A long, long time ago in a.... sorry, lapsing into Star Wars.
During my teenage years I used to create 'Mix Tapes', recording tracks from LP's (yes, vinyl) and CD's onto cassettes. I made hundreds, and over the years since they have been lost or simply discarded. I don't even own a cassette player now, so why hang on to them?
Well, during a recent cleaning spree I came across one tape that I had held on to. It was a compilation of chilled out, mellow, tracks and I used to listen to it on a regular basis. The original cassette is a BASF Chrome 100 (quite rare, as most tapes in those days were 60 or 90 mins) and the insert listed the tracks, as well as the creation date: November 10th 1992.
Since I don't have a cassette player I decided to track down as many of the songs as possible and recreate it on CD; easier said than done, some were quite obscure.
As of tonight, I have finally accomplished my mission (with thanks to iTunes) and the collection is complete. This has been a labour of love and has brought me right back to my heyday.
The full track list is as follows:
Side 1.
1. The Cure - Prayers for Rain (Disintegration)
2. Depeche Mode - Waiting for the night (Violator)
3. They Dance Alone - Sting (Nothing Like the Sun)
4. Hide and Seek - Howard Jones (Human's Lib)
5. Welcome to the Machine - Pink Floyd (Wish You Were Here)
6. League of Nations - Simple Minds (Sister Feelings Call)
7. Jennifer - Eurythmics (Sweet Dreams)
8. Who Wants to Live Forever - Queen (A Kind of Magic)
9. Do You Know, Do You Care - Phil Collins (Hello, I Must Be Going)
Side 2.
1. Vigil - Fish (Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors)
2. Things You Said - Depeche Mode (Music for the Masses)
3. Private Investigations - Dire Straits (Love Over Gold)
4. Woman In Chains - Tears for Fears (Sowing the Seeds of Love)
5. Mandolin Rain - Bruce Hornsby (The Way it Is)
6. Any Second Now - Depeche Mode (Speak and Spell)
7. Big Sleep (Live) - Simple Minds (B-Side: Kick it In)
8. On the Turning Away - Pink Floyd (Momentary Lapse of Reason)
9. 91 Steps - Erasure (B-Side: You Surround Me)
The problem I have now is that the total running time of these tracks is over 100 minutes (when the tape was created I faded in/out some tracks to shorten them to fit). I can't burn it on to a CD, as they take a maximum of 80 minutes! I know I could remove some tracks to get it to fit, but then it wouldn't be the tape I originally created :(
For the time being I am going to have to settle for listening to it as a playlist on iTunes, and on my MP3 player.
After locating all the tracks and creating the playlist I decided to publish it as an iTunes 'iMix'. The details of which you can see below. Strangely, although all the tracks are available on iTunes, some of them don't appear in the iMix, but I am working to fix this (just some naming differences between the album names between my library and that of iTunes - I have some organised into the original ablum, or single - whereas iTunes has them in compilations), so once it is sorted I will update the mix to contain all 18 tracks.
This was a very worthwhile and enjoyable venture and I would advise any of you out there who used to create many 'Mix Tapes' to rifle through your old vinyl (I am sure you haven't thrown them out, if you are anything like me) and track them down to create your own 21st century MP3 playlist.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Saturday, July 28, 2007
When is a child not considered a child?
I travel quite a lot for business and have been in and out of more airports and on and off of more planes in the last 4 years than I care to remember. I've have the process of online check-in and getting the best seats on the plane down to a fine art. Usually I am travelling on my own and make sure that when checking-in I get one of the emergency exit row seats for the extra leg room. Most casual travellers don't bother asking or trying to get themselves into these seats and, especially if the airline you are using offers online check-in or seat reservation, if you get in early enough you can always get a comfortable seat.
Just this week I had to travel to Belgrade (Serbia) on business. There are no direct flights from my home city of Dublin, Ireland, so I had to travel via London. I used to live in London and my parents still stay there, so I took this opportunity to bring my daughter on the first and last legs of my trip. We flew to London where she was collected at the airport and went to stay with her grandparents for a few days while I went on to Belgrade.
Now, my daughter is 12 years old and, according to the rules of the airline I was travelling with, she is considered an adult and, as such, I had to pay full fare to for her flights. Since when was 12 years old considered an adult? Perhaps a hundred years ago when 12 year old's were working down mines and in factories, but not in today's world (at least not in western Europe, anyway). I appreciate that my 12 year old daughter occupies a full seat on the plane that could have been paid for by a fully fledged adult, but the carrier allows for half-price fares for children under the age of 12 - who still occupy the same seat space.
So, after paying full fare for my 'adult' daughter I proceeded to use the airlines online check-in service through which you can choose your seat allocation. Of course, I immediately went for seats in the emergency exit row as, being a reasonably tall person I find the extra leg room affords a certain level of comfort. I reserved two adjacent seats in row 10 upon which an automated message appeared on the check-in page stating that I had chosen an emergency exit row seat with a warning that passengers travelling with infants or children could not occupy such seats for safety reasons. There was no indication on this warning page that the definition of a child in this context differed in any way from the airlines definition of a child for ticket purchasing purposes. So, it was reasonable for me to assume that as I had paid full adult fare for my daughter she was considered old enough to occupy one of these seats.
Upon boarding the aircraft and taking our seats we were approached by a stewardess (flight attendant, to be politically correct) who inquired as to my daughters age. Upon revealing that she was 12 years old we were duly informed that we would have to be re-seated as she was too young to occupy an exit row seat; for security reasons only persons over the age of 16 were allowed to sit in these rows. Now, I am not usually an argumentative person but this really annoyed me. I stated my case to the attendant in a polite, but firm, manner and expressed that I was confused as to how my daughter could be considered an adult for the purposes of the airline ticket sales policy but was not considered old enough to occupy a seat in the exit row.
Naturally, she could not provide any answers to my questions and nor did I expect her to; after all she was only doing her job and was not responsible for setting airline policy regarding ticket sales. She called her supervisor, a more senior attendant who explained that once the flight was fully boarded we would have to move to an alternative seat. The flight was pretty full so this would not only require us to be reseated but would also involve the relocation of two other passengers on the plane.
Luckily, there was a couple seated directly in front of us who had overheard the conversations I was having with the attendants and they offered to swap seats - no real hardship to them as they were getting two prime seats with double the leg room they had in their current seats.
After arriving home from the trip I visited the airline website to locate an email address where I could voice my opinion and attempt to make a claim for a refund; at least 1/2 of my daughters air-fare as, in my opinion, if she is not considered an adult for safety purposes how can she be considered an adult for ticket sales purposes. I searched the website for almost 20 minutes; sifting through the myriad of email addresses for different departments relating to frequent flyer memberships, ticket pre-sales, after-sales, check-in and security concerns. Eventually I found a section relating to customer care; neatly tucked away with no direct links from anywhere else on the website. The section invited customers who had recently travelled to contact the airline to voice opinions both praising and complaining about service.
I looked for the link to the email address and, low and behold, the airline do not offer a service for customers to make such submissions via email. In fact, there is not even a phone number for customer service; only a snail-mail postal address. So, if a customer has an issue with level of service they have received on a flight the only option is to write it down on paper, stick it in an envelope and post it to them; in the vain hope that you might get a reply in a couple of months time.
This, to me, only compounds the lack of customer service offered by the carrier; that they cannot even organise a department that can read through emails and answer them.
So, back to my original point. When is a child not considered a child? My daughter will be 13 in less than a week. As far as I am concerned she has been a teenager for a couple of years already, next week's milestone only makes it official. But turning 13 is no real right of passage. It's not like turning 16, or 18, or 21. Where I come from the law states you can get married, without your parents consent, from the age of 16. You can legally drive a car at 17 and by 18 you can legally smoke and drink alcohol. At the age of 12/13 the law does not consider you mature enough to take your place as an individual in society and you are still the legal responsibility of your parent or guardian. So how has this age managed to be lowered for other purposes?
I was in a restaurant the other night that had an 'all you can eat' buffet. Their policy was that children up to the age of 10 only paid half-price. After next Tuesday my daughter will have to pay full adult fare for a ticket at my local cinema. I have booked a package holiday for next year where both my children are considered adults as they will both be over the age of 12. Now, I am not sure if this policy is with regard to the airline that will be transporting us to the resort or the accommodation rules of the resort itself.
My daughter is in such a hurry to grow up as it is and general society isn't making my job as a parent any easier when most establishments such as cinemas, leisure centres and restaurants make a differentiation on her adult classification at the age of 12 or 13. The years between the ages of 13 and 18 are a real limbo state; you are no longer a child, but you're not yet a fully fledged adult. You have to pay full fare for most things but, by law, are not allowed to enjoy any of the exciting stuff.
Now I am not suggesting that we should be allowing our 13 year old's to be driving cars, smoking cigarettes and down the pub drinking every night; in fact, quite the opposite. I would love to see a society that still treats kids, at least up to the age of 16, as exactly that, kids. Why should I have to pay full price for an airline seat when my daughter is not an adult in any other sense of the word.
I fully intend to pursue my complaint with the airline in question and seek, if nothing else, a change to their ticket reservation and check-in policy so that it is clearer to travellers who can and cannot occupy the emergency exit row seats. However, I'll have to resign myself to the fact that, if I am travelling on a flight with my children that I'll have to suffer the discomfort of a standard economy seat with it's limited legroom. Either that or leave the children to sit in a seat by themselves so I can enjoy the added comfort of, lets be realistic, only reasonable civilized legroom.
Just this week I had to travel to Belgrade (Serbia) on business. There are no direct flights from my home city of Dublin, Ireland, so I had to travel via London. I used to live in London and my parents still stay there, so I took this opportunity to bring my daughter on the first and last legs of my trip. We flew to London where she was collected at the airport and went to stay with her grandparents for a few days while I went on to Belgrade.
Now, my daughter is 12 years old and, according to the rules of the airline I was travelling with, she is considered an adult and, as such, I had to pay full fare to for her flights. Since when was 12 years old considered an adult? Perhaps a hundred years ago when 12 year old's were working down mines and in factories, but not in today's world (at least not in western Europe, anyway). I appreciate that my 12 year old daughter occupies a full seat on the plane that could have been paid for by a fully fledged adult, but the carrier allows for half-price fares for children under the age of 12 - who still occupy the same seat space.
So, after paying full fare for my 'adult' daughter I proceeded to use the airlines online check-in service through which you can choose your seat allocation. Of course, I immediately went for seats in the emergency exit row as, being a reasonably tall person I find the extra leg room affords a certain level of comfort. I reserved two adjacent seats in row 10 upon which an automated message appeared on the check-in page stating that I had chosen an emergency exit row seat with a warning that passengers travelling with infants or children could not occupy such seats for safety reasons. There was no indication on this warning page that the definition of a child in this context differed in any way from the airlines definition of a child for ticket purchasing purposes. So, it was reasonable for me to assume that as I had paid full adult fare for my daughter she was considered old enough to occupy one of these seats.
Upon boarding the aircraft and taking our seats we were approached by a stewardess (flight attendant, to be politically correct) who inquired as to my daughters age. Upon revealing that she was 12 years old we were duly informed that we would have to be re-seated as she was too young to occupy an exit row seat; for security reasons only persons over the age of 16 were allowed to sit in these rows. Now, I am not usually an argumentative person but this really annoyed me. I stated my case to the attendant in a polite, but firm, manner and expressed that I was confused as to how my daughter could be considered an adult for the purposes of the airline ticket sales policy but was not considered old enough to occupy a seat in the exit row.
Naturally, she could not provide any answers to my questions and nor did I expect her to; after all she was only doing her job and was not responsible for setting airline policy regarding ticket sales. She called her supervisor, a more senior attendant who explained that once the flight was fully boarded we would have to move to an alternative seat. The flight was pretty full so this would not only require us to be reseated but would also involve the relocation of two other passengers on the plane.
Luckily, there was a couple seated directly in front of us who had overheard the conversations I was having with the attendants and they offered to swap seats - no real hardship to them as they were getting two prime seats with double the leg room they had in their current seats.
After arriving home from the trip I visited the airline website to locate an email address where I could voice my opinion and attempt to make a claim for a refund; at least 1/2 of my daughters air-fare as, in my opinion, if she is not considered an adult for safety purposes how can she be considered an adult for ticket sales purposes. I searched the website for almost 20 minutes; sifting through the myriad of email addresses for different departments relating to frequent flyer memberships, ticket pre-sales, after-sales, check-in and security concerns. Eventually I found a section relating to customer care; neatly tucked away with no direct links from anywhere else on the website. The section invited customers who had recently travelled to contact the airline to voice opinions both praising and complaining about service.
I looked for the link to the email address and, low and behold, the airline do not offer a service for customers to make such submissions via email. In fact, there is not even a phone number for customer service; only a snail-mail postal address. So, if a customer has an issue with level of service they have received on a flight the only option is to write it down on paper, stick it in an envelope and post it to them; in the vain hope that you might get a reply in a couple of months time.
This, to me, only compounds the lack of customer service offered by the carrier; that they cannot even organise a department that can read through emails and answer them.
So, back to my original point. When is a child not considered a child? My daughter will be 13 in less than a week. As far as I am concerned she has been a teenager for a couple of years already, next week's milestone only makes it official. But turning 13 is no real right of passage. It's not like turning 16, or 18, or 21. Where I come from the law states you can get married, without your parents consent, from the age of 16. You can legally drive a car at 17 and by 18 you can legally smoke and drink alcohol. At the age of 12/13 the law does not consider you mature enough to take your place as an individual in society and you are still the legal responsibility of your parent or guardian. So how has this age managed to be lowered for other purposes?
I was in a restaurant the other night that had an 'all you can eat' buffet. Their policy was that children up to the age of 10 only paid half-price. After next Tuesday my daughter will have to pay full adult fare for a ticket at my local cinema. I have booked a package holiday for next year where both my children are considered adults as they will both be over the age of 12. Now, I am not sure if this policy is with regard to the airline that will be transporting us to the resort or the accommodation rules of the resort itself.
My daughter is in such a hurry to grow up as it is and general society isn't making my job as a parent any easier when most establishments such as cinemas, leisure centres and restaurants make a differentiation on her adult classification at the age of 12 or 13. The years between the ages of 13 and 18 are a real limbo state; you are no longer a child, but you're not yet a fully fledged adult. You have to pay full fare for most things but, by law, are not allowed to enjoy any of the exciting stuff.
Now I am not suggesting that we should be allowing our 13 year old's to be driving cars, smoking cigarettes and down the pub drinking every night; in fact, quite the opposite. I would love to see a society that still treats kids, at least up to the age of 16, as exactly that, kids. Why should I have to pay full price for an airline seat when my daughter is not an adult in any other sense of the word.
I fully intend to pursue my complaint with the airline in question and seek, if nothing else, a change to their ticket reservation and check-in policy so that it is clearer to travellers who can and cannot occupy the emergency exit row seats. However, I'll have to resign myself to the fact that, if I am travelling on a flight with my children that I'll have to suffer the discomfort of a standard economy seat with it's limited legroom. Either that or leave the children to sit in a seat by themselves so I can enjoy the added comfort of, lets be realistic, only reasonable civilized legroom.
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