The wife asked me for a Crosley record player for Christmas, AKA the record killer! Now, dear reader, I did pug my face. "Eew! Not one of those?" But the wife insisted I never said anything; ho hum. I also bought her a Peugeot car air freshener made out of metal with what looked like a glass vessel with the Peugeot logo.
Christmas Day, and the excited wife opens her record player. She was doubly excited as she had asked our daughters for LPs. Putting the Eurythmics album on the turntable and placing the stylus on the first track, we stood back, ready to be amazed. WTF is that? It sounded like a baked bean tin had been utilised as a speaker, and then, to add insult to injury, the cheap, plastic tonearm started bouncing all over her brand-new LP! "QUICK! GET IT OFF!" I screamed. We played the album on my Technics turntable, and it was fine, no scratches, fortunately, and a damn good sound.
"That's going back!" I said, to which the wife replied: "Great, no main present for me then!" she proceeded to open the air freshener, which you had to fill with a pipet. Two minutes later, there's scented fluid everywhere. "That's going in the bin! Well, that's my Christmas ruined." the wife said.
Aw gawd, that's my Christmas ruined, too, given that even though it's not my fault, obviously, I'll be to blame.
"I'll get myself a Galaxy watch, and you can put some money towards it." the wife said. I told her I would pay for it, given that her Christmas was in the bin. "I've had a look, and there's a Currys Electrical in Barnstaple; I'll buy it when we go down to Devon."
Currys Barnstaple, you're the best store!
We've been to Barnstaple several times, but I never knew they had a small retail park. My only concern was whether they would let Charlie come into the store, as there was no way I was leaving him in the car.
What I love about Devon is they love dogs. Every shop is welcoming and usually has a bowl of water and treats for your canine family member. We walked into Curry's, and nobody batted an eyelid. The wife chose the Galaxy 6 40mm, and we opted for the £20 setup service. Now, yes, I could have done it, but I remember doing mine, and it was such a ball-ache I'd rather pay for someone else to do it. The problem is that something always needs downloading; then there's the rebooting and the synching. I'd rather stick bamboo shoots under my nails in some communist jungle camp.
Off we set with the wife wreathed in smiles, showing me her watch face at every opportunity: "Ask me what the time is." 🤦♂️
Thank The Pond Gods, her Christmas has been salvaged.
Now, dear reader, there is an ulterior motive to my generosity. For over thirty years, the wife has complained she's had no sleep due to my snoring. While I accept I snore, I find it hard to believe the 'lack of sleep' is as bad as she likes to make out, so I was looking forward to the sleep results the next day. 🛌
The next day
"Well? How many hours did you sleep?" I asked. "My watch is dead", she replied. "Aargh" I don't belive it! Can nothing go right? I asked her for the charger, wait! It's USB C; all my plugs are USB A
We were off to Minehead that day, so I said we would pick a USB C plug from somewhere.
Spoiler Alert: Now I should point out that the wife did say "What about my iPad charger? That's USB C.", but I thought she meant the cable, not the plug. 🤷♂️
We called a mobile phone and Vape shop; you've gotta love diversification. And we paid through the nose for a £25 plug that accepts USB C.
So we get back to where we are staying, and I plug the charger into the plug, plonk her watch on the charging pad....... nothing! I put my watch on the pad, but nothing; now I'm screwed. Is it the charging pad? Is it the plug? "I'm sorry, Bubb, it'll have to wait until I get home. I've nothing here to check stuff with." I could see she was upset, so I decided to have a look on the web for any answers. Now I know I work in IT, and yes, I'm heavily involved with open source, but mobile phones are not really my forte.
Power Sharing: Apparently, if I delve into the settings of my Samsung phone, there should be a hidden button that allows me to share power and wirelessly charge. Sure enough, I find the button, flip my phone over, place the watch on the back of my phone and OMG! It's charging! It took a while to charge, but we're in business.
The following morning
Me: "How much sleep did you get?"
Wife: "Seven and a half hours."
Me "And how much deep sleep?"
Wife: "Ten."
Me: "Ten hours? That's impossible!"
Wife: "Ten minutes. Right at the beginning."
Me: "Well, that explains it! And look at your sleep pattern. Talk about a light sleeper! Christ, even a nasal hair moving would wake you!"
So there we have it; it's not all my fault. Some nights, the wife doesn't sleep very well—oh, and one last thing. As we packed to come home, the wife laid all her chargers on the bed. Isn't it a sign of the time we all have at least three chargers we need to lug around?
Me: "Hang on, what's this?"
Wife: "My iPad charger, I did tell you."
Me:" "I thought you were talking about the cable!"
Can you believe it? It's only a USB C plug with a USB C to USB C cable, and guess what? It only charges the frigging watch! All that aggravation could have been done away with two days ago!
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Merry Christmas! Buying for my other half is never easy and if things had gone wrong like that I'd be hearing about it all year. As it is she had the Streisand biog, so that should be fine.
It seems things are moving to USB-C, but I'm not sure what chargers I have with that connection. At least we don't have the profusion of different connectors you used to get on phones. We don't have any Apple kit in our house.
You'll like this: Apparently, the EU ruled all devices must be USB C and the UK has decided to stick with that. Standardisation is a good thing for the consumer. It stops people like me from charging different prices for different chargers.
Of course it's a good idea to standardise such things and the UK market is too small to go its own way. Best our government can come up with is pints of wine that nobody asked for.
I was not a good day lol, let's say it's all the fault of bad sleep, once the charger is solved, what will you do with the turntable, it has no change? It should have some warranty