I usually take my iPod with me if I am going anywhere. iPods are amazing things, and it’s great to have my whole CD collection (or mp3 collection, as I put all my CDs on my laptop before moving south) wherever I go.

I’ve noticed, however, that I’ve started to measure distances in terms of song duration. The walk to work, for example, isn’t really just under twenty minutes any more, it now lasts Peacock Tail, Dayvan Cowboy and Telephasic Workshop, my three favourite Boards of Canada tracks.

I also discovered a while back that the walk to work can also just about be squeezed into Shake Break Bounce, Marvo Ging and Surface to Air, the last three tracks on Push the Button by the Chemical Brothers – though I have to walk a bit faster towards the end of Surface to Air to arrive just as it finishes.

Then on Saturday past, I went to the barber to get a hair cut. It took Sigur Ros‘s Takk… to get there (6 minutes 15 seconds), but only Hoppipolla (4:28), the next track, to get back home again. That’s mostly due to the fact that it’s uphill to get to the barber.

But I’m also wondering whether another explanation might have been the fact that I got a lot cut off, and so on the way home I was carrying a bit less weight and was substantially more aerodynamic.