It’s day two, and rather than retreading on one of the usual subjects of my blog I thought I’d touch on something a bit different.

I’ve long considered myself to be fairly "brand agnostic" – i.e. not biased to any particular brand, and just interested in whichever does the job better. For example, I’ve never really given a toss about the "Mac vs. PC" argument – both computers are incredibly capable machines in their own rights, and the decision about which one to use really comes down to personal preference and familiarity rather than some misguided attempt at zealotry.

However, the more I’ve thought about my life, I’ve come to realise that I do actually have loyalty (or certainly something approaching it) to quite a few brands, which surprised me. Here are just a few of them:

BMW and Toyota

As someone who loves their cars, it would be silly of me not to open with this one. I’ve owned 22 cars since passing my test (soon to be 23) and a topic on the Pistonheads forum just the other day made me take stock of which car brands I’ve been "involved" with.

There’ve been 9 car brands in total. 8 of those 23 cars have been BMWs (9 if you include the MINI I owned, which is a BMW brand of course) and 5 of them have been Toyotas. The majority of the other car brands clock up just one car in my history.

Coca-Cola

I do love my soft drinks – never been much of an alcohol drinker to be honest with you, but soft drinks are definitely my cup of tea (no pun intended.)

I have an odd loyalty to Coca-Cola (and the numerous varieties of Coke) – which is strange as it’s not for taste reasons (I’m one of these apparent freaks that find Pepsi and Coke to taste the same)

Perhaps it’s the wider variety of flavours (Cherry Coke and Vanilla Coke are my mainstays) or perhaps it’s just that my favourite colour is red – who knows?

Of course, even though my "bread and butter" soft drink is Coke, I do purchase and enjoy the occasional Fentimans cola (usually Cherry Tree Cola, to continue the theme) as a treat to myself.

Amiga

Confusingly, despite my statement above about not caring a jot about the Mac vs. PC argument, from circa. 1993/4 right up until 2003 I was a die-hard zealot of the Amiga.

Yes, towards the end of that I was very much aware that it was a dying platform and that other modern machines were far more capable, but I still clung on to hope that the Amiga would RISE FROM THE ASHES. It never happened.

Still, I wouldn’t be where I am today without the Amiga and the introduction that it (and the Spectrum, I guess) provided me into the world of programming.

Morrisons

Not sure this one really counts, as I expect the vast majority of people are brand loyal to a particular supermarket. My reasoning may be slightly different to most, though – in my case, it’s not out of proximity (certainly not now that I’ve moved about 20 miles away from the one that I usually frequent) but is more that my Mum is fiercely brand loyal to Morrisons, and as I used to do her shopping for her once a week I always ended up there.

Apple

Referring back to my earlier comment about choosing whichever option does the job best, I have an iPhone, and have owned one since the original iPhone was released. The only iPhone handsets that I’ve not owned at some point are the original iPhone 5 and the iPhone 5c. I currently have an iPhone 6, but have previously had a 6 Plus – for all of 2 days before I took it back as being simply too big even for my facehugger-like digits.

I also own an Apple Watch. I have previously owned Mac minis and MacBook Airs, although my current home computers are both non-Apple devices.

I’ve tried Android, and can’t get on with it. Yet conversely I hate Mac OS X with a passion (especially the godawful Finder, which isn’t much better than Windows Explorer but at least I can switch Windows Explorer out for Directory Opus)

I’m not a typical Apple zealot though, and I won’t spend hours (or even seconds) defending iOS in online arguments about which mobile operating system is best. I’m sure they’re both as good as each other, but I get on better with iOS and have a fair amount invested in the App Store ecosystem, so I can’t see me switching any time soon.

Plus, you know, I can pay for things with my wrist. That never ceases to raise a smile amongst checkout operators at Morrisons – which is perhaps another reason I’m so loyal…