I intended an ode but there’s just no rhyme

I wanted to make an ode to one electronic gadget in our family we just lost recently. Don’t ask my husband, as he is still too much distressed over it. But I’m just too choked with emotions that I can’t string words of any lyrical content. Poetry is just too far from my grasp nor rhyme nor rhythm.



My husband bought this Sony NetMD (MZ-N10) less than two years ago; because, well, an iPod was just too steeply priced as the mountain in Bukit Timah for a non-mountaineer like me. This was part of Sony's offering in their 10th Anniversary line-up of MiniDisc units, and what one might one consider as top of the range. I haven’t even got the hang of using its nifty features, but it served as good company during my travels to and from the office before the iPod flooded the market.

It was planned to be sold to Josh’s nanny for a very cheap price and be replaced with an iPod of a humongous capacity; or be sold bundled with the Xbox, another electronic gadget that is hardly used. The external battery case, which was never used, is sitting in front of me as I am writing this, and the charging cradle is still plugged into one of our sockets.

Herman is still coming to grips that it was gone – you can say that he is in denial – for it was him who was using it when it got lost. There wouldn’t be any music to blast in his ears as he strolls in the sandy white beach of Phi Phi island next week.