I just find I cannot travel without my laptop any more, business or even holiday trips. I do all my e-mails through my office account to keep everything in one place so I sync back there to get all my messages, e-mail photos to people at home, etc.

Latest reason is my digital camera. When I first had it I downloaded daily when on holiday as I only had the basic 24-photo memory card. On my Concorde trip I downloaded in mid-flight! Now I find I am taking the laptop to do a slideshow of all my photos for the family, or to act as a backup in case the camera is lost.

Regarding electricity overseas, look at the plate on the back of your power supply, it should say somewhere something like "Input 100-240V 50-60Hz". This shows it can handle anything. Laptops are entirely driven by low voltage DC (they have to be to run off battery) so the power supply just converts it. It saves the manufacturer having to do separate power supplies for each market.

I love the knowledge of those high-paid consultants visiting from overseas, referred to above. One of them told me once that his laptop tended to overheat because the fan only ran at 5/6 speed, because the frequency in the UK was 50Hz, not 60Hz. Hmmm!