Caliban – Opinion and Righteous Anger

I drove the car down to the Audi garage yesterday to find out how much the repair of the back bumper is going to cost us. It’s not cheap, as the entire bumper has to be replaced. Not only that, but the side panels have to be resprayed, too, to ensure the proper matching of the pearl-effect paint.

That was a costly manoeuvre, reversing into that tree like that. I’ll have to pay for it out of my own pocket, of course, so as not to adversely affect my no-claims bonus. Since it was entirely my fault, I don’t feel too bad about it. After all, any accident whereby all the car’s occupants emerge unscathed is a good accident in my book. Anyway, the car is booked in for 14th August.

Speaking of the car, I used the driving opportunity to try out the new FM transmitter and charger that I had Mike, my father-in-law, send over from the US. It’s for use in combination with my recently purchased iAudio X5, and I have to say that it’s beyond me why Cowon don’t sell this product in The Netherlands. Perhaps it has something to do with radio broadcasting regulations.

Anyway, it’s great. I now have Rockbox in the car, and a single cord both charges the X5 and powers the FM transmitter. I set the transmitter to broadcast its signal on 107.3 Mhz, tuned to that frequency on the car’s radio, and then saved a voice tag in the car’s voice control system. Now, all I have to do when I get into the car and want to listen to the jukebox is turn it on, hit the voice control button on the steering wheel and say, “Radio”, followed by, “Play iAudio”. The wonders of modern technology.

If only the voice control system could be patched into the X5, allowing me to vocally select the artist and album. Now, that would be cool!

The sound quality’s not bad, but you can certainly tell that it’s FM, not anything close to CD quality. One has to be careful with the X5’s volume level, too, as the FM transmitter is optimised for a certain sound level and distortion can be heard if one overdrives it.

Thanks, Mike, for resending that unit. I just wish we’d had it for our two month tour of Central Europe. As it was, we had to make do with a pile of CDs (many of which we never actually loaded into the changer) and local radio stations. Actually, that was absolutely fine, as most of the time, the CD playing was Eloïse’s baby songs by Karin Bloemen. It has an amazing ability to pacify tiny tearaways (ours, anyway).

On a different subject, some furniture arrived yesterday afternoon, namely a new couch, two cushions and a side-table. The sitting-room is looking nicer now. Our old $50 Palo Alto couch has moved up to the guest-room, so that Peter and Chantal will have somewhere to sit (apart from the bed) when they visit us in ten days’ time. We’re both eagerly anticipating that visit.

Our silver cutlery was delivered after dinner yesterday and it looks beautiful. As with any such item, it’s hard to bring oneself to actually start using it and inflict the first scratches upon it. Our first family heirloom is now a reality. Now I have to remember to get the stuff insured. We also have to figure out where to place the chest of drawers that accommodate it.

This morning, the two armchairs for the sitting-room were delivered. The main work is now done in that room, although we still need a sideboard of some kind, plus glass-topped table for the centre of the room. We also need to make it look lived-in by hanging up art and other decorations. At the moment, things still look rather sterile in there. Unfortunately, one of the of the armchairs has some minor damage, which doubtless occurred during transit, so that will have to be replaced.

We had a sun protection shop come around this morning, too. They are going to fit some pull-down and pull-across net blinds on our kitchen and living-room doors, so that we can leave them open all day without fear that Eloïse will wander outside and fall down the steps. We should have those a couple of weeks from now.

After that, a handyman came around to look at doing some odd jobs for us, including an element of baby-proofing the house. One wonders if a house can even be Eloïse-proofed. We shall see.

And lastly, our cleaner is here, helping us (which means, of course, doing it instead of us) clean our house, which is rather dusty after a two month absence. By the end of the afternoon, the place is going to be ship-shape and Bristol-fashion once again.