Whittling down my cd collection of a few hundred to only 24 cd's is proving to be about as difficult as getting an International Driving Permit.

You're saying getting an IDP is easy? If you are a Belgian living in the UK, nothing is easy. This is how I experienced my very own Catch 22.

1. the travel agent recommended for me to get an IDP for New Zealand as my driving permit is in Dutch.
2. the AA told me they could not get anyone except UK license holders an IDP and I would need to contact the local authorities who issued my Belgian driving permit.
3. The local authorities (ie the town hall) told me that they could not issue an IDP for those Belgians living abroad.
4. After all that, the car rental company told me I did not need an IDP anyway.

At that point, I didn't trust anyone's opinion except my own and putting Murphy's law into practice, I deduced that if I did not get an IDP, I would probably be asked for it, however if I got an IDP, nobody would probably need to see it.

But that meant I still needed to get one. Not one to give up in the face of adversity, I surfed the net for another solution. And lo and behold, the RAC did IDP's! For European citizens! Living in the UK! £ 1.50 cheaper! I could hardly believe it and called them to make sure (well, can you blame me?), but the man at the other end confirmed that yes, they did and yes, it wasn't only for people with a European driving license. It only took them two days to send it as well, which is faster than it took for the AA to answer my email.

Anyhow, back to the title of this entry: music.
What good is driving in New Zealand in a lovely... euh... Honda Civic if you don't have the appropriate soundtrack, right?

I was going to take only 12 cd's, but this was a doomed effort from the start, so I upgraded to 24.

I'm nearly finished now and mostly, it contains the following great artists:
Barenaked ladies, Counting Crows,
The Cure (although not the new cd, which was a huge disappointment, I'm sorry to say), Madonna, Maroon5, Santana, Tom Helsen, Tom Waits, Zornik and the soundtracks for High Fidelity, Magnolia, Shrek I and II and Kill Bill. As those are what I'll be listening to for the next six months, I packed them away and will only get them out again when I pack my bag...

If you think any important artists are missing, let me know in the comments!