After playing with a friend’s iPod nano, I was bowled over – such a great user interface! So I got a blue one for myself a few weeks ago. What with all the leafleting, and the slaving over a hot printing machine, there’s plenty of time I get to use it.

Except… the first time I took it out leafleting, the thing froze up. Froze solid as the screen merged from one track to another.

It wasn’t till I got home and had access to Google that I figured out the key combination to reset it. (Press and hold middle and down)

Then last week, I started leafleting, plugged in my ears, found what I wanted to listen to… strained… and couldn’t hear it at all. Somehow, every track on the device was too quiet to hear.

I think iTunes had changed the volume on everything. Again, getting home, googling, found an answer (basically, go to iTunes, select everything, right-click, Get Info, and use the boost volume setting for every track you have) – but it was another leafleting session without access to my choonez.

Except, as you may already have guessed, I’m not actually listening to music. Mostly, it’s podcasts from the BBC. I started downloading them almost as soon as they were available, more to encourage them in a good thing rather than because I wanted to listen to them. Now I have hours worth of various programmes to help me on my way. This evening, whilst printing, I had two hours of From Our Own Correspondent. The Now Show has been an old favourite. The Today Programme 8am slot has kept me going for a few extra rounds.

Shame there’s so little comedy.