WHAT GADGETS ENHANCE YOUR LIFE?

[Karan]:  Where to start?!  The temptation to be smutty almost overwhelms me, but I shall remain pure of thought and heart for the purposes of this blog post, mostly because my Grannie might be reading this!

I got to thinking the other day about the who-haa created when CDs first came onto the market, and people were told they could smear jam over their discs and that they would still play.  No, I never did fall for this because, in my experience, CDs and latterly DVD's, are precious little darlings that require a kind word and lots of hugs before they'll release the goodies!  I do remember marvelling at the non-scratchy sounds and wondering how technology could ever improve on this perfection.  I always longed for the day when spending 16 weeks making a mixed tape were long gone, and that we could compile our own mixed CDs for the car etc.  For those of you reading this too young to remember cassette tapes, shut up and go to your room!

As soon as I became sufficiently computer literate and the software widely available, I was away burning my CDs all over the place.  I even had a 10 disc player for the car, which would randomise the tracks for me - bliss!  NOW how could technology improve on this?!

And then along came the Apple iPod, and my dreams were answered.  No more walking around with a gigantic CD Walkman strapped to your back, or pulled behind you in a trailer - this little beauty could be strapped to your arm whilst you jogged!  As an avid marathon runner and keep fit fanatic [cough], this meant no skipping or jumping of tracks, as I skipped and jumped to the chocolate shop!  I really do wonder how I lived without an iPod, they're amazing and I love mine deeply.

So what other gadgets and gizmo's would render my life worthless and meaningless if they were to ever be de-invented?  Well, I rather love my Nintendo DS, although Professor Layton almost drove me to distraction and back again with his lame back story - just give me the puzzles dammit!  We've gone a bit Mah Jong crazy at Dennis-Towers, and Ian and I have always been super-competitive, which leads to wild-eyed late night gamesmanship I can tell you.  We really should get out more.

I'm not sure how happy my lot would be without a computer or the Internet either.  What is there that can't be found online these days?  I even play online Scrabble occasionally, mostly because I have no friends who'll play it with me, and those friends with a vocabulary of 6 words or less are too easy to beat; it's just not sport.  I spent weeks trying to convince my (very well read and articulate) friend, Olga, to play online Scrabble with me, and within a couple of moves I triple, triple worded her and scored 268 points!  It was all luck and absolutely no judgement on my part, but Olga now just emits a very low deep growl when I mention playing again.  Not so much with the Scrabble for me any more [sigh].

As far as the kitchen is concerned I love - LOVE! - dishwashers and washing machines.  As a family of four I would literally spend my life washing up, or washing clothes.  Either way, my hands would end up as wrinkly masses of flaky arm ends - too horrible to contemplate.  And God bless the inventor of the smoke detector, for not only saving millions of lives every year from smoke inhalation or worse, but for the invaluable service they provide me with each and every meal time, by informing me when dinner is ready!

I love air conditioning, particularly in cars, as a heatwave + small children + long car journey = babbling parents being taken away in a fetching jacket that does up at the back!  Ian and I are also new converts to the sexiness of our Blackberrys.  Everyone urged us to have iPhones, and I have to admit they are gorgeous, innovative and playful, but we thought the touch screens may prove too precious in our line of work, so we opted for the Blackberry Bold, and we love them; a little more than is necessary in polite society!

My clean list could go on a while, and my not-so-clean list could go on indefinately, but what about you?  What everyday gadgets and gizmo's render your life worth living and meaningful? I'm intrigued and dying to know....