The other day, my car's stereo/radio (or whatever it's called these days) decided to throw a tantrum, and "ate" my newly-bought CD when I wanted to try it out.

Being an in-built unit, there didn't seem to be an easy way to remove the set to retrive the CD. It looked like a job best left to the professionals.

So, I brought the car to the dealer, thinking that they probably knew best what to do.

What I didn't expect, however, was to have to drive without a radio.

Unfortunately, for some reason, the dealer had to remove the entire stereo/CD player from my car in order to have it looked at, and that has indeed left me without a stereo to tune in to, for the time being.

I'm sure most people have the radio on while driving, or at least some music, playing your favourite CDs or even hooking up your new-fangled music players, as I sometimes do.

Besides having some aural accompaniment, listening to the radio is also useful for traffic information. Like today, when there was a massive (and I do mean massive) jam on my route to work. I was completely in the dark about it, although thankfully I saw it in time and could still plan an alternative route quickly in my head.

Apart from that, driving with no music is actually quite a surreal experience. You hear nothing apart from the engine and road noise. Or, if you drive a Lexus or a Prius, you get total silence.

I'm not really a fan of complete silence. It creeps me out somehow.

But I guess I'll have to live with that for a while. At least, until I get my stereo (and CD) back.