In which your author demonstrates her consumerist, materialist attitudes:

in the previous summer, when my previous .mp3 player (an iPod) went belly-up in the middle of an exam period, we thrashed around with a couple solutions before settling on a Shuffle player. We first tried a Sandisk, which wasn't quite up to the heavy start-stop-rewind that I have to do with a lot of my language sound files, while the Shuffle seems to do a lot better. Its lacks - no way to tell which number you're playing, for instance - can actually become lemonade, as I have to use my ears more attentively, and discern that way which track I might be on.

For a longish time, the Sandisk sat unloved in a drawer. Until this morning.

I've powered it up (goodness knows how well the battery's going to take this) and loading it up with bunches of songs. For which, of course, one does not need the repetitive stoprewindstart action of my language studies.

I'm rationalizing, that this is perfectly okay. Of course, it's two .mp3 players. *wince*

We've run away to The Netherlands - the original plan was to attend a concert tomorrow. But time I got sick, that same weekend Mr Sweetie had planned to be in The Netherlands.

However, he found himself stuck cleaning up after I'd been sick; he decided it was safer to remain at home, in case he also picked up this bug. The trains are comfortable, but not to the extent that you want to be sick on one in preference to home.

This trip, and my company on it, is the consolation prize.