DAB radio; BBC Radio 4

Part of the point of my extended time in London is a kind of reset button on my assumptions about who I am, what I need, and what I like. I only brought a suitcase; I couldn't bring everything I own by default. So what is it I really can't live without? Not in a survivalist way. More in a Maslow way.

I learned very quickly that radio is very high on my list of must-haves. I live alone at home and here in London, which I like, but silence can become relentless after a while. I prefer to have something interesting to hear about. News, opinions, fiction, conversation. Radio is my favourite form of disembodied company (though, so far, I haven't had the pleasure of a friendly ghost); it talks to me, makes me think, it reminds me that I'm part of a larger community.

So after food and various toiletries, the thing I found myself longing for was radio.

Every country I've lived in has had its own very idiosyncratic talk radio that I quickly fall in love with. CBC radio one at home; WBUR in Boston, the local NPR station; and BBC Radio 4 in London. You can listen to them all over the internet now, so technically geography is no longer a barrier. But for some reason local radio feels pinned to its place, to the point that it feels a bit out of place when it's, well, out of its place. Radio for me goes along with the weather, the traffic, the things the people around you are talking about. When I listen to my CBC station here, the timing if all wrong. I can feel my distance when I listen. I feel very far away.

Today I stayed home. I cleaned the flat, did my laundry, washed the bedding, nursed my cramps, and listened to Radio 4.