Friday, August 14, 2009

Differing Priorities

While I have started pondering the great food question - just how many times can we feed the kids pasta with tomato sauce over nine days before we get a rebellion? - Hubby's mind has been turning to more important things: Gadgets.

Question 1: Do we need a fancier camera? This from the man who once managed to take a photo of a blank bit of heathery Dartmoor which, upon extreme scrutiny, proved to have my nose on the edge of the frame. Excuse my scepticism, but who exactly will be taking the photos with this fancy new camera? And how will we have time to learn how it works? As it happens, Deep Thought has her birthday next weekend, and we've bought her a point-and-shoot as her gift. I suspect she'll be pretty good with it. Better than her Dad anyway.

Question 2: Should we have a DVD player for the kids in the back of the RV to keep them occupied during the long drives? We could play something on the laptop, but Hubby thinks maybe we should invest in a DVD gizmo. I struggle with this one. On the one hand we like to imagine the kids gazing out of the RV windows taking in the views and enhancing their appreciation of our beautiful state. On the other I know they will be kicking each other under the table and demanding snacks to assuage their boredom.

Question 3: If we want to play an audio book on the iPod, do we need a special player so that we can all hear it? Hubby's suggestion on this one was to take our regular stereo speakers. Given that they are eight year old technology, they're not all that compact. I gently reminded him that we're in an RV.

I foresee a long and expensive trip to Fry's this weekend.

3 comments:

Paul said...

Our advice (and we speak from some experience here): Make sure you take something! In fact, take the laptop AND take along a player thingy as a back-up - e.g. for technical failures, or for when you need a 2nd movie because there is a fight over WHAT they watch. Whilst you can probably avoid using DVD's most of the time, there will be the odd moment where you'll be REALLY thankful... looking forward to reading more when you get in gear! Love, P, K, S, T & M xx

Paul said...

PS: I emailed you separately on cameras - it was too long for a comment...

OEM said...

Take as many electronic gadgets as you can fit in your vehicle. If the choice is between 'Are we nearly there yet?' after fifteen minutes and 'Grunt' whenever you helpfully point out amazing scenery/cute wildlife/rubbernecking opportunity, I take the latter every time...