I'm out there somewhere

Sean Kelly. I woke at 2am. The name of the Irish cyclist who commentates for Eurosport had popped into my head and I wanted to check it out before it effervesced into the thin air which purports to be my memory.  
Another advantage of living on your own is that you disturb no one in your strange relationship with time and the immediate need to jot something down, or having a snack when most are sleeping. The inconsequentiality of your actions seems to allow a broad canvas for mental activity when before, you were naturally constrained not to wake other people, now you are free to potter.
This very phrase "to potter around" has a homely sound to it, far removed from the definite action required by many. "Make up your mind" is the usual direction of travel insisted upon by a busy public, the antithesis of "pottering".
It goes hand in glove with the garden shed, a retreat from the sounds of constant movement and chatter, a moment when your actions have no effect on others but signals the onrush of those inner thoughts struggling to find their place in the noise and constant clatter which is modern life.

Waking and jotting down the name, I reached, as I so often do these days, for my iPad.   The iPad has been a discovery which has rejuvenated my life.
It is the focus of so many things. From the email which is what I am engaged in now, to the monumental resource of the Internet. From the books stored and available at a click on the screen, to the huge music store held within the catalogues of Spotify.   Radio stations broadcasting from all parts of the world revealing the character and the culture vibrating from people in distant lands, to the instant recall of a film simply to be entertained.
Night owls often have for their edification documentaries or avant-garde films which are not to the taste of the general public and tonight, having been woken by Sean Kelly I watched a moving film depicting the trauma felt by the survivors of the dreadful massacre of Andries Breivik on the tiny island of Utoya 25 miles north west of Oslo in Norway. He mercilessly shot down students attending a Norwegian Labour Party summer conference and the harrowing stories of the survivors as they sought to escape, the horror still lingers in their eyes.
From podcasts to Google World and the mesmerising  amazing ability to drop down, out of the sky into a friends back yard on the far side of the world to lectures in Astro Physics from some of the best universities, and to how to cook an omelette via You Tube.
It's all packed into a slim, no fuss, 10" by 8" package which brings to focus, on your knee the might of modern day communication.
Two way communication, both receptive and expressive, the iPad is a proper tool to communicate and receive  ideas, since in my world, the world of the "Potterer" the important, inconsequential yet powerful acknowledgement that we still exist is perhaps the most important message out there.