Unlike my mate who has his own secret bingo den kitted out with weird and wonderful esoteric paraphernalia and has a one-track mind, I have a friend called Noelle who is without a shred of a doubting Thomas, one of the best multi-taskers I have ever come across.  At work, she was a trainer and could hold two or three conversations at the same time, all the while writing up on the flip chart!

She lives in leafy Wokingham, Surrey and she showed me her Office cum Contact Room in her bungalow. Wow. Not only did she have the biggest (IKEA) desk I have ever seen, but it had no fewer than three computers on it, plus a large dvd/blue-ray TV screen, plus a couple of large mobile phones. She has one PC with one of those double-sized split screens, so you can have two applications running at the same time and see both clearly, plus a "spare" PC for "low-grade e-mail traffic" and a lap-top.

I demanded to see the whole operation, including her secret passion, online Bingo. Sure enough, within about four minutes she was:

*    Conversing with someone on Facebook
*    Watching a YouTube video
*    Playing online Bingo and engaging in chat in the chat room, and
*    Playing Civilization 4 online.

Oh, and did I mention that all the time, the TV was on, and every now and then Noelle was commenting on the News??

She said she liked online Bingo because it didn't require a great deal of application, but she could still experience the thrill of Bingo, while doing her work (she's a consultant), and also dabbling in and around social networks. She claimed to me that she is a left-side of brain person (whatever that means) and that allows her to do this chameleon-like zipping from one application to another.

She told me that she wouldn't dream of going to a real Bingo Hall, and that's when I realised she's, well, a bit of a snob. Sort of an intellectual Hyacinth Bucket. "Why not got to real Bingo?" I asked... "Oh my dear, the noise, the smell and the people..no no no!". As I said, a total snob!!

But I was intrigued that someone, whose brain appears to be a higher plane much of the time, still likes Bingo. In conversation (over a glass of claret, what else!!) she told me that she just loved the simplicity of it, and the thrill that no matter what she might try to do to influence proceedings, it was all total luck and chance. In other words, she could relax, knowing that there was nothing she could do except sit back, relax, and see if her numbers came up.

Bingo, folks... it takes all sorts as you can see!