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I'm afraid there's no proper blog entry today, so I'll have to break my promise to tell you more about my strange dreams. I was trying to finish off a post, but, for some reason, I was finding it incredibly difficult. Anyway, the writing then lead of onto an unexpected tangent and I've ended up typing reams of stuff about something totally unrelated. Unfortunately, it's a bit of a mess at the moment, which is why I'm not publishing it tonight. Once I've knocked it all in to shape I'll stick it on the blog for your reading pleasure. Rest assured though, I'll definitely be back with something after the weekend.

The next couple of days are going to be pretty hectic for me, which is why I won't have time to post anything until Sunday at the earliest. Tomorrow (Friday), I'm off to Eastbourne for a friend’s birthday. I'll be staying over for the night and then, rushing straight back home the next day. From there I'll be meeting up with a whole bunch of friends for a night of yet more drinking. Actually, I may not post on Sunday after all since there's a very real possibility that, by that time, I'll be dead.

I'm determined not to let this blog die, so I do intend to keep posting regularly, every day if I can, mortality permitting.

I'll give you a little update on the highlights of my boring arse life before I go.

The replacement iPod remote I ordered came through. That didn't work either, so I've sent it back for a refund. It looks like there's definitely some sort of compatibility issue with the iPod Touch, something that was confirmed by the message I got from the original seller. Maybe I’m not cursed after all.

Unfortunately, that discovery left me with only one option. If I wanted to have control over my iPod whilst it resided safely in my pocket, I'd have to buy something more expensive. One short trip to the Watford Branch of HMV and £29.99 later and I was the proud owner of a Gear4 Blueye.

The Blueye does seem pretty good. It has an FM radio and bluetooth connectivity, effectively allowing you to use your ipod as a bluetooth headset for you phone. I'll probably never use the radio (on the iPod Touch there's no on screen indication of what station your listening to), though I may, at some point, make use of the bluetooth headset functionality. I've missed a hell of a lot of phone calls because I've been listening to my iPod whilst I've been walking down the street, an act which, in itself, tends to negate the phones vibration alert. With this, the phone call is channelled through to my iPod headphones, the music stops and I can talk to whoever is on the other end of the line via the remote's built in microphone. In other words, it works exactly like any other bluetooth headset.

It's all very nice, of course, but I cant help thinking that I would have rather stuck with spending only £3.99 for basic remote functionality, which was, after all, the only thing I really needed.

On the plus side, last night I managed to win the auction (though there was no other competition) for the laptop bag I wanted. It's made by a company called Crumpler who seem to give all their bags the most bizarre name. The particular bag I won is a vertical messenger bag called the "Crippy Duck". It's pretty big, and it should be large enough to hold a 17" laptop, which will come in handy because it'll hold the 16.4" Sony laptop that I may pick up once I finally get fed up with my trusty Samsung X15. However, the most important thing is that it should be large enough to act as a carry on bag for when I go away next year. I intend to stick another, smaller messenger bag inside of that (I've currently got my eye on an auction for another Crumpler bag, The Ed McBain's Lovechild) containing all my electronic goodies. That I'll use as my day bag for when I'm walking around seeing the sites or hanging out in cafes and bars.

Just in case you're interested my Crippy Duck cost £13.99 and comes in a fetching combo of navy blue and silver. The seller posted the bag the day after the auction finished, so hopefully I should be taking delivery of it within the next couple of days.

Well, that ended up being quite a long post after all that. It wasn’t particularly interesting, but at least it was something.