Does anyone use an iPod any more? Nowadays it seems people have their “playlist” downloaded onto their phone. Some broadcast their music for all and sundry to share with them as they are out and about, like the four Boris Johnson lookalikes we saw strolling round the village last Saturday. My daughter has several on her phone: her own preferences, the stuff her five year old likes to listen to (they start young!), nursery rhymes for the two year old and so on. Her phone connects wirelessly to the sound system in her car and she can select, or instruct me or whoever else is in the front passenger seat to select the appropriate playlist for the journey. There’s even a set of children’s stories for longer listening.
Now, we have an ancient gadget, a precursor of the iPod, quite a hefty little thing, similar in size to an iPhone but heavier. A Zen Creative - that’s its name - it has travelled with us for many a year and, connected to speakers, was our principle source of music in our flat in Spain. As well as large amounts of our favourite music, it has recordings of the Michel Thomas Spanish CDs, from many years ago when Phil felt the need to revive his Spanish. Set to “random” the Zen plays unplanned selections of recording, occasionally in between songs by Leonard Cohen and pieces by Delius throwing up Michel Thomas explaining the vagaries of the Spanish language in his own inimitable fashion!
Some years ago I acquired an iPod mini, a very pleasing little gadget, a small square device, each side just over an inch in length, with headphones and a little usb connector to charge its battery. I love miniature gadgets of this kind. I was inordinately pleased with it. And then I lost it … or rather, I mislaid it. The last time I remembered using it was on a bus from Vigo to Porto, listening to Bruce Springsteen as we made our way to the airport. At home I forgot about it until I wanted headphones to listen to something on my iPad (also mini, by the way, half the size of the standard iPad!). I went to fetch the headphones from where I thought I must have stored them. No sign of them or of the iPod. All I could find was the little charger! This was well before the pandemic and lockdown and travel difficulties.
I have a range of small rucksacks and other bags with organiser pockets, all on a variety of colours so that I can coordinate with what I am wearing. I looked in just about every bag I could possibly have used when last I saw the iPod. Nowhere! I have looked again on various occasions, all to no avail. I resigned myself to the fact that it was irretrievably lost, thinking I must have tried to stow it safely in the pocket of a bag and accidentally dropped it under the seat of the bus.
Yesterday, organising myself to accompany my granddaughter on her hospital appointment, I knew I would need some “entertainment” with me in case I had to sit around waiting. So I stuffed my kindle, my sudoku book, a notebook and so on into a smallish bag, colour coordinated with my outfit, of course. Going out again later, still needing my “entertainment” for the bus and tram into Manchester, I also wanted to add a fold-up shopping bag. The small bag was now altogether too stuffed! So I chose a replacement, a bag I had not used in years and years. It has a detachable shoulder strap and very ladylike handles in case you want to carry it in a ladylike fashion. There are special pockets to hide the ladylike straps if you so choose, and presumably the detachable shoulder strap. In one of these pockets I found … my missing iPod. Serendipity!
Another bit of good news from yesterday came in a post from Michael Rosen at about 9.00 last night:
“Breaking news:
Rwanda flight not left. ECHR has intervened”.
I went and checked from other sources!
Tue 14 Jun 2022 19.28 BST
Last modified on Tue 14 Jun 2022 21.00 BST
“The European court of human has made a dramatic 11th-hour intervention into the government’s controversial plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda that could ground the inaugural flight to the east African nation.
Lawyers for one of the asylum seekers due to fly this evening have made a successful emergency application to the ECHR after exhausting applications to UK courts.”
Of course, this may be just a temporary stop. Priti Patel “remains committed” to sending asylum seekers to Rwanda and wants to start planning the next flight! Half a million pounds could be spent on something other than sending refugees thousands of miles away in a private jet. Next step: withdraw the UK from the ECHR?
Things seem to be unravelling. We have a food crisis. People are having difficulty managing their everyday life. The EU plans legal action against the UK changing the Northern Ireland protocol. Railway workers plan to go on strike.
And research shows that many people avoid reading or listening to the news because it is all too depressing!
And according to this article, if Mr Johnson is forced out, he will be fine as he can go back to journalism, even if it doesn’t pay as well as he would like, and get onto the public speaking circuit! There seems to be a fundamental unfairness in the world.
Hey! Ho!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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