No I do not want to go and buy a new one at Aldi for $30, thank you very much...

So I finally remembered that the place I took my last laptop when the screen broke also seemed to have a suspicious amount of hifi equipment sitting round and rang them this morning. Sure enough, they were happy to take a look at my stuck CD player, which I took in at lunchtime.

The chap behind the counter looked a little surprised. "Oh! That's not what I imagined when you called up!" he says. Now I'm worried. "But you can still fix it, yes?" I implored.

"Well we can have a look at it for you." His brow suddenly wrinkled as he points at some round plug hole thingy in the back I've never noticed before. "Do you use this?"

Oh shit, I think. Obviously it's all my fault that the player jammed - I must have had it hooked up wrong for the past 12 years. "Err, no." I reply, my brow wrinkling in consternation to match his.

"Do you know you could go to Aldi and buy a DVD player for $30, hook it up here, play CDs on it and it would be cheaper than us looking at it for you?"

I sighed. He obviously believed I was slightly nuts (and he'd be right but how he worked it out so quickly is beyond me) "Look, I realise I could buy a Craponya CD player to replace this but I'd prefer to a) keep you lot in business and b) keep my most loved trusty $100 CD player out of the landfill even if it ends up costs me more."

He shrugged ever so slightly, obviously wondering why I would want my clunky old slightly scratched CD player rather than a bright shiny new one. But he took my $66 and said he'd call me when they'd had a chance to have a look at it.

And I walked out of the shop feeling ever so... old fashioned.