Chapter 19 ----Working from home

It’s Monday afternoon and Mr Frost is asking Rosa about her weekend.

"Were you lonely all by yourself in the house while we were in Oxford?"

Rosa decides to tell him the truth.

"Actually, I spent Saturday and Sunday in Brighton with a friend."

Before they can finish the conversation, the door bell rings and Mr Frost leaves the room. There are two large boxes for him. He thanks the delivery man who helps him carry the boxes to his office. Then he returns to the living-room where Rosa and the children are waiting with interest.

"Daddy, what have you got?" Elisabeth asks.

"Come and see!" is Mr Frost’s answer.

They all go upstairs. The children do not often enter Mr Frost’s office.

"This is daddy’s new toy." he says.

Rosa and Mr Frost unpack the boxes and take out a very modern computer.

The children watch them connect the monitor, keyboard and mouse to the computer base. Finally, Mr Frost plugs the machine in and presses the ON / OFF button.

"This computer is very easy to use!" Rosa tells him. "All the software is already on the hard disk."

Mr Frost bought his old computer many years ago. He does not have Rosa’s confidence in new technology.

"All the new software is already there," he says, "but all my work is on these large floppy disks."

The old disks are too large for the new computer, but Rosa has the answer to every problem.

"Why don’t you buy a small external disk drive for your old computer!" she suggests. "Then you’ll be able to save all your data on small modern disks and you’ll have two compatible computers!"

The two children enjoy the paint program on the new machine and fill the screen with colour. But they are not interested in their daddy’s technical problems. Mr Frost is very impatient. He cannot wait to transfer his customer database and translation programs onto the super new machine.