SOME things are invented that really change your life.

Three stand out for me personally.

1. Boots face wipes.

This 80s revolution in being able to ‘wash your face when you’re too tired/lazy to pour hot water into a sink’ meant I have never slept in my make-up since.

2. Sky Plus.

Enables you to watch the latest Corrie in ‘you time’ rather than ‘real time’ which also means ‘half the time’ as you can skip the ads.

3. The iPhone.

Wow – where to begin? The world at your fingertips!

But have these things changed my life for the better?

I started thinking about this on Friday while sat on a Virgin train to London and realised the first thing I did was key in the wifi code on my iPad.

If, like me, you spend most of your working day in front of a computer, the sensible thing would be to give your eyes and brain a rest from looking at a screen when you can.

But if I'm queuing for a sandwich at lunchtime I find I'm looking at the Internet, Facebook or Twitter on my iPhone without even thinking about it.

And I'm usually only home from work 10 minutes before the iPad is switched on and personal emails etc are perused.

Despite having a ridiculous amount of cookbooks in the house it’s UKTV Food via my iPad where I get my recipes from.

And family photos around the home are at least five years old because I never use my camera anymore - why would I when Apple makes it so much easier! The quality’s not as good and you can’t display it in a frame on the mantelpiece mind, but that’s a small price to pay isn’t it?

My Canadian cousin came to visit me earlier this month and after the hugs and kisses, ‘can I have a cup of tea?’ was swiftly followed by ‘do you have wireless?’ (That’s wireless as in Internet access, not a transistor radio, for the uninitiated).

Whether it’s news, music, maps, photos, social media, books, games... and not forgetting phone, text and emails, millions of us are fixated in burying our heads in some form of hand held gadget surfing the world wide web while the real world goes on all around us.

Yes, Apple has created some fantastic, life-changing tablets.

But I think the future has got to be moderation.

And on that note, I’m going to end these musings, relax and look out of the window and take a moment to enjoy the wonderful scenery that is the great British countryside.

Sent from my iPad (via complementary wifi on a Virgin train to London