I've been on a crazy spending spree lately, and it's not like I'm rich or anything. I did get £85 cashback on my mobile phone contract but that was kind of accounted for - not now though. Never mind, I got some real bargains and I can absorb the cost provided I'm careful from now on.



First of all, I got a 6" desk fan from Currys. I'm glad it's still warm and stuffy so at least I get to use it before next summer. I often thought about getting one but always decided the weather would change as soon as I did and I wouldn't get to use it. It ain't bad and was only £7 delivered to the door. The only concession to cheapness is that the controls are on the back of the fan actually on the motor, rather than having buttons and wires routed through the base but that's a small price to pay for such a... small price. I've got it on now and it's luvly.

Then I got (another) mp3 player. I've already got loads of cheap mp3 players which I bought just because they were quirky and retro and obsolete and hated to see them go unappreciated. Fortunately they cost very little. A few weeks ago I got this great little thing called the Pontis SP600 which has two card slots and even plays games like tetris and breakout etc on the little LCD screen.



There seem to be a lot of enthusiastic users on the net from when it came out a few years back (was quite expensive then I think, over £100). I got it brand new boxed for £3 - yay!

Anyway, my latest purchase is an 8gb mp3 player from Play.com.



I haven't actually received it yet but looking forward to it. It's only a very basic no frills player which takes one AAA battery but the capacity is amazing so it's going to be like a jukebox with loads of similar stuff on it and set to play randomly. More like a radio station than a jukebox then I guess. I hope it has a shuffle feature! If not, I'm sure I'll find another use for it...

It doesn't end there. I also bought a new digital camera. I don't really need one right now as I rarely go anywhere that warrants taking pictures though I daresay it will encourage me to think a bit more creatively now. My old camera was a MASSIVE 1.3 megapixels and cost a lot of money - but I was an early adopter. It's still good for taking photos to put online, ebay etc as it takes very clear photos unlike a lot of camera-phones. It's just no good for prints (unless they're passport size of course). Anyway I got a great deal on a Samsung Camera. I was drawn to it initially because of it's retro styling but when I saw it was 8 megapixels and 5x optical zoom for £58 to your door I couldn't resist. I notice it's still listed on Amazon for £299 and has pretty good reviews on the net. It's also packed with features so you can use it as a point and shoot or use all the technical SLR-type settings. I may have to learn a bit about what they all mean.... I've had a play with it and the results are amazingly clear and sharp.



Finally, I've always wanted an aquarium but never had the money or space. Now I have the space and I managed to get one for free. There's a guest house ten minutes walk from here and on my way back from the shops I saw a slightly (but superficially) grubby aquarium with it's stand relegated to the end of the drive for someone to take away. (It had a few bits of neon pink gravel left in the bottom - I can just picture the guests in the dining room tucking into their full english breakfast with that tasteless thing glugging away in the corner). I had to take my shopping home first but hurried back before it was gone then lugged it home, bruising myself badly in the process and exhausting myself for 2days afterwards but hopefully it will have been worth the pain. My housemate said to me "what are you going to do with it?" so I said "er, put fish in it?". If I was quicker and more facetious I could probably have come up with something funnier. Anyway he says I need to get permission as we're not allowed pets here. I always took that to mean cats and dogs who could scratch the furnishings and leave crap and fur on the carpet. I don't think fish are going to jump out and leave their smelly scales everywhere and nibble on the sofa cushions. I will get permission anyway which shouldn't be too hard considering I met the landlady last week and she's very sweet and friendly. I can't decide to go for the low maintenance option of drab, cold water fish or the more demanding exotic tropical fish. Considering it has a light and filter to run it may as well have a heater as well. I wonder if there's somewhere online you can get cheap clownfish posted to you in a jiffybag....