I have just bought a new radio. They call it retro, but I shall ignore that, just be glad that it is possible to obtain one once again
It only has LW/MW/FM – we do not have digital yet, but anyway I would not want that. It is also very large – the number of ipods you could pack into its box would be well into double, maybe even treble figures. The advantage is that it will work off nice big fat C batteries
I want to be well prepared for possible winter power cuts. Most of the radios in the house are mains only – it is ridiculously expensive to keep even a small radio in AA batteries. If this modern copy is anything like the real old ones it will keep going for a good long time even without mains supply. And there must always be a signal you can pick up from somewhere in the old fashioned ether
Candles, torches, matches, hot water bottles & blankets to wrap round the knees are a necessity for any household round here, subject as we are to regular – if brief – interruptions to supply. And I still keep up the old fashioned habit of having tins of food in the store cupboard – if the worst comes to the worst & the gas goes off too, you can eat the contents cold
Then I read that power may not be the only thing in short supply come January: we could face a shortage of medicines too. It is hard to tell whether this is because of another government bungle over the way they have introduced a new NHS pricing regime, or is just a piece of scaremongering by pharmaceutical wholesalers
I wonder if there is any point making an appointment to see if the doctors advise laying in a judicious stock of the kind of thing we might need?
