This is a good test for me.

And an interesting test of 'boundaries' all round.

The Science Faculty librarian asked if he could take, and I quote "the library ipad" with him on a road trip. Not back till Monday.

I've always known that I was getting the thing through attendance at the learning conference and that presumably it was a library ipad. But no one ever spelt out how that would work exactly. Particularly given that they do have to be tied to an iTunes account and quickly become tied to email, Twitter and a host of other things in quite a personal way.

I rather assumed that it would be 'mine' like the laptops we were given nigh on five years back - but then all those who wanted one got one, so it's not normally an issue to 'borrow' one. (Though I have once or twice borrowed the external optical drive of a colleague as I leave mine at home. Not the same thing!)

And so it's been until now. Although I've always said that if anyone wanted to have a play over lunchtime, or check out The Elements or Solar System apps (or any apps really) that they'd be welcome. Thinking minutes or an hour or two really! And the 'pass and play' Scrabble at lunchtimes with up to four of us has gone down really well.

But 6 days?! And 6 days knowing that he only really wants to check his Hotmail account he says? And 6 days knowing that his joking remark in the staff room that he was only borrowing it to wind me up, probably wasn't quite a joke?

But it might be good for me to be without for a bit. Remind myself of what I can (and can't) do via my iPod Touch. Find out what's *really* necessary!

I've made sure my calendar is up to date with Google, I've emailed myself any documents written only on the iPad (although I now know how to sync Papers with dropbox which is a nifty trick), and so on. But still... as one Twitter follower observed, they are quite personal devices now. No doubt Apple's intention so we'd all have to have our own rather than share. But I'd not realized just how much I've integrated into my life already. Diary, reading matter (color, letter sized PDFs are just great), twitter, email, games...

Ironically what I miss most so far is the discovery that I could use Brushes - with it's layers - as a way of creating fantasy world maps. I've long enjoyed this on paper but not had the tools to make electronic versions I could submit for publication. I'm looking forward to seeing if I can get something along these lines published.

Anyway, Mr Senior Colleague, I hope you're enjoying it and exploring some of it's capabilities! Safe traveling.