RICHARD ORD: Give me the sound of silence to earbuds any day of the week
They had just stepped out of a taxi and one of them had lost one of her earbuds. For those of a certain vintage, earbuds are mini wireless headphones that plug into your ears so you can listen to music, or take a phone call.
While I have never owned a pair, I am familiar with them. They are forever being ‘lost’ by the youngest of my two sons.
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Hide AdHardly surprising given they are about the size of a Malteser (the earbuds, not my sons). That said, I rarely lose a Malteser. Yet our Isaac manages to misplace his earbuds at an alarming rate. The alarming part being how expensive these little contraptions are to replace. I mean, they are an impressive piece of kit, but at £100-plus a pop, they lack what I’d consider as vital security features.
I was shocked to find these earbuds do not come with a super-strong ear glue to secure them to your lug holes.
A combination of ergonomic design and gravity is utilised to keep them in place. That and sticky ear wax I presume. I have suggested bulldog clips, but my squeamish son isn’t having any of it.
Anyway, the Edinburgh lady was clearly hindered by slippy earwax genetics so I joined the search party.
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Hide Ad‘It should be easy enough to find,’ I said, remembering how white my son’s earbuds were, and how dark the road was. With a sigh, the woman showed me the surviving earbud. If the colour of the device was to have a fancy Farrow & Ball paint name, Edinburgh Road Black would have been perfect.
After about five minutes, one of the search party - dodging the moving traffic around us - found what she thought may be a fragment of the missing bud. It was time to go.
Earbuds are an accident waiting to happen and a modern gadget that leaves me cold. Give me cumbersome old-style headphones with unnecessarily padded ear comfort any day of the week.
Anyway, I headed to my Edinburgh hotel for some birthday fizz and even a present from my current life partner… a pair of earbuds! And in Edinburgh Road Black too.