I've been talking to strangers again, but this time I don't think I've been conned.
I was sat in Costa Coffee at Scotch Corner services earlier today doing a bit of work on the Eee PC and posting a few things on here.
A woman wanders across and asks if I've managed to connect to the service area's free broadband service, because she's struggling.
I have, so bring your laptop over, I say, and I'll have a look.
It was a fairly old 11 or 12 inch Sony Vaio running XP and it didn't seem to want to connect to the free service.
So I ask what she wants to do on the internet, thinking she could borrow the Eee PC for a quick surf or to send an email.
"I want to check if some money's come into my bank account," she says.
Mmm, not sure if it's wise for her to do banking on my machine, so I suggest I plug my dongle into her laptop.
Good old Vodafone fires up after a bit of USB device recognising and software downloading.
Her husband and child appear, and tell me they are waiting for a bank transfer which is 'a lot of money to us'.
She gets out the little calculator thing Barclays give online customers to generate passwords, and after some keypad and keyboard bashing, broad smiles all round, the money's in.
Husband offers to buy me a coffee for my trouble, she offers to pay for the data use.
I accept the first offer, decline the second, and they depart thanking me as they go.
A pleasant encounter all round, thanks to my little Eee PC and dongle.
And unlike that bloke I stopped for a few weeks ago, I think these people were genuine.
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