Recordings from the Past.

While meandering through ALDI this week, I found this little Christmas miracle.

What is it? I hear you ask.

Well, if you are older than 21 you will recognise the turntable element. What you cannot see is the cassette tape element on the side.  Which means it can turn these:

and these:

into these:

It also has an SD slot on the front for an SD card (doh), a slot for a USB port, an auxiliary input, an auxiliary output, and an AM/FM radio. Which means  recordings can be made from just about anything including sound grabs.

And the price of this wonderful little gadget?

$49.95.

Yep. Under fifty buckeroos.

It has built in speakers and connects, powers up and runs simply by plugging into a power supply. Whack on your old vinyl (33, 45 and even 78s!), your old cassette tape or tune in a radio broadcast and record straight to MP3.You can then tweak the quality or format using whatever audio software you like, burn it into CDs – or just play it as it is.

Guess what we will be doing over the Christmas break :)

RIP Phinnie

The last rites of Phineus J (‘Jaws’) Fish were held at 15 minutes past midnight.

Phinnie, the beautiful purple Siamese fish who tried to see if life was greener on the other side of the tank, was found crispy beside the breakfast bar at 2.30 yesterday afternoon. When deposited in water, he made a miraculous flip flop and fought a hard battle, however succumbed late into the night.

A flushing has taken place in his honour.

Wearing Dead People

So, this week has been a frantic jumble of gift buying, wrapping, card writing and baking.  The food gifts are all done, including the decadent dulce de leche brownies, gourmet rocky road and much requested lime coconut truffles. The stockings are hung by the chimney with care (OK, pinned to the windowsill) and there are mysterious objects lurking under the pinus plasticus. There may even be one for me.

A little tradition that TFM and I have is that during the first week of the holidays, we hit the clothing stores and I update his wardrobe with a few essential items for the summer. Usually new jeans, shorts and a few good T’s.

When he was smaller and younger, Big W and Target would cut it, these days it’s JayJays and surf shops.

And I don’t mind surfing (haha, see what I did there?) through the sizes, shapes and colours to help him choose appropriate clothes that meet the mother stamp of approval, but I have to ask the designers of kid’s clothing:

WTF is with skulls?  Why???  WHY???

What is it that compels designers to think that people want to wear dead people on clothing? And why are they so popular?

Why not add some rotting corpses to the mix? Or some amputated limbs? Not for you? Perhaps I can interest you in a print of a gleamingly polished clavicle to go with your skull?

The whole skull thing has just gotten out of control. It was much easier to avoid when he was younger. There were cutsie options, or funny little comics.As he grew older  there were stripes, plain colours and other choices. But at 14… very limited options.

These days, even classy looking jeans have a dead man’s head on the button.

And it’s not just limited to teen clothes, I know. I saw this in my google search:

Oh yes. Nothing says ‘take me home and romance me‘ quite like wearing dead people’s heads on your sexy bits.  I love looking at empty eye sockets and fantasising about George Clooney. Oh yes.

What’s your opinion on wearing dead people? Fan? Or no?

BUPA – Finding a Better You

There’s an ad on TV here in QLD that really affects me. You may have seen it – the BUPA ad known as “Finding a Healthier You”.

The marketing strategy in this ad hits me right where it’s supposed to. I WANT to be the other me.

I WANT to find that girl.

It makes me want to hug the seekers, hold their hand and join them on their quest.

If it was a movie, I’d watch it.

In fact, I want to see chapters 2, 3 and 4 so I can follow their life stories.

So successful is this ad for me, that I even tear up and have a wee sniffle.

If you haven’t seen the ad, here it is.

Does it affect you?

The Nativity – Social Media Edition

Whether you are all “Ho, ho, ho” or “Bah humbug” if you use social media you will love this. Enjoy. x