Hello. I’m Ravi, and I heard a radiator.

That is the surprisingly unglamorous beginning of this notebook.

My old Leeds flat had a radiator that made three separate sounds before it became warm. I recorded it to show a friend, then found myself listening to the room around it: a bus outside, a cup on a desk, the uneven hum of the fridge. I liked the way a recording kept things I had not known I was hearing. A practical errand became a hobby almost by accident.

Enough equipment to pay attention

I use a small recorder, a pair of headphones, and a home stereo assembled slowly from things I could afford. I enjoy learning what each piece does, but I am more interested in placement and patience than in building an impressive collection. My most useful accessory is a notebook with a stiff back. It works on a knee, which matters on a cold bench.

Every recording gets a plain title, a duration, a rough description of the place, and a note about what interrupted it. I keep names and private conversations out of the collection. The aim is to remember the character of a room or a patch of river path, not to gather details about strangers.

A personal scale

Ravi is a fictional listener, and the sessions are written scenes from his imagined collection. The session index shows the sort of notes he keeps. The home page sets the room around them. I like a hobby that can fit into five spare minutes and still reward an hour. Some evenings the whole session is moving a chair, listening to one familiar passage, and putting the chair back.