An iPod mini Adventure

Remember the old black and white iPod generations? Well, yesterday I retreived my long-lost first-generation iPod mini and it thrilled me to bits!

The iPod mini was the shortest-lived iPod and somewhat derided on introduction as being over-priced and kinda girly. It turned out to be so stunningly popular Apple had difficulty meeting demand. I ordered mine just two hours after they became available in the UK Apple Store in June 2005.

You'd think their internal 1.4" spinning hard disk would make them pretty delicate, but in fact that they could take real abuse and my iPod mini's no exception:

It's a battered little critter, mostly from being driven over for a few hours in a Stockport car park where I once accidently dropped it. Chunky isn't it - they made electronics that way then ;-)

Yet two years ago I managed to leave it on holiday at Dove farm cottages in Ellestone with my fiancée and some friends. I'd kept trying to make an effort to track it down since then, but after a little autumn camping trip at the wonderful, good-value and basic Pudding Room campsite with a couple of friends this weekend:

I thought I'd have make a real effort to find it. So I headed off back to Dove Farm and had to knock a couple of times before a lady opened the door (they weren't expecting me, 'natch). So I cautiously asked whether they remembered seeing an old iPod mini left here back in 2010.

“That’s a long time ago”, she said.

I understand, I said as I described it, It’s a bit of a long-shot, enough of one to have made a personal point of giving it back to God a few minutes before.

“But if it's there, I think I know where it'll be.” and she headed off back into the house. I thought she was going to head off to the dining hall where we'd actually played iPod music during the holiday, but actually she returned just a minute later with it exactly as I'd left it. Rather than chucking it all, they have a bit of a stash of things guests have left behind, which is impressive considering how often people are likely to do that.

Speaks volumes about Dove farm, thank you.

I charged it up last night and I've been listening happily to its contents this morning, batteries are still good after all these years :-D