"It's got RAM, it's got ROM, it's got them red and green lights, everything!"

We went to collect my birthday present yesterday (4 months late - ' can't get the spouses these days) and I was pretty excited. Now I know that a radio isn't everybodies idea of whooping it up on one's birthday but trust me, this is no ordinary radio.

(Forgive me if the following sounds like it's come straight off the pages of "Nerd Weekly - The Radio Buyer's Guide").

It's a Roberts - natch - model Sound 41 and although this one brings my tally to 5 (or 6), it is oh-so-different to any others I own. Reading reviews about it online, as you do, one person had written that it was "made of cheap plastic, not what (he) would expect from Roberts". I have to say I agree with him. The body is plastic, the body does feel a bit cheap, especially the handle, which looks like it wouldn't take too much pulling about by anyone.

The Roberts radio's of yester-year were sturdy and rugged, looked like it could drop off the roof of your Austin Healey while you were eating a cucumber sandwich with the crusts cut 'orf and it wouldn't so much as dislodge a battery. They were often semi-covered in leather of varying colours, wrapped around the wooden frame with, the pièce de résistance, a beautifully simple rotating black disc on the base which allowed you to effortlessly swivel the radio in whichever direction you desired.

So no, the silver plastic is not in keeping with the timeless look of Roberts. However, this is 2009 and if you think back a few years, even Buck Rogers' best friend Twiki was almost entirely silver plastic and he seemed pretty robust!

Anyhoo, the plastic body is where my annoyance ends.

The controls are wonderfully smooth. The large blue display panel is clear. You want FM radio? You got it. You want DAB radio? You got it? You wanna pause radio? You got it. You wanna programme the radio to record your favourite music show that just happens to be on at 1am on a Monday morning? (oh yes it is) You got it? You want the radio to automatically record that same programme every week until you say otherwise? You got it. You want your radio to bluetooth your TV Freeview box, telling it to record a programme on BBC1 on a Saturday evening? Hmm, actually, it can't do that, but you get the idea!

While the lovely M was purchasing this belated pressie for me, my eye happened upon a rather spiffing little box of tricks that will convert your vinyl records (ask your parents) into mp3. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with my impending 6 weeks holiday and technically I'm supposed to be decorating but I'll just tell M I couldn't get the lid off the paint.

*tee hee*

She'll never find out!