iPods: Revolutionary Technology or Same Ol' Same Ol'?

This is a question I've been forced to ask myself today. My iPod just recently celebrated it's first 1/12th birthday, and as such, in it's after birthday coming down period, it has picked up some nasty habits from it's playmates.

Not only have I experienced corruption of some of my files, but I am now having to endure the sobering experience of having to download all the files that are ok, and having to reformat my iPod to factory settings.

This has taken the sheen off my prized possession, bringing my consciousness crashing back down to Earth with the grim realisation that the iPod, like every other piece of technological junk that I have ever owned, is just that: junk. Ok, ok. It's not that bad, but it isn't that good either. It's certainly not worth deifying the damn thing, like some people do. Quite frankly, if it weren't for iTunes, the iPod wouldn't be that remarkable at all.

In saying all this, I still love my iPod; the way it's shuffle setting can read my thoughts and play good songs again and again without me having to skip a song on my list that I don't really feel like listening to.

I guess I'm glad that I was awoken to the cold, harsh reality that the iPod isn't the be all and end all of music technology, and far from it, at the beginning, when it only took 20 minutes to retrieve my piddly 3gb music library. Instead of the 3 hours it would have taken to download the data had it been full.

Now I have to reboot and spend the next hour or so adding my music to my work iTunes, making sure they're all ok, and then uploading them to my "as new" iPod. -sigh-

So much to tell.. so little bandwidth..

So we are well and truly back in Oz. After having a week off to readjust myself to a) the heat; and b) being broke. The house is in a shambles as both Madz and myself haven't been able to muster enough motivation to clean it top to bottom. As it was we did 8 loads of washing when we got back - this equates to 2 hours in the laundromatte utilising a grand total of 16 machines. This exercise also cost a gobsmacking $42!

So where to start telling you about our trip?

Let's go in reverse-chronological order. Nah, screw that, I'll just pick up from where I left off.

Friday, December 23
Today we shopped for Christmas Dinner. It cost us £10 each (split between 5 people), and we didn't get alot of high quality produce either (and we forgot some essentials ie. Pudding) but we got enough to make a decent meal. This shopping haul was done at Tesco, which is a massive supermarket chain that is like a Kmart, Coles and Liquorland all rolled into one. Tesco would become a highlight for Madz and Tsari who would cheer "Tesco!" and point furiously whenever they saw one. Being the biggest supermarket chain in England, you can imagine how often this happened ;)

I think today was also the day I bought my iPod Video 30gb. Due to the limited supply of iPod's in London, I ended up paying a premium price, but dammit it's worth it.

Saturday, December 24 (Christmas Eve)
I think this was the day we (consisting of James, Tsari, Madz and I) did a bus tour around London. This was great! We had awesome blue skies, so we were able to take plenty of great photos of all the major tourist attractions. We jumped on the bus at Tower Hill and travelled through the centre of London, passing such attractions as Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Pudding Lane (origin of the Great Fire of London in 1666 - there is nothing there now). We crossed several of the bridges over the Thames, giving us fantastic views of theLondon Eye, Big Ben and the British Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and the London Bridge.

We jumped off the bus at Buckingham Palace (the big house at the end of the road) and rummaged through the gift shop for about 15 minutes before heading over to the gates to take in the sight. It is "just" a massive house at the end of the road, but the craftsmanship is fantastic. From the various statues outside the gates, to the handles of the gates themselves, this place is pretty awe-inspiring. Not only are there two queens guards (Beefeaters) with automatic Colt rifles over their shoulders, but there are also soldiers on guard with MP5 sub-machine guns inside the palace compound. One of which followed us as we walked away after having taken a picture of him. He would have been standing about 20 metres away and he heard the shutter of Madz digital camera flicker as Tsari took a photo of him. Spooky.

We then jumped back on the bus and hurtled through the Park Lane and Mayfair districts and headed back towards Leicester Square where we intended to hunt down some lunch. Lo and behold, the bus stopped across from TGI Friday's, and us being us, we just couldn't resist. Roughly $68 later (for Madz and I) we were full and not overly impressed with the meal. It hit the spot, but was highly priced for what it was and didn't compare to TGI Friday's at the Jam Factory in Melbourne. Not by a long shot.

After "linner" (not quite lunch, not quite dinner) we did some quick shopping (which lead us to a lollie shop where we spent up big). After shopping for a little while, we said goodbye to James who was heading off to Sloane Square to spend Christmas Eve and Morning with his family. It was then home for us, where I can't remember what happened next. :P

In a few days, or later today, I'll blog about Christmas day and the 26th to the 31st of December.

Toodles!