Objects of Desire

I haven't blogged in some, so it seemed only natural that I should do the churlish thing and write about items I would like, but do not have, post Christmas.

First of all is a pod based coffee maker. When walking through House of Fraiser pre Christmas my beautiful and wonderful girlfriend had cause to exclaim "These are so cool*!" What she was talking about was a Nespresso machine (or more precisely a table full of them). Basically you pop a little pod of coffee in the top, push a button and really quite good espresso (or something a lot like it) comes out of the spout. Boom. Simple and fast, without any fuss or the need to do much in the way of cleaning. This appeals to me. A lot.

There is of course a problem. The clue is in the name, and being the intelligent general reader you may have already spotted it. The whole shebang is made (or at least owned) by Nestle, who are are (by my own personal set of benchmarks) evil. Like, actually killing babies evil. They make all the coffee which can be used with the machines, meaning there is a limited selection, and have patented the design thoroughly enough that this will be the case for ever-more. So, refillable pods are not an option and the pre-filled ones are aluminium and only recycle-able in Switzerland. Unacceptable. Bugger.

So I did a bit of reading about the other pod based systems out there, and discounted almost all of them for one reason or another. It generally comes down to either evil companies or an unacceptable degree of waste. The one I didn't discount is the Senseo, which doesn't produce such good coffee (it has a 2 bar pump versus the nespresso's 19 bar), but you can buy refillable pods for it. Also, it's cheaper. A lot cheaper since Sainsbury has it on sale at half price. Problem solved. I'll probably pick one up tomorrow.

What I won't b picking up tomorrow is one of Sony's eBook readers. While I think they're completely awesome (eInk rules, I though it was actual paper when I first saw it and didn't even believe it was a screen until I saw it change) £350 is just too high an asking price. That's a lot of books. Check them out if you get the chance, though. One day, when its price goes down and mine goes up, I'll get myself one.

Lastly come the controversial one. Women carry bags. This is accepted. The size varies, though. I've seen at least one girl with a bag which, though clearly a handbag in terms of design, was about a metre long. Men on the other hand, are expected not to. If they do it is derisively referred to as a "Man Bag." Frankly, though, it's bloody useful. I tend to carry a messenger bag around a lot of the time as a result. It holds my tiny laptop, a notebook, some pens (duh), a reusable shopping bag and generally a book and some uni related things. The one I originally bought doesn't really measure up, though, in either form or function. What I'm looking for is something stylish on the outside, but nerd-tastically well organised on the inside. Stylish that is, again, by my own personal set of benchmarks. I kinda like this one. Now, if I could only find somewhere that actually sells it...

• Even though she, in fact, does not drink coffee. No one, it seems, is perfect.