£1000...

I've just impulsively signed up to Plinky - yes, an indication of a productive day... Basically each day it sends you a question, and you can set it so your reply goes to your blog or Twitter (I've got it sent to the latter to avoid clogging up the blog).

Anyway, I was looking back through the older questions and one was "How would you spend $1000". The reason this one made me think was that I had a similar discussion with some friends a while ago, which was "How would you spend £1000 (slight currency change) if you had to spend it on something for yourself and be completely selfish" - so no rent, bills, food etc - nothing remotely practical or sensible, and nothing for anyone else! I think we even dismissed travelling as an option and made the rule it had to be something physical or lasting... It was fascinating the range of replies that people had - jewelry, clothes, electronics, music, dvds... Many of them were nice things, but not something I'd even consider spending that much money on. I'd count myself as a big film geek and a music fan, but I don't think I'd spend it on those if I had the choice of picking other things...

So I've been sitting here thinking about what I'd do with it, and I'm not sure I want to spend it on a single thing. Well, I could, but I think I'd prefer to split my imaginary money down into chunks, and allocate it as follows...

1) £250 - A nice camera. Nothing too ridiculous, but I'd love to have a proper camera again, given that my two present options are my Holga (which I still don't know how to use) or my camera phone... Something above a standard point and press, but still something relatively compact...

2) £350 - A pretty guitar. Given that one of my guitars was free (crap, but lots of sentimental attachment) and the other came from a charity shop (slightly less crap, and less sentimental attachment), I'd love one that's not crap. Maybe an electro-acoustic job. I don't know anything about guitars so can't be more specific than that... Not that it'd make my guitar playing any more bearable, but at least it'd look pretty as I deafened you all...

3) £150 - A shiny set of knives. I'm well known for my kitchen geekery, and now have some really splendid pans. My knives are fine, but I'd loooove a set of really good ones (maybe some Globals)... This doesn't qualify as a practical item, because I really don't need them - they'd be a pure indulgence item.

4) £225 - Singing lessons. Yes, I know this may not qualify as a physical thing (though my vocal chords are a physical entity, and I'm in charge of the rules now!), but I've always wanted to be able to sing... I seem to have spent my entire life surrounded by sickeningly musical people, while I pass as mediocre. I believe that I have the ability, but it's hidden well amongst bad technique - apparently as I'm not tone deaf and can kind of hold a tune, the rest should be teachable... So I'd spend some money on testing the truth in that.

5) £25 - Really frikkin nice houmous and pitta bread, washed down with a really good bottle of red wine. And maybe a toblerone cos I haven't had one in ages. Because however great things are, this can only make them better...

Spend away...