The Daysaver Guide and the Birthday Playlist
One major detail I omitted from the previous post was my handy pizza base-printed, pocket-sized Daysaver Guide. In this Nom included a spider map of some places we could travel to and the buses that linked them, a satelite map of Birmingham, an 'eye spy' page of cool things to do before the end of the day, and a list of noteworthy events and exhibitions (taken from iCal).
My favourite page, however, contained the birthday playlist. It wasn't strictly a playlist though: the words 'Happy Birthday Malcolm' were written in a vertical line down the page but no track names were revealed. Nom had loaded her MP3 player with a list of tracks where the first letter of the title or artist's name began with the relevant letter - 'H' was for
Happier Than the Morning Sun by Stevie Wonder, 'A' for Animal Collective's
In the Flowers and so on - and I was left to fill in the blanks.
This was an excellent trivia task for a music nerd like me - 'What could "Y" be? Youthmovies?' etc. - and we had a lovely time simply listening through a lovingly prepared compilation as we watched the world go by from the buses. I'd highly recommend this as a present for someone you're close to, if they'll let you near their iTunes that is. In case you're wondering, the final 'M' is for Miles Davis' version of
I Loves You, Porgy and 'I' is blank because Nom couldn't pronounce the name of the Ang
élique Kidjo track.