i am horrendous at choosing presents for people – so for christmas 2000 i decided to make a cd for some friends and make the packaging myself (the cds were burnt using a cd burner i had gotten). i think i made 10 or so copies for close friends. the cd cases were make from a4 paper folded in to an a5 shape and then folded and glued to give a proper cd case.

for the following year i went a little bit further. i made an original cd and got (erm) about 70 copies of it (professionally) done. then i bought a huge box of printing paper (i still got some sheets here now), colour ink and lots of laminating pouches – i put them all together and sent the cds around the world. i didnt really think bad of 70 friends getting the same present from me – i liked the idea.

i got thinking of this over the last few days as i put together some cds for an irish friend and sent them in the post – this time sans cover. just two blank cds, two barren cd cases and a handwritten “1” and “2” written on the cds. somehow in the rush of doing nothing of late i somehow have forgotten to do the things that make presents unique (even the mass produced ones) – never got around to making a nice cover with tracklisting etc – things that in the past i spent ages and ages doing. i remember even going through a phase which involved me ripping out sheets of magazines and making funny messages from the text and sticking them in the inside of c90 tapes before i handed them over to my friend for listening. happy memories.