Rumble: My Life in Four Bags #2: Music

Let's have a look in those four bags I always travel with. What are my secret supplies? The things that make the life of an aid worker, a “globetrotter by necessity”, sustainable?

Part #2: Music – my iPod and Bose headset.

Music soothes my spirit. It lifts me up when I feel down. Pumps me up when I am low on energy. Calms me down before going to bed. Or lifts me up when taking a shower. Most of my memories in life is connected to music. To songs, to artists, to tunes. And my iPod is the core of my musical existence. Some of my favourates, I collected on this page.

All the music I have, is on this iPod (plus the full backup of the most critical data on my laptop!). It is a 60 Gbyte iPod which I bought in Dubai some years ago. It has 4,000 songs on it. From hardcore dance music to classical. From rare ambient music, to pop music. Reggae, R&B, soul, oldies and newbie’s. I dig it all. I have not many accessories for it. Just the power supply and USB cable. And a plug-on gimmick that has the iPod broadcast music on the FM band, so I can pick it up on a car stereo or a portable radio (I don’t carry speakers with me, so sometimes need a bit of volume through an FM radio), a car charger for those long road trips, and that is it. Oh, and i protect it in a small leather case which also goes over the display, to protect it from scratches.

Plus my secret weapon, a must for each serious iPod fan: My Bose headset (www.bose.com), the QuietComfort 2. It is an expensive piece of kit, but worth it. Works on batteries. If you don’t play music, and just switch it on, it kills all the ambient noise. Practical on a plane or anywhere where the surrounding noise annoys you.
It sits really comfortable with soft air pads. The Bose headset has a set of adapters fitting almost any audio plug and a switch-able high and low capacity input, so you can use it with almost any audio device. Plus last but not least, the audio is really high quality.