After 12 days in the Apple repair shop, I finally have my Macbook back. I have to say that the staff were really lovely, and they took very good care of both me and my Macbook.

The problem was that my screen flickered, but of course when I took it to the Genius Bar, it refused to replicate the problem, probably because the first guy to 'look' at it didn't, instead carrying out a somethingorother reset which temporarily fixed it so that it then wouldn't replicate.

The guy who took over from him did a really thorough exam of my machine and added a few extra things to the list of repairs, which ended up including:

• new inverter board and cable
• new top case housing, keyboard and trackpad (old one was discoloured)
• new display bezel (also discoloured)
• new power adaptor (old one had shorted out)

I have to say, my Macbook looks like new, and has totally stopped flickering, so I am a happy bunny.

The one thing that does still bug me is that the battery life is so dreadful. When fully charged, I get just 2.5 hours out of it, if I'm lucky. It seems to take forever to charge, so that the length of time left until fully charged sometimes actually increases - even though I am plugged in - if I am also working on it. But it is still a lovely machine to use, and I wouldn't swap it for anything. Well, apart from a new LED-lit one!