Top of the list was my computer.

I've lived without a refrigerator or a washing machine for several months with just a little inconvenience but without any major disruption to my lifestyle. Even running water and working plumbing were things that we managed without for nine months while we were building our house and living on site.

The TV and video recorder are way down the list for the same reasons.

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A few months later (December 1996) that same retired friend of mine decided to update his own computer equipment and very generously gave me his old Commodor 286 PC to learn and practice on. It had 1Mb of RAM, a 40MB hard drive, a 3 1/2 inch floppy disc drive and a colour monitor. He also gave me an old 9 pin dot matrix printer to go along with it. It was the most amazing gift I have ever been given, and I still appreciate it to this day! (Thank you Leo, you changed my life.)

It was loaded with lots of little shareware games and a few other applications like WordPerfect, Neopaint, Quicken etc, all running under DOS 5.1.

I quickly learned all I needed to know about DOS and discovered an interest (some might call it an obsession) in computer graphics. I will also say that everything ran perfectly on that old computer and it rarely crashed or had any kind of problems. It is still working today and is sitting in the corner of my parents' family room since they learned how to use it and subsequently upgraded to a Pentium machine themselves.

The paint program was the one area where the old 286 let me down. If I tried to create any picture that was large or involved I would get a message saying there was not enough memory to execute my commands or save the file, and sometimes the computer would lock up and need to be rebooted.

That was when I started trying to find more memory for the computer only to find out that it was considered a dinosaur, as far as computers went, and that there was no way to upgrade it or even buy new software for it. I had to buy a new computer.

I thought about it and put it off for a couple of months and in the end I took out a personal loan to buy a $2,500.00 computer package that just seemed like too good a deal to pass up.

In the nine months since I had been given the 286, a computer had become a necessity to me. I was using it every day and couldn't imagine not having a working machine available to me when I wanted it.

I've even earned myself the one and only nickname I have ever had. Since people keep calling me to troubleshoot all their computer problems they have started calling me "The Oracle!"

Flattering but probably not entirely accurate.

I have several e-mail buddies all over the world and my virtual social life is far more active than my "real" life ever was.

I shop online, pay my bills online, and check my bank account regularly. My Internet connection is second on my list of necessities, in case you were wondering.

Friends who don't have a computer don't understand why I find mine so fascinating or why I spend so much time on it. I think they see it much the same as a TV set and don't realise just how interactive and mentally stimulating it is for me.

As for my insurance company, I couldn't find any mention of them replacing my computer equipment ASAP unless it is for business use. They don't see it as an essential item for my everyday living, unlike the idiot box which is classified as a necessity.

How long will it be before they come to the realisation that this computer technology has become an integral part of so many peoples' lives? Not just geeks, nerds, and University students, or businesses sending out invoices each month, but average, normal housewives like myself who can no longer live without access to a computer?