Radio
My radio is my constant companion. Music, to quote a well known song, is my first love.
But, I am an avid 础谤肠丑别谤鈥檚 Fan, and have been since I was seven years old. At school, I also religiously listened to Mrs Dale鈥檚 Diary.
My, how the style of radio broadcasting has changed over the decades. I鈥檓 tempted to say, I wish the good old days were still with us, when Sunday afternoons were spent with the family, in the company of Kenneth Horn, or Life with the Lyons, followed by Jimmy Clithero.
There was something strangely comforting about sitting down to a roast dinner, and amongst all the chatter, I would drift off into the world of the comings and goings of the neighbours inside our old wireless set.
Well, how things have changed since I was a little girl.
I am one of those people who are still using analogue radio, and, at the moment, I鈥檓 quite happy to continue doing so.
The only thing is, because I do not possess a Digital, I do miss out on a lot of programmes which have been switched in order to provide a much better service, and that can only be a good thing.
So, maybe I鈥檒l extend my Christmas Wish List.
In 2012, it is the government鈥檚 wish that we all become Digital. For those who are able to afford the luxury of Sky TV, all well and good. Freeview is already a part of our lives, supplying a substantial amount of free channels. This has it鈥檚 merits, as I could listen to crystal clear radio. However, my radio is my friend, and a handy little portable is what I am happiest with.
Satellite communication can transport me all around the world, and paint pictures in my mind.
Hurray for radio, It鈥檚 like a continual book with sound, and the subjects in this book, are to me a source of great stimulation.
To my knowledge there's been no decision taken against "analogue" radio in the way there has been with television.
I onced lived in Hong Kong and to my amazement found that when dining out in chinese restaurants often in a privately allocated room, which is often the norm in that culture, that there was often a TV set perched far above the table on a corner perch, looking down at us and always turned on!
Very often the group dining would have a great evening and discourse, totally ignoring the TV. However on several ocassions I switched off the TV, exclaiming that surely we didn't require it. On all those ocassions it would only remain off for a few moments and someone would insist on turning it back on.
The TV was providing background noise, which it does all and everyday in Hong Kong, on the streets and in the restaurants.
My old gran used to do the same thing with her radio - she often I believe didn't actually listen to it but busied about her tasks, but it was there - Gran's little comforter I used to call it!
As I have commented before on various messageboards and possible somewhere here, the budhhist monks call it the "chattering of the monkeys"
We often seem to fear silence.
Sometimes I sit at the river bank and sometimes am fortunate enough not to have too many youngsters with their trany radios blaring away perched on their shoulders, rather like the TV set in HK. And during these times, I just sit and listen to the sound of nature. Ducks quacking, wind rustling the leaves, water gurgling over rocks,etc.
And what that experience gives me is some solitude and the opportunity to either think and mull things over or just meditate.
That insistant non-stop background noise, whether a Mozart concerto or droning Radio 3 drama is still 'the chattering of the monkeys'
And I think at times we all benefit and by that I mean our minds from a rest from all the background clatter!
Radio 3 is best :)