I used to love newsagents. I could go into a newsagent and potter around among the stationery, look to see what books they had, glance at the newspaper headlines, and delve through the computer and other geeky magazines before (maybe) making a purchase.
I can’t do that any more. I can’t stay a second longer than I have to. At least, not in the newsagent near work, the appropriately titled North Brighton News. Because they have their radio tuned day in, day out to the worst godawful radio station in Melbourne: 3MP, the easy listening station.
IT’S NOT EASY LISTENING, IT’S JUST DAMN ANNOYING! They play all the most irritating, dull, soulless, grating, and – worst of all – memorable songs known to man. And the thing is, now that I’ve noticed, I can’t not listen. Each time I’m in there, I have to listen, just to convince myself that it really is as awful as I remembered from last time.
Even the DJ’s sound nasal and completely dull. I just cannot imagine what on earth anybody in their right minds would actually want to listen to this radio station for – let alone all the time!
And so, having bought a newspaper or whatever, I stroll back to the office, doomed to have some hideously plodding song like "Kokomo" going round in my head for the rest of the week. It’s not pleasant.
Perhaps I need some kind of aural protection: a Walkman playing Motorhead or something. Now, where’s that new Weddo’s live CD?
