”I don’t think I’ve ever turned the radio on my car; there’s always a CD playing.”

— I remember saying this to some people, when I was back in Portugal and still driving my car around. For almost two years, this was true; I never cared for radio and its usually awful, tasteless, commercial music that made me cringe and crave for the sweeter sound of loud car horns. The honk of a Fiat Punto over Rihanna, anytime.

This morning, just like many other mornings recently, I find myself working remotely from home.

”Music is always the best companion to work in this creative business!” — I keep saying over and over again to the people who ask me about it. And I mean it. But these past days, working from home or from a coffee shop with the laptop sitting in front of me, surrounded by strangers who are also mostly foreigners like myself, I notice the cravings for something else.

Voices, words, happenings. Knowing what’s out there, from the mouth of someone else.

This morning I stumbled upon a few broadcasts of radio stations from all around the world. Quickly and suddenly, I was engaged to the daily news of what’s going on with someone else in Seattle, Berlin or Vancouver. The sense of company that this brings tastes a little bit of wanderlust, in the form of digitally fake waves of FM radio.

For about 30 minutes today, I was a local in Vancouver. Not 10 minutes later, I was living somewhere cosy in Austin, Texas.

It’s just like I’m a remote citizen. And I didn’t even bother about Rihanna.