Solstice

Flakes through sodium,

Rakhmaninov on headphones,

Holding the front page.

In my teens, as an aspiring musician with a morning paper round, this time of year meant cold, dark mornings under the glare of old-school sodium lights (whatever happened to them?). Rakhmaninov's Vocalise always takes me back to those days, trudging across a snowy park with a bag full of newspapers. In the end, though, the papers had a greater influence on my career than the music: 30+ years on, I'm still working as a journalist!