How easily we become accustomed to things, how easily the accoutrements of modern life become so much a part of our daily lives that we only notice them when they run out of batteries. On a recent flight I was so immersed in the world of my iPod - absorbed in the latest series of Doctor Who if you must know and it’s much better than I thought it would be – that I barely said more than a brief hello to the person next to me, a smartly dressed lady with white buds flowing from her ears. Somewhere half way across the pacific our pods began to die and reality intruded as a second round of inedible airline food was served to distract us from the length of the trip and the uncomfortable seats. We exchanged hellos and what originally had kept us isolated in our own worlds was the start of our conversation as we compared the merits of our two players - nano v ipod - our loves of different genres and the wonderful way in which the internet and ipods have expanded our listening options exponentially. As with all good conversations time flies and before you know it ‘fasten seat belts and prepare for landing’ interrupted us and we were touching down at Chep Lap Kok and going our separate ways. And why is this of interest to you, it’s probably not – but sitting on the Airport Express, I was reminded of my travels around Asia in the early ‘90s before I came to Hong Kong. I would spend hours at night in small villages introducing newly met friends to a world of talking boxes, listening to the crackly reception of the BBC World Service on short wave, constantly fiddling with the aerial and the radio’s position to get the best reception… How on my first visit to the Great Wall outside Beijing I turned on my trusty transistor radio to be greeted by the crystal clear tones of a BBC DJ announcing, as he completed a nostalgia countdown show, “… and at No. 1 in 1976 was Pink Floyd and The Wall...” Standing on the Wall listening to The Wall, it doesn’t get much more surreal than that. I wonder if the other four travellers with me that day remember why they have a photo of themselves on the Great Wall holding a radio.

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