I close the door and press the button and listen.

Walking away I leave the desk and laptop, the plans, phone calls and email behind me.

“This is a download from the BBC”, says the voice as I walk past Martin’s van (here all day as he is off sick having again hurt his back at work) and down the road.

I’ve always enjoyed walking. There’s something about it, perhaps the rhythm of the footfalls or the constant stream of images passing ones eyes, which makes me unwind and these days that’s something I often need.

What I’m still not too used to is the whole podcast in the ears thing. I love the idea that I can time shift programmes until I want to hear them. True, things are working a lot better since I returned the Matsui MAT110MR and bought instead a Creative Muvo V100. This has worked like a dream since I first plugged it in. No more temperamental sulks or frequent reformats.

I’m not sure that I’d listen to this all the time, especially not when I’m exploring new places where sounds are as important to me as sights, but for familiar streets it works really well.