My relationship with Apple goes back a long way, but doesn’t exactly really begin until a short time ago… because for a very long time, I didn’t think I was an Apple kind of person. I first saw Macs back in the early 90’s, when an graphic designer ex used them for his work in a local newspaper. They were the sort of geeky things geeky people used to move pictures of stairlifts around adverts for the free rag, why would I ever need one, I was going to be a lawyer and they only used quills and ink. I’d always been told I was an academic not a creative, I couldn’t draw or paint and did Latin A level, I was not exactly design orientated and thought I never would be. How things change.
Time moved on and I didn’t become that lawyer, but instead fell into a career in property, using a PC to run my business. I loathed it. The bloody thing was forever crashing, I couldn’t get to grips with any of the packages, didn’t have any help and perhaps the worst day was when some bright spark (not me) decided to install a package to prevent the Millenuim Bug (remember that utter waste of a good panic?) which instead wiped my whole, unbacked up hard drive. Jan 1st 2000 was a great day for the relationship between me and my PC.
And all this time, I was getting more creative. Redesigning houses, kitchens, bathrooms, falling in love with trade shows like 100% Design, discovering LivingEtc, helping other people with their design dilemnas, but none of it using my PC really, bar when the explosion of web-sites hit in the early to mid Noughties and I surfed (slowly) for inspiration. It was Mr M who instigated my computing epiphany, god love him. We’d had a car accident and I was pretty badly laid up with chronic whiplash, unable to sit for any substantial period of time at my PC to work. It had gone on for almost 18 months when in 2007 a box in a bag appeared in the kitchen. I eyed it suspiciously “What’s that?” I asked.
“It’s a present” said Mr M “to make life easier. It’s a laptop which you can use in bed or on the sofa when you can’t sit down”
I was horrified. Now, before you think I’m a completely ungrateful cow, remember I was fearful, in fact petrified of change when it came to computers. I’d never had any training or help in how to work them, mine was always going wrong, I didn’t know who to ask for help, they were just an essential nightmare small businesses like mine had to work with because we don’t have IT departments to mop up when accidents happen. AND WORSE…. it wasn’t even Microsoft ” It’s an Apple MacBook”, said Mr M proudly.
It stayed in the box for 6 months. I kid you not. I didn’t even open it. My stress levels were already so high with my pain, running a business, not having any money etc etc, that I couldn’t even face opening it. I was utterly convinced it would make life worse.
Eventually the guilt at looking at the rejected box in a bag grew too much and I agreed to go to the Apple shop in the Trafford Centre to ask for some advice. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made.
From that little MacBook, I rapidly became Mrs Apple. I was absolutely overwhelmed at the support, help and advice I received just by virtue of being an Apple customer, for the first time ever I felt that I had some back-up and could start exploring how to use my new Mac and how it could enhance my business and my life, instead of how my PC used to cause me stress and make me angry. I had lessons at the shop with enthusiastic tee-shirted boys who opened my eyes to the fact that I could actually have fun on a Mac – a complete revelation after the work work work relationship I’d had with computers in the past. I could download photos, make & edit movies, use spreadsheets, wireless was a doddle, AppleTV a delight. It was official…. I was a GEEK and we were soon fully Apple’d up!
Steve Jobs and Apple made working with a computer a pleasure I looked forward to where once I had dreaded it. Their products, philosophy and enthusiasm revolutionised the way I interacted with computers and made that time feel like play, instead of work. It wouldn’t be untrue to say that they ensured I fully embraced my creativity with the help of technology, something I had never ever thought I’d say. I wouldn’t be blogging if it weren’t for Apple, wouldn’t be photoshopping, dragging and dropping, and generally be able to take what I do on a day to day basis in the building world and process it through into a readable, viewable creative medium.
His Apple products have helped made my working life a joy. For me it’s not so much that they’ve been cool or cutting edge, it’s more that when it’s just you as a small business, with no back up and little help, and you find something that makes your world easier, better, less stressful and more fun, you thank the heavens for whatever that is. Apple and their fabulous innovations have played a huge part in making our little Moregeous company what it is, not huge, not world beating, not part of the news making tributes flooding the media today, but far far better than we would have been without them.
So I thank the heavens for Steve Jobs, a tragic loss for our world but maybe they’ll be viewing Eve’s apple in a whole different way now with Steve running the iCloud.
Ever grateful to him and Team Apple x
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