After spending 40 years working as a post office engineer, John Newman thought he had a good grip on electronics and new technology.

And the 98-year-old is proving that you are never too old to learn new skills after picking up a laptop for the first time.

The pensioner is joining dozens of residents in Harleston to learn to use computers after their sheltered housing scheme received lottery funding.

Mr Newman, who has lived in Mendham Close for the last 11 years, is the oldest resident to sign up to the course and said he hoped to join the world wide web in the near future.

Mr Newman, who turns 99 later this month, said he had never considered using a computer before until residents secured �10,000 of Awards for All lottery funding to buy eight laptops and �3,450 from the Norfolk Community Foundation Grassroots Fund for their tuition.

'It is fair to say I hoped I would be able to master these things if I could master general electrical apparatus before. I thought it would be quite easy with a computer, but it is exactly the opposite.'

Fellow resident Mignon Wheeler, 78, added that she had discovered computer gaming and hoped to buy a Nintendo Wii.