What Couldn't YOU Live Without ?

Okay, this is meant to be a bit of fun people, so let’s set aside the obvious – oxygen, food and water…and, for the sake of making it interesting, let’s also agree to put our spouses, kids and furry kids to one side as well….

Apart from those essentials, what couldn't YOU live without … or put another, less-dramatic way…. What, if it was taken away forever, what would you miss desperately and be thoroughly miserable without ?? (hmmm, wasn’t meant to be this complicated….)

For me it is quite simple – my book and CD collections. I spend an exorbitant amount on both; to me, too many books and too many CDs is never, EVER enough. I don’t watch television at all and am not much of a movie fan, but I can lose myself for hours, for days, in my books and my music. Whilst I love my 80GB ipod, I just can’t get past the joy I get from actually buying and owning the actual CD; yes, they all end up on my ipod, and no, I can’t remember the last time I actually played a CD all the way through (give me ipod on continuous shuffle baby !), but I’ve just got to have them. I also can't remember the last time I actually went shopping without buying at least one book. I am rapidly running out of space to put them all, and so I'm prone to stacking them two and three deep in my bookshelves (which drives Tex spare !), and I have far less time in any one lifetime to ever get to read them all...

Oh, and I seriously hate anybody else messing with my collections - when I came home from work one day and found Tex had re-arranged all my books, according to author and (hell, get me some oxygen) had even regaled some of them to the garage (breathe, breathe....) well, it was almost grounds for a divorce. Or, to find that Zach has taken one of my CDs from it's rightful place and then left it in his room, or (yikes !) left it in his room without putting it back in it's cover....well, let's just say it's never too late to put kids to work in coal mines.

Thankfully, I have my own boy-free sanctuary in our home where only me and my cats are allowed to enter (Tex and Zach by invitation only !!), where I can light my candles and oil burners and sit and read or listen to music – ahhhh, it’s so wonderfully serene (or it would be if Tex didn't play his electric guitar with the amp turned up to 11....but, that'll probably be on his list :)



So…what couldn't you live without ?