Back in May before I left Amsterdam a beautiful package arrived for me on my birthday. We ooed and awed as I took my pristine, shiny new, white ibook out of the box and booted it up for the first time.

I had always been a Mac lover but was forced to use a PC while at Greenpeace International. But when it came time to leave Amsterdam and buy my own laptop, there was no question I would get a Mac with all my minuscule savings.

It traveled to the Amazon with me, deep into the jungle and the Deni lands. Served me faithfully even if it was no longer so pristine and white after a few weeks in the jungle. Occasionally I saw tiny little insects crawling in and out of my keyboard – it was becoming one with the Amazon.

Then last week as I was updating my ipod, it froze up. All efforts to revive it failed. I called Apple Brazil and they said send it for repair. In the Amazon, yeah right.

But I managed to get it out of the Amazon with a friend going on vacation. I just talked to the repair shop, the hard drive is f**ked. No data recovery possible. They’re sending it back to Apple to have the hard drive replaced. Nooooo, not my 17 GB music collection! Oh yeah and all that work stuff and programs. Yes, I had not backed up since I got it less than four months ago. And my music CDs? In storage far from here in on the east coast of Canada.

So what exactly was the problem? Had those tiny insects started nesting in my hard drive? Fungus growing on my connections from the heat and humidity? Is it possible that when Apple opens it up they will find a unique Amazon ecosystem growing in my laptop? Does it then need to be declared a protected space?

Well, you better believe if I ever get my ibook back in one piece that any insect that comes within a foot of my laptop will be quashed, my nature loving side has limits.