Buying a gadget

I love gadgets. New shiny things enthral me. I don’t care if it’s the latest Ipod or Laptop, Blu-ray player or Pampered Chef Apple Slicer, I love them all. The problem is that I get so caught up in sheer panic about making the right choice that I almost always wind up making the wrong one.
I blame my parents of course, they started it all, the love of seeing something new and magical sitting in the lounge and the ability to always wind up with the wrong version. I couldn’t believe it when I came home from School one day to discover a new machine sat under the T.V. Something I’d never even heard of was sat there. This metal coloured box was about to make a bigger impact on my life than anything I could imagine. I was absolutely mesmerised as the little cassette was slotted in and the “remote control” as I soon learned that it was called, was proudly stretched out on its cable to my Dad’s chair. I’d never even seen a remote control before, so that alone made my head spin with anticipation wondering what it would do. I no time at all there was David Essex getting on the fanciest motorbike I’d ever seen, and he could be stopped and rewound or forwarded – fantastic. It was one of the most exciting evenings of my life, but the next day my elation started to dwindle as my proud boasting about the playground uncovered the fact that not only did everyone else already have one, but also theirs had bigger cassettes in it because theirs weren’t Betamax!
Whilst my friends were listening to the orchestral sounds of Manic Minor loading onto their Spectrum, I was sitting in wonder and awe as my Dad connected up our brand new box that did a truly wondrous thing, it let you play a kind of stick version of football, or a stick version of squash, even a stick version of tennis was available and all in glorious colour; yet another fruitless boasting session at school for me. Many years have passed and now I feel ready to pass the baton over to my boys, because I’m every bit as bad as my Father, my boys will also undoubtedly feel the pleasure of being the kid with Roobok trainers or a Soony Walkboy. I just can’t bring myself to do it though, pay the over the odds prices for something when there is an identical version next to it for half the price, perhaps I’m just tight. The Internet has made my problem far worse than it ever was for Dad though, because now I can search the World for a cheaper version, rather than Newark Currys. Not for me the thrill of receiving a brand new Bose Sounddock at my door from Amazon, with it’s deep joyous sound quality - oh no. It took me minutes to click away from that and find another page on the store had a Boosey Sounddocker for a fraction of the price, my mouse moved so fast that before I knew it the doorbell was ringing – Amazon taking no chances that I’d change my mind. All in all I think I managed to do well, admittedly my Sounddocker doesn’t actually have a speaker as such, just a plug point for you to insert your own speakers, also it doesn’t actually let me watch the videos that I have on my Ipod either (yes an actual Ipod not an Ipood), as you are supposed to have a special Apple cable for that, but otherwise it works a treat at charging the battery. To watch the video I eventually cracked and went back on line to fork out the ridiculous £15.99 for a proper Apple video cable, right up until I noticed an Apfel video cable promising to do exactly the same thing for £2.99. I have to say I’m quite happy with it though, it only took 2 days to arrive and works a treat – as long as I disconnect my Boosey system altogether and just connect it straight into my Ipod.
It’s so odd to lust after a gadget so much but never be able to bring myself to buy the actual one that I want. I can spend months planning a purchase, nose glued to Currys window like I used to at Woolworths as a child, but at the very last click of the mouse I open my eyes to see an unbranded version of far inferior quality sat in my basket. I have a house full of nearly decent equipment that will almost deliver the amount of excitement as the real thing might have done. If I were to decide that I ‘needed’ a Sony Bravia HD T.V. I’d almost certainly wind up getting the latest Soony instead. The closest I’ve come to a WII is the fun little plug in golf game that Daniel was given for Christmas, but on the leader board of which he has never yet been able to get his name onto since his Mum and I had a tournament on it. It’s so embarrassing how competitive my wife is, I don’t think any of us are going to be able to wipe ‘MUM_IS_ACE’ from the top of that list for a long time.