As anyone who’s ever bought an engagement ring or dated a high-maintenance midget will tell you, little things can cost a great deal.

Last night the cat yanked the U and I keys off my laptop. Of the two, only the U key won’t go back in properly – turns out the wee mechanism underneath (pictured right, not to scale) is broken in the most tiny, delicate and unreasonable of ways. You see the little right-angled legs at the top? That isn’t a photo of mine, on mine one of the legs is broken, just one tiny little sub-millimetre protrusion is no longer where it ought be, meaning I have had to finger a little plastic nub in place of an actual key no fewer than 14 times so far while writing this post.

And a replacement? Three sodding pounds! It’s worth more per gram than most narcotics! No wonder laptops are so expensive: this keyboard alone comprises £240 worth of these little buggers, to say nothing of the keys themselves.

Rargh!