The Ipod Shuffle: The Joy and the Pain

I have a new ipod shuffle. It is tiny, clips on to my running top and carries about 200 songs. Every week or so, I plug it into my itunes and it downloads a random selection of my music. In most ways, it is simply fantastic. In other ways, not so.

First, I will share some of the happy moments with you:

1. I am walking back from a day's work at the Tower of Darkness. I have been there with a big pile of dusty books trying to find references for my dissertation that I failed to take down properly at the time of writing. It is a highly frustrating task, wading through pages and pages of text for those few elusive words you have quoted, words that are now hiding very well whilst giving you the v sign. I leave, my task unfinished. I'm a bit miffed and have a headache. On the walk home, my shuffle throws me a song by Bluch-bluch, Yve's new band. Yves has a great voice, it's a gentle, soft but catchy song, and I walk home with Yves singing in my ears and a smile on my face.

2. I am on my way to my first dissertation supervision. This year's dissertation has been a bit of a gamble and I walk to Peterhouse worrying that it's too late now to change my title and I've chosen the wrong subject to write about. My head is going round in circles, trying to formulate a better argument with which I can wow my supervisor when I arrive. Johnny Cash arrives and turns my frown upside down. He sings my wedding song for me. The dissertation supervision goes wonderfully and my supervisor says I've chosen a daring but fascinating subject and that I'm nearly there.

3. Walking into town. Wind and rain. Grrrrrr. And who should turn up but the Great Big Sea, to entertain me with 'Donkey Riding'. I have such a big, daft grin on my face, I notice one or two passers-by smiling at me (probably in a pitiful way, but what the hell?).

Good times, my friends, good times. So imagine my shock and disappointment when, within the space of the self-same week, I also get the following songs thrown at me:

1. Candle in the Wind, by Sir Elton himself.
2. Search for the Hero, M People (? I think)
3. Something, the title of which eludes me, which I believe may have been sung by Rod Stewart.

Now, the question is, how on earth did any of these songs make it on to my i-tunes in the first place? On what planet would I ever want to listen to "Candle in the Wind", unless I had a specific reason to wish to induce vomiting? I only praise the lord that Celine Dion hasn't found her way on there - or, at least, I live in hope that she hasn't, and that my ipod isn't saving that particular delight for another time (perhaps exam week). Needless to say, I have since disinfected my itunes. But I still feel dirty.