Favourite toy

The iPod was my first encounter with Apple. It was a Christmas present a few years ago, and I must have spent the next few weeks downloading so many songs and uploading a whole bundle of my CDs. As someone who had a Sony Walkman back in the day and used it extensively in travels and student commutes, I was pretty pleased with this new toy. I'm not really a gadget geek, but for this I'd make an exception.

And then, having exhausted my music collection, it was on to tv programmes, movies, music videos. I was that guy watching something on my iPod and guffawing loudly and annoying fellow train passengers, or missing my stop because I was watching Rescue Me, downloaded to my iPod after it was dumped by UK tv.

The purchase of an iPhone made my iPod somewhat redundant for a couple of years until I rediscovered it a week ago. It's now opened up a whole forgotten bundle of music - the stuff I was particularly into when the pod was in its prime. And I really should watch Rescue Me again - as edgy and hard-hitting a tv programme you'll ever see.

Subbuteo was my real favourite toy when I was a kid - mainly because this isn't really the forum to say my favourite was an Action Man. But the gripping hands and the flick to kick have nothing on my little pod. Actually I do miss Subbuteo, but the iPod maybe edges it.