I feel like one sometimes. Especially after the Christmas shopping adventures of my partner and her family.

This year my partner got me not only a 32” LCD TV, but her and her parents got me a Noontec A9 Smart TV Box. Knowing I have a wholesale account with their Australian distributor, they submitted the order to me today – ha! I’ll also be fixing up the TV antenna over the Christmas break so it better supports digital TV. Quite a dramatic improvement to my current CRT style TV with a very noisy PC attached via S-Video. The new system should be better for playing Internet or computer based video with the fan-less remote controlled operation. Only today did I realise the A9 ships with a wireless keyboard and mouse, WiFi capability in the box. I’m uncertain though about the camera and if thats in the box or an accessory. I just hope my partner enjoys the presents I have for her as much as I will enjoy hers.

Further to that my partner has also let me borrow her 22” widescreen LCD for my PC. So now I have dual screen with the 17” 4:3 LCD I already have, something I lost when a 17” 4:3 LCD blew its backlight and the replacement part was worth more than a screen replacement.

My parents also wanted a new TV for their bedroom. I ultimately ended up selecting a TV not once but 4 times as an exercise to decide which was the right product – and it seemed I came up with the same TV 3 times. My parents ended up getting the same TV as my partner got me which was ironic considering my last TV they had an identical unit as they purchased the same TV at the same time.

My partner and I also spoilt my partners brother too… got him a new couch. We managed to find a place that was clearing damaged goods at below cost prices as a tax dodge for another business. The couch we picked up was worth $800 but with some acceptable damage they only wanted $225?