Radio 4, or why I'm sometimes late for work.

I'm a massive fan of Radio 4. It's almost always on in my house, my car and I listen to my favourite programmes on iplayer to help me sleep. The last time I put my tv on was Wednesday (today is Friday) when the Virgin man had installed my TiVo box, and all I did was set it up to record my favourite radio programmes. 

The problem with being a massive fan of Radio 4 is that most stuff on it is really boring, at least to me. I'm not in the target audience for R4, so although I love it, there isn't really that much I want to listen to. 

The big problem with this occurs in the car. I get in the car and a programme will be on about some ridiculously obscure topic that I have absolutely no interest in whatsoever, and by the time I reach my destination I'm so engrossed I can't get out of the car because I need to hear the end of the programme. I've lost count of the times I've had to sit in the car outside my house for 10 or 15 minutes because I need to hear what happens next. It's not too much of a problem when it's outside my own house, but it's quite embarrassing when the neighbours start looking out of their windows at me. 

And it's quite embarrassing to admit what I've been listening to when someone asks me why I was sitting in the car for so long and I have to explain the medium to long term benefits of Rio replacing Brazilia as capital city. It rarely ends with me commanding the sort of respect that knowledge warrants.