"My First iPod. By deckchair guru"

My beautiful girlfriend has bought me the best present ever – an iPod. The past six months I’d been increasingly keen to have one, if only to block out the Mouth Noise Brigade (you know, the sniffers, lipsmackers and loud eaters) that seem to be all over Melbourne’s Public Transport network .

My birthday was quite recently and the girl went all out and got me what I’d been ogling. It’s been quite easy to get the hang of and now I don’t know how I managed to live without it.

One thing I’ve fallen in love with is podcasting. I stumbled across “Bobcasts“, a regular two minute or so spiel from the inimitably charismatic Greens Leader, Bob Brown. A quick two minute sermon every few days never hurt anyone, and the delighfully charming musical introduction (straight from ‘Bush Sound Effects for Beginners’) makes it all the more worthwhile.

But without a doubt, my greatest ever accidental discovery in the past five days has been The Ricky Gervais Show (David Brent, from The Office). This weekly half hour is a hoot. I downloaded several episodes (all free) and have laughed myself silly. I actually had to turn it off last night on the train on the way home because I was literally laughing out loud – which seeing as no one could hear what I was listening to was funny in itself. Karl Pilkington, even if he is a character, has to be the ‘daftest geezer’ and the show is absolutely top notch. Do yourself a favour and check it out.

Just on podcasting, don’t get too excited; the deckchair guru doesn’t have the most radio-friendly vocal chords, so I shan’t be jumping into it anytime soon myself. I don’t know why, but my voice sounds shithouse on recordings, always has.