The Present

 

What do you get for the man who's got pretty much everything he really wants? That's the problem the Missus faces every year around the time of my birthday yet she always manages to find something I didn't know I wanted but which it turns out I needed. This year has been no exception - indeed, a particular triumph in this regard.

My birthday took place a few months back, of course, at the time of the lockdown going into operation. Noi mentioned to me then that she intended to get some ear-phones for me, some posh ones with what I think is referred to as 'bluetooth'. The idea sounded okay, but I wasn't exactly raving with excitement. Fast forward to yesterday, and now we're a bit freer to move around she pops out and purchases what she had in mind, presenting to me the earphones in the afternoon.

It turns out I had to charge them first (who knew?) so I didn't actually don them until today, when I discovered what I'd been missing in terms of clarity of sound and glorious mobility. The symphonies of Malcolm Arnold have never sounded better - as you can tell from the pictorial evidence above, in which I am listening to the eminently depressing 7th Symphony and reacting as you might expect me to.

In contrast, the pic below suggests something of the delight I feel as the proud possessor of the more than splendid earphones in question: