Tis the season for the sniffles

I hate when summer turns to autumn, mind you I think we have just emerged from a long spring, because for several months I have been looking and have not seen sight nor sound of summer! well this time of year is usually the time when we all seem to pick up the sniffles, which is precisely what I have done, I woke up this morning feeling fine, had my bacon butty then started work, as the morning has progressed a sniffle has developed, until now at 13.30 I have a slight headache, I fear the onset of Man Flu, a very nasty condition that affects your average man, and renders him incapable of doing the most basic of tasks without moaning. The trouble is I have an extremely busy time ahead, the voice is required in tip top condition on Friday evening, and as for the rest of the weekend, well Dan is away so I will leave the rest to your imagination! On top of that this Monday I start doing some work for the Civil Service so need to be on top of my game. So I have no alternative but to look into the various pills and potions to help this old fart cope with man flu, and to protect my voice, I shall be eating lots of fresh pineapple, which for some reason has always helped when the voice has given me issues!

As I mentioned Young Finch is away this weekend at his mothers, luckily he and his mother have patched up and issues they had, so thank goodness I will not have to get dragged around the hell hole that is Bluewater. I seriously think that it would enhance the whole shopping experience if pushchairs were banned, these people drive there reasonably safely, so what turns them into arsholes as soon as they have a pushchair at their hands? they quite happily clatter into anyone who gets in their way, and the kids scream at the top of their lungs.....little shits should be banned!
I was discussing this with a Kiwi friend of mine at the weekend, who just thinks its hilarious the state I get in about it, now what I actually think hilarious is her trying to climb her apple tree to prune it from within! if only my camera was handy!
Still we got the job done and put some particularly nasty weedkiller on to the brambles, then spent the rest of the afternoon viewing a house,which was very nice, an offer has been made and accepted!

A certain radio station called today, following on from my talking with them in the summer when they rejected me! well it seems they have some stuff for me to do, and I will need to dust off the passport! Now where is my sun tan lotion and Imodium?
Deep Joy

The Finch boys in action against Billericay!

This Monday Virgin Radio becomes Absolute Radio, Virgin is my favourite music station and I have BBC 5 Live for sport and news, when Virgin first burst onto the airwaves all those years ago they were a breath of fresh air, playing some corking music that nobody else was playing, through the original Virgin I discovered my admiration for Pink Floyd, Van Morrison, and many many more, this sort of music at the time was not being playlisted by anyone, sadly Richard Branson then sold the station and over the years as the station has changed hands the original idea and sound has been diluted, so you would find songs that would be played on Capital now being played on Virgin, not my really my cup of tea. Listening over the last few weeks it appears the station is heading back to its original state, which is great.

When I myself have presented radio shows on all the stations I have worked, I have always insisted on choosing the music myself, if the station had a particular sound and style and my style would not fit in I would not do it, as has happened a few times, I have no qualms with a playlist that is designed for a specific audience,you can look at a playlist and get a very good idea of who they are aiming at.

The playlist is essential and a lot of care and attention is needed to be put into it, otherwise it will all sound a mess, as has happened at Gateway in Basildon, when I joined them in the Summer I was given my usual licence by one of the Directors (who knows what he is doing)as I had worked with him before and he got me in to do the style of show I was good at, sadly as you may have seen in an earlier blog other Directors who quite obviously have no idea about radio wanted me to do the show with their playlist using a PC based system that frankly was a shambles, the playlist was a complete disaster, absolutely no though had gone into it, some of the music on their was frankly embarrassing, who these days plays Gary Glitter's Do you wanna touch for gods sake? They did have the opportunity to have a great playlist , in fact they had it in place, Bertie, who has done the same job for Virgin, Invicta, Millenium, Swale Sound and many other stations, was in the month leading up to ur joining working all hours to sort a very good playlist out, sadly a few days before we were due to start they scrapped all the work he had done and gave the job to a 15 year old, and as a result we had no listeners, and no chance!

So playlist is everything, Radio 2 have a good mix during the day, and know exactly who there market is, the likes of Capital, XFM all seemed to have theirs sussed, and thank god Virgin are going back to what they are good at!
Shame about Gateway they had a chance to be decent but the ego has landed! in the meantime I have had an interesting offer which I am going to accept!

Just got awarded a rather lucrative 6 month contract! yippee!! feeling very chuffed with myself.

My walking companion and I are sorting dates for Oct/Nov walks, we will be doing Offa's Dykes and the Waterfalls region in the Brecons, and Old Finch is threatening to join us!

Have this clever new gadget, it tells me exactly who views my blog and will even identify anonymous comments! been having a butchers, makes very interesting reading......

Bluewater with Plumstead's own style guru this weekend :(

My son worries me, he has a huge sum of cash to blow on clothes this Saturday, he has been telling me what he would like to get....good grief Gok Kwan should talk to the boy

Just booked myself in for a Wellman overhaul at the quacks, doubtless they will tell me to stop smoking, drinking, and generally enjoying life! apparently they check everything....

Cricket Club AGM this evening, we have had a good season, more wins than losses and I have eased up on the bowling now and tend to concentrate on batting. My brother has decided to join the team full time next year which is a result.

Its been a funny few days, the young one seems to back on good form, much more like his usual daft self! Off up to town on Friday to talk about some work for a local authority, 6 months worth of regular stuff! and my exam results are due in 3 weeks! knees are starting to tremble a tad...

Going to speak to the owners of Finch Hotel as Ian and I are planning a couple of large walks in South Wales soon. The New Romney Mountain Rescue Team are looking forward to their weekend in December, a barrel is coming down with us apparently as well as the home made blackberry schnapps! god I am worried for my liver!

New Toilet signs for Hampstead Heath

Feeling a bit sorry for myself this morning, since I had some health issues a few years ago, I have had to watch what I eat, I cannot go near chinese food due to the devastating and painful effect it has on me, I have to avoid fried food, trouble is I love bacon, so I have tried grilling it, and it does not work, this morning I had a grilled bacon sarnie, and within 15 minutes I was camped out in the loo reading Edwina Curries diary! I should explain that due to my stomach issues over the last few years I have spent a lot of time hiding in the smallest room in the house, so I have a small library in there, today I started on Edwina's diary, previously it was a library stacked with sporting biographies, Alan Curbishley's was very popular for a while, then read through Alan Green's and of course all of my Botham books are in there, but what I feel I really need in there is a good giggle (resist the obvious joke reader), some humour, so anyone looking for birthday or xmas ideas, a bit of humour would not go amiss.

The poor little fella came back from his mothers having not had a good weekend, seems Timmy has rubbed him up the wrong way and now as a result his mother will not be coming to see him during the week as she has since she left, as she thinks they need a break from each other, this coming from someone who has him every other weekend, god it must be hard for her! he does not seem to bothered about her mood and was very keen Sunday afternoon to come back home, in fact the little rascal sent me a text asking if he could come home early, being diplomatic I told him he needed to clear this with is mother! She has confessed to me that she is worried that he will turn out like his big brother, I think she is over reacting and really don't think he will be that bad! and he is at the age where he will get moody, its entirely natural, so I will give the little fella some space and we are looking forward to a shopping trip to Bluewater on Sunday, for a spot of retail therapy. She seems more upset about all this than he is, I cant help feeling there is a spot of guilt clouding her thinking.
This Saturday I am up at the Kiwi's helping in the garden in exchange for a good lunch and some gossiping. The weekend after the boy will be away with his mother to resume hostilities with Timmy, and I have a quiz night to host in Sittingbourne foolwed by a dash down to the coast to meet a 'friend'.......

You may recall I did some Radio for Gateway FM in Basildon during the summer, today they contacted me about working for them in December, one of the Directors called and wanted to discuss an email I sent in July, where I told them a few home truths, they attached conditions to me returning such as using their play-out system (which is crap) and stick to their playlist (also crap)I pointed out that the playout system was only suitable for webstreaming and not for radio broadcast and that the playlist was awful and not at all well thought out, at this point the Director decided to treat me like a child so me being me stopped her in full flow and said would not be doing the broadcast. I am not the only one at the station who felt this, but I seemed to be the only one who had the bottle to point it out. Sadly it appears the wrong person seems to be running things on Gateway FM.
Oh well one door closes and another opens! It could be time for a change!

A bit down in the dumps this morning, Dr has advised me not to go to Cornwall, so I am a bear with a sore head!
On the radio front I will be doing a show from November every Saturday, can't tell you all the details just yet, but looking forward to it big time!

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Things don't look too good for the walk in Cornwall this weekend, I pulled a stomach muscle on Sunday whilst batting, then got a heavy duty knock to my knee when diving for a catch(which I held), as it stands at the moment, its 50-50 as to whether I can do it, might have to leave it til the last minute to decide.

Richard Wright, Keyboard player of Pink Floyd died today, Pink Floyd are one of my favourite bands, very sad news.

Poor old Toon, they seem to be in a terrible state, the supporters believe they are the best, they are not, they turn on the team and Staff as soon as the team has a bad 45 mins...fact! They think they are one of the biggest clubs and deserve success.....they have won sod-all for 50 years, so what they need is a new owner, and here are the criteria they need to meet.

1) Be a Geordie
2) Thicker skinned than Simon Cowell
3) Richer than Christmas cake
4) Maybe a bit delusional
5) Probably a bit stupid

Well, there's only one person that fits the bill if you ask me - Heather Mills, your time has come.

Well I am highly delighted, just been watching Sky Sports News, and one of my most hated people on TV is Jeff Winter, a former premiership referee, for the past few years since retiring from being a crap ref, he has been voicing his opinions on ref matters for Sky, today a new man appeared, step forward Dermot Gallagher! hopefully his arrival signals the departure of Mr Winter.

Oh by the way, your Reporter is alive and well!

Having a quiet night in this evening after last nights fun and games!! Dan is away so we will be trying to catch up with all the stuff I have recorded on Sky + just watched The Bourne Ultimatum and now going to settle down to Mock the Week, well there are a few of them to view and Harry Enfields new series which looks pretty good.

Spent the afternoon checking weather forecasts, maps, and failing to find any Campsites on the first 25 miles of our walk next weekend, so it seems we will have a spot of wild camping on the cliffs of the South West Coastal Path.

On this day in history

1440 Eton College was founded by Henry VI. Prefects were warned to look out for "ill-kempt heads and unwashed faces."



1873 - The first practical typewriter was sold to customers.

1916 - Adelina and August Van Buren finished the first successful transcontinental motorcycle tour to be attempted by two women. They started in New York City on July 5, 1916. (Ed- They would have been quicker but they had trouble with the map)

1922 - The Episcopal Church removed the word "Obey" from the bride's section of wedding vows (Ed- Bad move)

1944 - U.S. Army troops entered Germany, near Trier, for the first time during World War II.

1953 - U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier.

1954 - "Lassie" made its television debut on CBS. The last show aired on September 12, 1971.

1963 The Beatles had their second UK No.1 single with She Loves You.

1983 - Arnold Schwarzenegger became a U.S. citizen. He had emigrated from Austria 14 years earlier.

And most importantly

2005 English clinched the Ashes after a winning the series 2-1.

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing England beat Croatia the other night, a top notch performance when needed, I read a lot of papers in the build up and heard all sorts of journalists sharpening their pencils waiting for England to lose, the likes of Brian Woolnough (Star) and Martin Samuels (The Times) you could tell were poised... now from what I can make out our players feel the pressure before each game, and it is this pressure that affects their performances, they know that if they put a foot wrong they will be destroyed by the press, take Frank Lampard up to Euro 2004 he took his club form into Internationals, then after a few less than impressive performances the press did what they always did, slaughtered the man, all of this stoked the fans up who for a while now have been booing Lampard when he wears the England shirt at Wembley, do these journalists really think the players do anything other than try their best? I thought the idea of a journalist was to report the facts.. I am not interested in Martin Samuel's opinions (and boy does this over inflated ego have one). Its high time these idiots got behind our national team, they usually do once we get through the group phase of a championship, then its all hail our conquering heroes... the same heroes they had been slaughtering, I recall in the build up and during the group stages of the World Cup in Italy how these people were running down the England side saying how bad they were, how they would go nowhere, but suddenly we were in the Quarter Finals and the same team they had been ripping to shreds were now world beaters and the hapless Bobby Robson was now a top class manager, Martin Samuels and Brian Woolnough were amongst those people. These people make a good living out of football, think they are experts when they are just like you and me but they can write a bit, instead of slaughtering our teams they should stick to reporting the facts, and avoid their own ego fueled opinions that have a detrimental effect on the players. England needs its players to play without fear, that will not happen with the media behaving the way they do, but of course they are too arrogant, too full of their own self importance to even consider that!
As for the game Wednesday night, it was awesome, but a word of warning, they will not play like that every game, that is not possible, there will be times when a result will be ground out, where games will be tight dour affairs with few chances, that is the nature of football, Man Utd and Chelsea (successful teams) know this, and so does Fabio Capello, his Real Madrid side did not win in a swashbuckling way, they were efficient and got the job done, that is what we are going to see from England in the future I think. And Theo Walcott is not going to score 3 goals every game, he is young and will be inconsistent for a while, but the talent is there....
Right thats me happy....I have had my say!

Had a very interesting day today, I have secured some work with the Civil Service and a contract with a London Council, all good news for me, and will keep me more than occupied and will mean the midnight candle will be burnt a few times!
Been checking through my gear for next weeks trip to Cornish Cornwall, everything seems in order, just need to get some new Gaiters and we will be good to go! We have purchased some pre prepared food sachets for the weekend so we can be entirely self sufficient and not need to stop at any shops!

I may have mentioned that I am off to Cornwall for a walking weekend, well its a week tomorrow that we head off, we fly down to Newquay and get taken up to Boscastle then walk back to Newquay, easy.... my arse! we have a pod like tent, and are packing as light as possible for the trip, this is just a mere practice run for next summers 192 mile coast to coast walk which is going to be incredibly hard, so once a month we will be heading off, we have walks planned in the Brecons, Snowdonia, the Lakes and Peak District.

The Cricket team zooms back into action this weekend as we take on a team called Red Dogs, there is an air of confidence following our win the other week against Billericay CC, not sure if my brother is playing, but I am sure he will, and it will probably be our last of the season, hopefully I can get in the runs!

Things on the personal side are on the up!!!

Its official, I am old, I have gout! my big toe is very painful and the last two nights sleep has been difficult, my Dr asked about my recent diet.....France is to blame!
Now I always thought gout affected men of a certain vintage, I am a mere youngster at 45! my big brother has it but he is 58! my middle brother is 53 will have to ring him to see if he has it! In the meantime I am going to hobble about til the medication kicks in!

I need to elaborate on our cricket game yesterday, our team played exceptionally well and looked very lively in the field and worked hard to limit the opposition, we batted first had a dodgy start with my brother Bill holding things together, I was due in at number 5 and looking forward to batting with my big brother, sadly he got himself out so I strode out to try and get some runs and push our score up which we managed to do scoring 182 for 7 off 30 0vers which is a fair old lick and setting them a stiff run rate to achieve victory, which thanks to some great bowling and fielding we managed.
Now as a side show to our efforts on the pitch next to ours was the Essex Academy team, managed by one Keith Fletcher, who used to manage England at one stage, our younger lads were extremely keen to impress!!
This morning my knee is shot to pieces, its swollen and stiff as hell, the rest of the body is in full working order thankfully!