Okay so we’re driving down to Wales. I get in the car (it was a rental),

Does it have a CD player....Oh shit, only cassette player? Do they still make those things? What the hell are we going to do Stathi, sing to each other for 3 and a half hours????

Luckily he actually had 3 tapes on him. Where, why and how, I do not know. We get to Yiota’s place and she’s kept his ENTIRE cassette collection. Over 100 of these things!!! Now those who know me know what a complete techie junkie I actually am. The only accessory that I’m not all that fussed about is my mobile phone, but that’s another post for another time. Having said that, after this weekend drive, I really miss the low tech situation induced by having cassettes. I’ll explain.

Growing up as you can imagine everyone had a walkman, much in the same way everyone’s got an ipod now. These things go in cycles, and there will come a day, when the Ipod is a thing of the past to be replaced by something more fresh and lively etc. The problem however with the transition between going all digital, is you can no longer share music in the same way. When I used to make a mix tape, it would take me 3 hours. To choose the songs, work out how long they were, how they would fit into the tape. How one song should flow into another. Then you’d spend time sorting out the outside cover of the tape. Do I make it colourful. Can I be bothered to write the song name and the artist name. Hell I got this off the radio, do I even KNOW that information?

And then once it was all over and you’d listened to it for like 1000 times, you would either relegate it to the old tapes pile, to be replaced by the new one.

Ah but here’s where the magic comes into play. Years later, as you’re driving from Wales to London, and the radio is playing the latest shit from Britney Spears, you relive your teens in a way only a tape could do. Sure the songs exist on my ipod, but not those specific songs, not in that order, and not something that can be shared around, as a PHYSICAL object with a stamp of your character all over it.