Home Truth

Couldn’t resist the title and it’s the least I deserve, given the inconvenience my gadget man’s latest eco-gadget has caused me.My bedroom has not experienced such noise and action in quite a while, I can tell you. Any ideas yet?

Sorry to disappoint, it’s just a Freeplay Summit wind-up radio. I shouldn’t say ‘just’ because there are very few things in life that my hubby holds possessively close to his heart but his radio is one of them. For as long as I have known him (and probably for long before that) he has not been able to sleep without being ‘ear-plugged in’. All night long, too - just in case one of the kids wakes him up and he can catch a few minutes of an obscure World Service emission before dozing off again. I’m convinced that the tinny white noise that reaches my ears reduces my quality of sleep and that that is why I find it so hard to get up in the morning!

Anyway, I had been going on at him for quite some time about the amount of batteries he was getting through. That has now stopped. Now I go on about the vigorous winding that shakes the whole bed and high-pitched whirring that accompanies it, just as I am settling down for some well-earned(!) rest. The first night on holiday in the caravan was THE low point for the radio’s assimilation into our family in my eyes - when at eleven at night, we had finally got the little ones settled…. and then the winding started, closely followed by the screaming and me spending the night with my five year old in a narrow cabin bed.

Despite all that, my man is very proud of his new possession. The quality of reception is good; the recent sunshine has powered the solar panel, reducing the need for winding; and when required, winding for a minute really does the trick. Great for if he ever decides to travel to the far corners of the earth. Equally great for keeping the wife quiet about batteries.

Filed under: Uncategorized on April 17th, 2007