In preparation for our camping trips this year, I’ve been buying one or two children’s audiobooks on Audible to keep the boys entertained during the car journeys. I’ve been really impressed with Audible, they have a great collection, are reasonably priced and really simple to use – just buy, download and they automatically go into iTunes into a nice Audiobooks library folder. The iPod then downloads it when you sync and away you go.

However, we’ve also been given a couple of free audiobook CDs plus I have some other ones that the kids have been given as birthday presents. It would be lovely to have them on the iPod too rather than having to faff with remembering to take the CDs and swapping them around during the journey. However, when you rip them into iTunes, you end up with lots of little track files of about 3 minutes long and they just end up in the Music folder not the Audiobooks library, which then get shuffled out of order (as that’s the way I have my music set up to sync to my iPod).

After a little research, though, I have managed to find a way to get them as one big track into the Audiobooks folder and make them bookmarkable (i.e. when you stop half way through, it remembers where you got to, even if you listen to something else in between). Here’s how you do it.

1. If you are a Mac user, download and install (following the instructions on the site) the Make Bookmarkable script from Doug’s AppleScripts for iTunes. It’s really quick, hassle free and doesn’t mess anything up.
2. Put the CD in with iTunes open. Click ‘No’ when it asks you if you want to import.
3. Select all the tracks on the CD with your mouse (shift left-click) then go to Advanced>Join CD Tracks. This will make it into one big track instead of lots of teeny tiny tracks. Now you can click ‘Import CD’ at the bottom right of iTunes.
4. One the CD has been fully imported, you need to find it in your music library. Search for it so its the only track showing. Check that you have the ‘Kind’ column showing in the display (if not, right click on the grey bar with the column headings and check ‘Kind’).
5. If the ‘Kind’ is already an AAC audio file you can skip this step, otherwise, select the track with your mouse and go to Advanced>Convert Selection to AAC. This may take a while, but when it’s done delete the old MP3 track leaving only the new AAC audio file remaining.
6. You may notice that the title and artist fields are a bit messed up. Time to fix that. Right click on the track and select Get Info. Go to the Info tab and amend the name and artist as appropriate. If there are multiple CDs I like to put a “Part 1″ or “Part 2″ etc at the end of the title. I also tend to put the book author in the “Artist” field and the book narrator in the “Composer” field. Change the Genre to “Audiobook”. In the ‘Options’ tab make sure to check ‘Remember playback position’ and ‘Skip when shuffling’. If you want a nice little picture to show up for the icon, go to the “Artwork” tab and upload a scan of the CD cover (or use any other picture you feel is appropriate). Click OK when you’re done
7. Last step now, I promise! Mac Users: see the little curly script icon between the ‘Window’ and ‘Help’ menus? Click on that with the file selected and use ‘Make Bookmarkable’ – that’s the script you installed in step 1. Click ‘Proceed’ and then ‘Thanks’ when it’s finished. Don’t panic when the file disappears – it’s been moved! Click on Audiobooks library and you will see your Audiobook file in all its glory! Windows Users: you will need to close iTunes, then find the file in your “My Music” directory and change the file extension to “.m4b” this should hopefully do the same thing. Job done!

Now, that may look a little long winded but it’s much quicker than it looks. Once you’ve installed the script in step 1 you only need to use steps 2-7 for any other audiobook CD you have and it makes listening to them on your iPod a whole lot easier.

No, I’m not discussing recent local government elections… this is about the planning and stress of children’s social events. It’s still all politics.

Maybe you have your own tips about navigating the minefield and keeping everyone happy – if so, please leave a comment!

The news item mentioned in this episode was:

• Bouncy castle boy awarded damages

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A many happy returns to my wonderful husband, Akra (and also, to my nephew whose birthday is also today).

I’d love to say that we had a fabulous day of celebration, but in all honesty the car went in for its MOT today costing a small fortune, then just before it was time to pay up the bank rang to say our credit card had been compromised so they were cancelling it and issuing a new one. Fortunately the overdraft just about covered the MOT.

We’ve also had a minor bathroom leak, ant invasions and lots and lots of work related stress. So we’re officially moving Akra’s birthday to Sunday and will hopefully have better luck on that day!

There’s an old motto (from the Jesuits apparently, but I had to look that part up) which says “give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man”. Or, in other words, it’s the first seven years of a child’s life which is the most crucial, the time where their personality and world view is fully formed for the rest of their days.

I find the concept terrifying.

It’s terrifying because my eldest son is now seven and when I look at him, I see the man he will become. Have I done a good enough job? I know I haven’t been the mother I should have been.

I have been short tempered when I should have been patient, distracted when I should have been involved and careless when I should have been sensitive to his feelings. The first seven years of his life have seen upheaval and change. The irony is, that while the early years of a child’s life are so important, they are also the most stressful and draining years for the parent (well at least until the teenage years – but don’t tell me about that yet, please!)

The traits I dislike most in myself, I see echoes of in my son. The silent sulks when he’s told off or not got his own way. The nasty cutting remarks to his brother when they disagree (almost direct copies of my worst waspishness when I’m bad tempered). The insecurities and the irrational fears. I look at them all and think… I did that and it’s too late to undo them.

But then I get a grip. A hug and a kiss for his brother when they say goodbye at the nursery door. An interesting intellectual conversation on the problems of the world on the walk to school. A morning cuddle. A glowing school report. His passions for reading, Star Wars and Lego. His friendliness and helpfulness. I had a hand in those too.

I love the boy with all my heart and soul and mind. And he’s going to make an awesome man.

Other than Christmas, May is my busiest month with both son’s birthdays and Akra’s within days of each other. This is also the month we start our camping season, so there are lots of things to organise with that, plus there’s the extra chores I seem to create the second I step out into our garden.

It does get to the point where it would be nice to escape and be totally utterly lazy for a while and the news that NASA is paying $5000 a month for people to lie in bed did sound very tempting at first.

Reading more details of the study it does appear promising. 90 days of bed rest and there’s computer and internet access. It could be the first time ever I get a character above level 35 in a MMORPG! They also encourage you to go in with a goal – like learn a language or studying towards a career change – it’s not just paid time off from your normal life, but could be a good long term career investment too.

But the more I think about it, the appeal wears off, which probably means that I’m going to have to relinquish my nerd badge. I’d miss the outdoors… walking to and from school with the kids, going on a bike ride in the nice weather, pottering around outside pretending to pull weeds. The warning about permanent loss of bone density is a bit scary too.

It’s probably not available to those of us outside the US anyway.

This week’s Podcast of the Week is, rather bizarrely, a twofer. It’s a shared podcast – half the time it’s The Now Show, the other half it is The News Quiz – just to keep you on your toes. It all depends on which season is currently running.

Either way, it’s an excellent podcast to subscribe to if you want to see what the best of Radio 4 Comedy has to offer.

The Now Show portion of the podcast is hosted by Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis, and has a stand-up comedy format based on the current affairs of the week. It’s amusing, but I do find that it can be a little variable, depending on the particular guest comics that week. It has a tendency to try a little too hard. However, when it’s good, it’s very very good so still well worth the listen.

At the moment, however, we are being graced with The News Quiz. Hosted by Sandi Toksvig, it’s ostensively a quiz show where panelists have to guess the current news story given some rather cryptic clues. In practise, scoring is completely arbitrary and it’s just an excuse for the very best of cutting wit and irreverent humour. Add to that, unintentionally funny press cuttings from around the country read in a completely deadpan voice by Radio 4 newsreaders and you pretty much have the perfect comedy show.

WARNING: do not attempt to listen on a personal mp3 player while travelling on public transport. Other passengers will think you completely utterly insane as you burst into hysterical laughter every few minutes.

The podcast is released weekly (on a Friday, funnily enough, as you may have guessed from the title) and is around half an hour long.

… as it’s Li’l Bhaji’s birthday today – he’s FOUR!

I know he’s getting older as he put off breakfast until 10 o’clock because he was too busy playing with his birthday presents – now THAT would never have happened before!

Unfortunately, Akra Jr is being quite sulky – which is a shame, because Li’l Bhaji was openly cheerful during Akra Jr’s special day last week. So far Li’l Bhaji hasn’t noticed and isn’t spoiling his day, though. Hopefully Akra Jr will cheer up soon or we will be having words.

FOUR… who’da thunk it?