Typecast

All the way back in July 2014, one of my fellow community radio presenters, Steve, asked if I'd be interested in taking part in the recording of a radio play... y'know... just for a laugh, not even necessarily for broadcast, but to see what the process was like . I joined in an initial read-through at the Media Factory in Preston, a second read through at the Korova Arts Cafe (again in Preston) and then a mini-recording session at Will's house (the venue for many recordings of The Big Cheese too) and from what I gather, organising this recording has been like herding cats because the cast could never be assembled in one place at the same time. Almost A YEAR LATER the final production has now been released.  The original copyright was owned by the BBC and Steve has obtained permission from both Auntie Beeb and the writer of the script to release the recording as we recorded it as a community project and not for financial gain. Enjoy the play and then carry on readi...

I've been in this blogging game for a while now - thirteen long and eventful years if you're interested - and this blog has taken on a number of guises. I've blogged since the days when no-one else was blogging, or it was a dirty secret, or people just didn't understand why you'd want to share your thoughts and musings on this new place called The Internet because it was full of geeks and weirdos. I feel as though this blog has grown and matured with me (stop laughing at the back) and there are parts of it that have branched off appropriately because they took on a life of themselves. But the growth of The Internet as an entity is one that hasn't surprised me. Initially, I didn't understand why more people weren't taking advantage of this wondrous thing. However, with easier accessibility, there were more and more people embracing the fact that being online was going to become part of their lives. In fact, there's a whole generation out ther...

When I was working in an office with Mel we used to map our day out by the structure of Radio 2; it was all about Popmaster, really ( "...and anyone else who knows me" ).  During the time I worked at home, I had music on in the background but it all mashed into one long song whilst I hummed along, tunelessly (the modern equivalent to my Grandpa's whistling). Now I'm back in an office environment I have talk radio on in the car whilst driving too and fro and we have a commercial radio station on at work. Apart from the odd channel hop in the car, I haven't listened to commercial radio on a regular basis since Rock FM was Red Rose Radio. Now, it's becoming embedded into my daily working day life. It's very noticeable that commercial radio tends to follow the same structure and there's four parts to it: talk, news, music and adverts.  Talk It's a long time since I sat and really listened to the radio. It takes a lot of concentration, does...

Things That Are Wrong With The World #1 : Bodyshaming.  And even moreso, bodyshaming the singer, Pink!. I'd fucking LOVE a body (and hair) like hers - and I'm sure my husband would too!  Is there a perfect body size and shape? If so, can someone please tell me what it is and then I can sort myself out and make sure I'm harming anyone's eyesight as I walk down the street. Anyway... if anyone could give a lesson in shutting down the body-shamers, it's Pink. ( original Facebook picture | original tweet ) Things That Are Wrong With The World #2 : Death threats after a made-up news story that lead to people having to take time away from Twitter. ESPECIALLY when it's over fucking Top Gear. Speculation last Friday saw Sue Perkins as "one of the favourites" to take over the main presenting role on a programme that probably isn't even going to continue in it's original guise - this has since lead to Twitter Trolls wishing her dead for some str...

I loves me a bit of nostalgia. I'm especially attached to the 1980's because they were mainly my defining years but each time I create one of these " x things from x years ago " posts* I'm reminded of how quickly life passes us by. Last night's Friday Twiz theme was 10 Things From 10 Years ago and even when the year 2005 doesn't seem like such a long time ago, whilst researching the questions I was really surprised at which news and music events I'd forgotten about.  So... here are t en things that happened ten years ago - 2005 was a fairly unforgettable year! ¨¨°º©©º°¨¨ 1.  Hurricane Katrina struck the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coastal areas flooding 80% of the city of New Orleans. 2.  Angela Merkel assumed office as the first female Chancellor of Germany 3.  YouTube was founded by three former Paypal employees - Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim - after they had found difficulty sharing videos onlin...

Over the past six months I've been working with online stationery company, Bureau Direct to bring you new ideas and inspiration from their virtual shelves. It also basically meant that I could indulge in all things stationery-related without having to make excuses.  As a blogger it was probably one of the best ambassador and review opportunities I've ever had which goes to show that it's not always about the money but finding a good blogger/brand relationship. Over the weekend, I created a few stationery-themed YouTube videos . I've linked these below with a bit of an intro to each of them.  I hope you enjoy them. ¨¨°º©©º°¨¨ A couple of weeks ago I filmed a stationery haul in which I showed my final Bureau Direct order and some goodies from Smiggle. This should set the mood for the rest of this post... First, I talked about the limited edition Ambition set of Field Notes notebooks (from Bureau Direct) which I'd been eyeing up for about three ...

In no particular order, here is what I have learned this week... It's really hard to choose between 'learned' and 'learnt' when you are a fully paid up member of the Grammar Police.  When your 21 year old son passes his driving test the insurance quotes start at around £6000 and the lowest quoted is £1900, probably because of his job. When your 21 year old son goes out driving alone for the first time since passing his test you do not relax until he is home again. 'Family meal time' is very strange when 50% of your family (i.e. the two-thirds of your off-spring that still live at home) are actually out working and earning their own money outside of traditional office hours (but hooray for new jobs and independence). Doves used at weddings and funerals are not actually doves but white homing pigeons called Rock Doves. There are about 40 real doves stranded near a cemetery in Cheshire after the 'wrong type of doves' were used a...