What the Papers Say

Rushes and reeds highlighted in the low autumnal sun

The first real signs of winter may be coming to the UK next week around Tuesday with more widespread snow. The Scottish highlands, as would be expected have already had some - the rest of us are getting some of our own. Oh joy and it's still only November; having said that, snow here at this time of the year is not as rare as people think.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to review the Sunday papers on BBC Radio Humberside this morning on Andy Comfort's Sunday Brunch from 10 am to midday. It's something I am invited to so occasionally and it's thoroughly enjoyable. Andy is a wonderful host and professional presenter who engenders a relaxed atmosphere mixed with great music and a bit of fun.

The secret to reviewing papers is picking a story about which you are interested - not necessarily knowledgeable about, and treat the whole thing like a chat with a mate over a cuppa. Pick a mix of serious and off beat stories of broad interest as possible. Give a precis of the story, give an opinion if you have one and don't swear! I always go fairly early to give myself plenty of time to read the eight or nine papers that are presented to me and I scan them all from front to back looking for headlines and stories that people may be interested in.

Local tree with leaves highlighted by the low powerful autumn sun

I have no idea what the demographics are of the audience to this station nowadays, but they are not at all young I guess, but they are knowledgeable about music and local issues and are very loyal listeners. The radio station recently won the Sony Radio Station of the Year (300K to 1M listeners) award. No mean feat.

My stories today were:

Sunday Telegraph - Children in Need

£31 million raised for good causes and although I never saw it, the writer comments that it was one of the best Children in Need BBC shows she had seen.

Independent on Sunday - Superbugs

This was a disturbing story based on a report in the Lancet that we as a race of people facing having infections which are resistant to antibiotics because we use them too much. An unnamed doctor is quoted as saying the public and doctors need educating - "...just because you're ill, do you need a pill?"

Sunday Times - Pricier Christmas menus in the home

Based on 15 items average price across four supermarkets, some items have gone up 125% over last years prices and the 15 items in total have gone up 17%. Higher animal feed and imports as well as a lack of supermarket promotions are blamed.

Mail on Sunday - Stamp of honour for literary giant Trollope

Anthony Trollope is to be honoured with a set of stamps to commemorate him. This literary giant also had local East Yorkshire connections because he worked for the Post Office in Hull for a short while and initiated a failed bid to become an MP in the 1860s for Beverley, when the campaign he fought in was riddled with corruption and it was investigated. He was also responsible for the introduction of the Post Box in the UK. 

Sunday People - Jimmy Greaves top 50 all time footballers

This famous footballer rated John Charles as his all time number one footballer who in 1957 was sold to Juventus by Leeds United, one of the first foreign transfers, for the princely and record sum of £62,000. George Best, Booby Moore, Bobby Charlton and Stanley Matthews also appeared in his top five. 

Sunday Express - Doctor Who's 50th anniversary

The paper listed all of the Doctors and a brief history of each although they forgot to name Peter Cushing as the Doctor in two films.

A bit of fun to lighten a Sunday followed by a lovely lunch with a friend. Christmas card writing  tonight and perhaps wrapping a couple of presents.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Path of Least Resistance

The seedhead of the Marsh Marigold from the pond is as beautiful as the bright yellow spring flower that comes before it

Having water pouring through a light fitting hanging from the ceiling should be a deeply upsetting and worrying time. Trouble is, been there and got the t-shirt. It's happened before and we lost a ceiling the last time and had all the clearing up and the remedial work which lasted weeks. This time, the leak is confined to coming down through the light fitting as the water, as it always does finds the least path of resistance.

The nice man from the gas company who we have the insurance with was here within 45 minutes and determined that there isn't a pipe burst, but that the source is most likely the seal on the shower tray that's gone and as one of the lads was having a shower, the seal has leaked water. There's just a drip now every ten seconds as the last of the water soaks away from the void between the floors. Another visit tomorrow will determine the final cause and hopefully it will mean the cost of a tube of silicon sealer rather than hundreds of pounds of work.

The weather here is a little up and down with heavy showers, warm sunny weather, cold spells; we've had most kinds of weather this last week except snow, but perhaps shouldn't speak to soon.

Mr Chu's, our Diversity Master Class venue by night with the Humber to the right

Although I am taking a break from work, we held a Diversity Master Class at work at a popular local venue last week with guest speakers designed to help staff realise their potential, to help understand where we as individuals and the organisation can remove the blockages to our development.

On the evening time, the formal work setting was replaced by inviting many people who represent the diverse community to a meet us at a relaxed event with many varieties of ethnic food and entertainment with a view to breaking down some barriers and open up communications and improve relationships. This was a huge success and very well supported.  There were dancers, musicians and comics to entertain for a few hours.

I reviewed the papers today (Sunday) for the local BBC Radio Humberside on their Sunday Brunch programme hosted by the incomparable consummate professional, senior broadcast journalist Andy Comfort. I get there about an hour before the programme is to start to read the papers and lovely producer, the knowledgeable Steve Redgrave makes superb tea. I try not to pick too many serious stories for a Sunday morning; I try to think of myself at home and what I would want to hear so I take a mix of topics bearing in mind the Sunday papers are quite heavy going. 

Today's stories included the Leveson Enquiry into press standards where only a fraction of the issue of phone hacking was examined leading some to the conclusion it was designed solely to attack the media; the Charles Saatchi domestic violence case which some say puts the cause of combating domestic violence back to the dark ages by giving Saatchi a formal caution (rather than prosecution) for alleged domestic violence perpetration; whistle blowing at the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in covering up bad practise and weather forecasting and the detrimental effect on tourism in the UK by forecasting a bad summer. The final light hearted story was about being '...as old as you look or as young as you feel.'    

I answered five questions on the weeks news which I hear for the first time live on the programme and today for the first time ever, I got five out of five right! Whooppee!

Mr Cheesy - pruned, repotted and tied up (Monstera deliciosa)

Finally for today, I've just repotted a rescue plant which had been misbehaving (a long story) from a good friend and it's looking a little better, mind you, the rains have now come and I hope it copes okay.  

I've also learned a little about myself today which is never a bad thing (in this case) about some conditioning from the past which affects me today and which I need to address.

Have a great week ahead

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Believe everything you read in the papers!

I had a ridiculously early start to the day today - well for me anyway. I tend not to be much of a morning person and although I do my best work in the morning, sometimes I have to work harder at the thinking bit.

I drove into the centre of Hull in thick dense fog.

I was asked to review the papers this morning on BBC Radio Humberside for the brilliant breakfast show presenter, the very professional Andy Comfort. I've done it a few times now but it never gets any easier. I arrived at the studio around 7 am which is about quarter of an hour later than I like for me and that gave me twenty minutes to go through the papers and pick five stories to mention and give a personal view or comment upon.

I try to pick things I'm interested in or know a little about and perhaps have an opinion about. It helps I suppose that I like keeping abreast of the news, more from a national perspective than a local one these days - I tend to be a bit jaundiced about the quality of some of the local news output. In any case, politically, I have to keep a weather eye out for what's happening which might affect my work.

This morning I picked:

• Energy (mentioned in yesterday's blog) and the need to secure it for the future;
• The national debt of £1,485 billion debt (equates to £56,000 per household);
• Cuts in public spending after the next election;
• The recall of faulty Toyota cars (180,000 in the UK and 5 million worldwide);
• The castle built by Mr Fidler in Surrey without planning permission.

I try to pick a fun story and the last one I mentioned was the castle - I find it hilarious, but I guess Mr Fidler is less than impressed. It all seemed to go okay, Andy is a great conversationalist who puts everyone at ease and I was well looked after by Clare the producer and stand-in helper, the versatile Steve Redgrave with a cuppa and a water before I went on air to ease the sore throat.

I had finished by 7.45 am and just avoiding the need to buy a parking ticket, drove off to work.

Instead of doing my usual exercise tonight, my other half suggested we go for a walk. Off we set and arrived home 45 minutes later. We debated how far we'd walked and we couldn't make our minds up so we got in the car and measured it! How sad is that? We walked 2.5 miles. Despite the grey damp winter night, it was a pleasant walk none-the-less.

Today's story has a journalistic theme.

A local sports reporter was covering a local Sunday League derby match and noticed that one of the teams was fielding an incredibly wizened looking old man. The reporter thought that he might be in the presence of the oldest player in the country, so keen to find out something about the old man to help make the lead story in Monday's paper, he asked, "Tell me, do you have a special diet?"
"Oh yes," the man replied, "Every day I drink eight pints of strong lager and a bottle of Scotch, I smoke about 40 cigarettes a day and all I eat is chips."
"That's incredible," said the reporter, "How old are you?"
"Twenty eight."

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

The Delights and Dispair of Snow

Snow has been subject of much debate lately due to this extraordinarily long period of cold weather. Questions arise like “Why does the country come to a standstill with an inch of snow?” and “I can remember when I was a kid when winters were real winters…” Well I have no such experiences of long hard winters except perhaps one in the late seventies where the local bypass had snow piled up either side to several feet.

But I can remember in my childhood home rubbing beautiful and intricately patterned ice off the inside of the windows in a morning. You have to remember however that ‘in those days’ (showing age and maturity) we had single glazing and no form of heating in the bedrooms (showing good memory) and pyjamas and a dressing gown were a must if you didn’t want to freeze to death on the journey between the bedroom and equally cold bathroom. I can still remember a stoneware hot water bottle that my grandparents used to have for their bed in the tall three storey Victorian house I used to live in as a kid. Double glazing, central heating, smaller rooms, carpets and instant access to gas/electric fires have made us soft perhaps, hence why we probably suffer more colds and sniffles these days.

Let’s face it this country has always come to a standstill whenever there has been snow – when was it any different? Why do we moan about it – it happens in a winter – live with it! My concern I suppose is the economy and our jobs. More of us feel the need to take a risk and travel to work. Bosses should be more understanding (ha!) and good bosses (and there are some) should put contingency plans in place to allow workers to ‘work from home’. Clearly, extremes of weather allegedly caused by climate change will continue but it doesn’t necessarily mean temperatures are simply rising; as I understand it weather will be come more extreme which means harsher winters and hotter summers. I just need to buy more table salt for the drive in case the council run out - they've bought up all the gritting salt! I have some rock salt in the kitchen cupboard, it's better for my health but is it good for the environment?

The forecasters will tell you that long hard winters when it snowed for weeks and winters were permanently cold year after year is an urban myth like long hot summers every year – they never existed; statistically anyway. Simply put, the memory plays tricks because as kids we had the freedom to spend more time outside; thats it! But I do have this child-like fascination with snow – I love it, which I know is selfish because it does bring hardship to the vulnerable, but I can’t help it. I love being in and watching thunderstorms and seeing hard rain bouncing off roofs. But being fifty something does mean that for the first time, I feel the effect of the cold more. I was out just before Christmas in a particularly chilly wind gathering up the tons of leaves that seem to end up in my garden from the surrounding town’s trees when, after an hour outside I couldn’t feel my face at all and it took ages for the feeling to come back so I could get to the point where I could smile or articulate my words properly. And here’s the rub, I’m not fit enough to wade through feet of snow having fun or climbing up hillsides all day to go tobogganing.

So here I am – a spectator of the wintry weather, still affected by it through higher heating bills, longer journeys to work, more reluctance to walk, work, drive or play in it, but I still love the magic of the sight of thick laying snow.


BTW (text speak for 'by the way' - is that cool that I know that?) I only knew one blogger personally, Andy Comfort a senior broadcaster on BBC Radio Humberside. I met another today - Lisa and I look forward to reading her blogs about food - a favourite pastime of mine.

NO spelling mistakes today - wow.

Chat soon…

Ta ra!