Frustrations of a fictional neo-luddite

Tom wakes up to the intense shaking of his mother. Not the typical alarm clock awakening most of us are used to! Tom's mother screams at him in her strong french accent down the corridor.....'Tommy sis time to get up! Vid vid!' After a groan Tom climbs out of bed to a quiet house. His mother is standing over the stove mixing up his daily bowlful of porridge.

He looks at the only clock in the house and makes his way to school after his usual routine of getting dressed and washed in dead silence. He can hear the television of next door and can sometimes make out the words if he's lucky.

After a 20 minute walk he arrives at the University. Passing students in their own little world, with their ear pieces and on their mobile phones, he makes his way to his lecture room.

His english is still not as good as it should be and it takes a while for him to realise that the lecturer is asking him to sit down and sign into a computer. After trying a few times, he raises his hand and asks for 'elp!' 10 minutes later after pressing about 20 different buttons, he was finally logged onto a computer. Everyone around him was typing away as if they were playing a piano! He was well and truely lost and giving up was in the near distance. After staring at the screen the lecturer waved his students out of the room. Finished already? If every lecture was like this, he would most certainly fail.

At lunch, he fiddled in his pocket until he found a £1 coin, he walked to the nearest phone box (30 minute walk) and dialled the number for his mum. 'Bonjour!' she cried. She obviously hadn't grasped the idea that it was 'hello' in this country! After a quick hello, Tom couldnt help but feel upset at the sound of his mums voice. For a moment, he longed to be back in France, where talking was normal and not being unsociable with ipods!

Tom returned home that night with square eyes and a headache from so many computers. He was nervous at the thought of asking his mother for a lap-top.....he wondered if hand written essays were acceptable in this country?? Dreaming of France, he fell asleep.