A hybrid, if you will, because in addition to the solar panel, you can whack in AA batteries, or plug it in, or if it’s dark and there’s a power cut and the batteries eventually die, you can wind a lever to give it a bit of juice for as long as your arm lasts. Hence this clunky banana-coloured transistor sitting in my window. If bad things were to happen where I lived, I wanted to know I’d be able to tune in to Vicki, too. RNZ National’s overnight announcer, Vicki McKay, was credited by many listeners for keeping a shaken – and still shaking – city calm and informed. No need to hunt out the receipt to be sure of my torch-radio’s date of purchase – I know I placed the order immediately after that first devastating Christchurch earthquake in September 2010, the one that woke the city in the dark.įrom where we were up the other end of the country, we heard stories of people whose only way of staying connected in a city without electricity, telephones or internet was to listen to the radio. I have my eye on a vintage wall clock that doubles as a secret storage space. ![]() Not everything in the brochure has a dual function but you have to turn quite a few pages to find something that doesn’t. I bought it in 2010 from one of those mail order catalogues that features couch covers with handy pockets, and anti-slip shower mats that promise to massage your feet. On a windowsill at my place there is a solar powered radio which also doubles as a torch. ![]() First published in the NZ Woman’s Weekly – cover date 20.3.23
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