Its a fine 10°C today in Hertfordshire. I’m starting to really feel settled in now. I have a good 8 hours of work from home ahead of me, my piggy hot water bottle pinned to my belly, the cozy ruby red slippers Nykki gave me for Christmas and… wow I’d just about forgotten how much I’d missed it after I moved to the States – my sleek little digital DAB radio!!

It took a good few months to become accustomed to working with no radio. I’ve REALLY missed the BBC channels, especially BBC Radio 4 which keeps me entertained enough to focus my wandering mind into 8 hours or more of solid work… and I get to float asleep late nights with DAB Chill. I also miss Brighton’s Southern Counties Radio station, another talk channel that kept me abreast of all the happenings in my favourite seaside town. Back home I sometimes listen to the TV while I’m working, but it can be visually distracting. And I can listen to BBC Radio streaming for free online, but the quality changes while you’re listening and that distracts me too. These days I find it hard to achieve more than 4 hours of solid work – and previously I could go for 12 quite happily with my radio to keep me company. I wish I didn’t have such impossible ADD.

I wish SIRIUS Satellite Radio was free. I just can’t bring myself to spend a steep monthly fee on a service that doesn’t even offer BBC stations, and I just couldn’t be bothered to pay towards Howard Sterns salary for a station I wont even listen to.

Its SOOO ingenious that Digital Radio and TV in the UK is covered by a very low TV License fee, a fee you don’t even have to pay if you don’t have a TV and still listen to radio, and a fee which pays for all the BBC Radio and TV channels, public broadcasting stations which never need to beg for public funding or shout annoying ads at you every 5 minutes. BBC seem to have really nailed it – for decades now they have made a huge name for themselves around the world through their World News, educational shows, their ground breaking documentaries including the incredible legacy of nature documentaries by David Attenborough (my personal hero) and don’t even get me started on their beloved comedy shows.

I used to sort of resent having to pay a TV license, but I guess it took a year without my daily injection to truly appreciate the BBC for everything it is, how it ingeniously got there, and how it has never waivered in quality or addictiveness through all the years. Good jorb guys!