Gadget Queen on holidays

As my holiday draws to a close (classes for the new year commence next week) I am making the most of my last couple of days of freedom.

Yesterday, I wombled into Carlton, where I went to a movie at the Nova. The Jane Austen Book Club was a classic chick-flick, and as I settled into my seat, clutching the very last Bailey's Irish Cream flavoured choc-top ice cream (it was indeed my lucky day!) I was ready for a light and fluffy, feel-good movie. I was not disappointed.

After the film, I also had a wander through Borders and chanced upon the latest offering from Kerry Greenwood in her Corinna Chapman series, called Trick or Treat, and so of course snapped it up. Kerry is best known for her 1920s Phryne Fisher murder mystery series, but I personally prefer her Corinna Chapman books (Corinna is a modern day baker of fine breads, and sometime sleuth, based in Melbourne). As I was discussing this with the shop assistant in Borders who served me, she made the comment that "Phryne is who she [Kerry] would like to be, but Corinna is who she really is". (That was deep; I think we had our own private version of the Jane Austen Book Club happening, only with a more local flavour)

I also enjoy reading Kerry's books because (WARNING: Shameless namedropping alert!) I know Kerry and her partner, David the wizard; and many of her characters are based to some degree on people in her circle of friends, and it's kind of fun to recognise various people (as I did today when reading her latest book... she didn't even bother to change the names of the recently-married SJ and her husband Michael-the-musician).

But, all this aside (and I have been enjoying some luxurious hours reading the book yesterday and today), my most exciting new acquisition occurred today, when I ventured forth to K-Mart and bought myself an iPod shuffle. (and of course, I went for the purple one... appropriately liturgical, as we are currently in the season of Lent)

Now this may sound a bit extravagant, but let me explain... I found myself in possession of a number of Coles-Myer gift cards (a couple redeemed from Flybuys and another similar rewards program, and one given to me as a birthday gift), and after doing some research that showed the usual price of 1GB iPod shuffles (the cheapest of the various iPod options) to be somehwere between $95-100, and so with my gift cards, I would have ended up paying about $10 for the gadget... However, when I went into KMart (with some fear and trepidation, as I have not had good experiences of service in the tech department there in the past) I discovered that the shuffles were on special for only $64... I couldn't believe my luck!

So, being the true consumer that I am... I ended up buying the iPod, and a rather nice top (also reduced 20% this week!) and paid a princely sum of $2 cash over and above the value of my gift cards... so I am feeling rather smug, and pleased with the results of my retail therapy for this week.

(and of course, the reason why I am posting this blog entry so late is because I spent most of the evening fiddling around downloading iTunes to my computer, and loading a whole pile of music onto the iPod.)

One of the interesting (and only slightly disconcerting) features of the iPod Shuffle is that you can set it to play tracks in a random order (obvious from the name "Shuffle", really), so as I type this, I have listened to a series of tracks from Handel's Messiah, The Idea of North, Carmina Burana, James Blunt, Brahms' German Requiem and Tommy Emmanuel, just to name a few... (and I just had a rather surreal moment, hearing the recitative from Messiah: "There were shepherds abiding in the field ... and suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying..." "Billy's leaving today...." (first line of James Blunt The Prodigal Son)... and I bet you thought the angels were going to say "Glory to God!" :-)

Hmm... I can certainly understand why people get addicted to these things, the sound quality is quite good, and who would ever have thought that 17+ hours of music could fit into such a tiny item (honestly, it's about the size of a large postage stamp, and clips onto your clothes). But I think I might turn the shuffle feature off... after all, I am a creature of habit, and am not keen on the unknown... I like to know what's coming up next :-)