An iPad or Cold Cash? That Is the Question

I was listening to desert island discs on BBC's Radio 4 the other day when I started ruminating (as most listeners do, no doubt) about what my guilty pleasure would be. For those of you who are not familiar with the program, it was created in 1942 and has been going ever since...albeit with different presenters over the passage of time. Each week a guest is invited to select eight records they would take with them to a desert island and give an account of why they chose those discs. At the end of the program they are asked what one item they would take along with them as their guilty pleasure.

And my guilty pleasure? It would be none other than a solar-powered iPad with a satellite connection. I'm assuming that the connection could be obtained free, as I don't think I would find many service providers that would accept coconuts as payment!

Thinking about this takes me back to the time when I was setting up my website and considering what guidelines to use. I had the idea for the site when we were being bombarded by the media with increasingly depressing tales of job losses and frightful statistics going forward. It occurred to me that there had to be other ways to make money, and better yet...ways to make money that could possibly hone peoples' skills, and hopefully their chances of employment.

Following due consideration I set up my contests & competitions site and decided that anything less than $200 would not motivate a person to enter a contest. I also decided not to include competitions that offered products or experiences, apart from ones which would further a person's career or even help with starting afresh. The result of this decision is that it ruled out promoting competitions that offered iPads as a prize.

iPads are currently very hot competition prizes, and I have had to turn the other cheek (metaphorically), to promoting a multitude of competitions. I am currently reconsidering my decision (foolish or noble as it may be) based upon the realisation of my guilty pleasure.

I've just checked, and Skype is available for the iPad. Now, what could be more blissful - if you're going to be stuck on a desert island, what better than to be sitting in a shady spot communicating with your family and friends, along with your eight favourite tracks loaded onto the iPad and Spotify for when your mood changes? After all, what good is a load of cash on a desert island? Fodder for termites, that's all.

However, once you are back in the real world...what would you prefer? An iPad or its cash equivalent? Do please visit my site and let me know your real world and desert island choices. You might even be tempted into entering a competition!