tried to do about six things today and succeeded in doing absolutely nothing to my satisfaction. The wretched machine seems to have developed a mind of its own and, today, does not like me one bit. I lost a perfectly good draft of something - yes, OK, I tracked it down and recovered it, but that took time and patience that I was rapidly running out of.

I decided to try a new piece of software to create a new website. Mistake. Oh, what a mistake. I am, as I said, computer literate. I am also adventurous in my approach to getting new things done. The site I chose, however, was user-unfriendly and helped me to waste my time with such ease and grace it was unbelievable. The sound on the tutorial video wasn't working, no matter what I did, and I wasted a good twenty minutes trying to work that problem out.

Then I tried to upload a new photo to this site. I knew I had to down-size it to do this. I have the software to do so. Today it isn't working. Aaaagh! So the photo you have seen (if you bothered to look) is not the latest or best of me, but, until I work out why my software programme to amend photo size is playing up, it's what you will see. I suppose it's better than nothing, but only just!

I'm not even going to go anywhere near the first draft of my novel today. I couldn't stand losing it. I know all the procedures to prevent this, but I also feel that today is not the day to risk it. I'm going to go to the gym, going to teach some drama, and see if the world, computer-wise, has righted itself by the time I get back. If the problem persists I shall subject my lap-top to a severe defragging. That should sort it out - the naughty step for a computer.