Journal Entries
Sitting here looking like a feeble imitation of Eddy Merckx
Posted Mar 11, 2005
Since I shifted back to office hours, I've been trying to cycle in to work as much as I can... it's environmentally sound, it keeps me fit, and it saves a few quid in tube fares. And with the exception of the snowy weather last week, it's been going quite well and I've managed to do it most days.
The only trouble is clothing. I'm not the kind of bloke that can cycle 10 milse slowly without sweating, so I tend to keep a pair of trousers in the office, bring in the odd clean shirt every now and then and have a shower and get changed when I get in every day.
I left work last night just after half past six and left my shift and trousers on a hanger on the coathooks by the Sport 24 set. Came in this morning and they'd gone.
So I'm sitting here wearing an ancient and shabby pair of black trousers and a garish yellow, blue and orange cycling top that I bought in Camden Market for a fiver - chosen chiefly for its visibility.
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Latest reply: Mar 11, 2005
Memo to Self
Posted Feb 22, 2005
As a recent convert from shift work to office hours, I really need to acquaint myself with the concepts of 'school night' and also 'drinking in moderation'.
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Latest reply: Feb 22, 2005
Three Radio Stations now!
Posted Feb 20, 2005
My radio career sideline continues to develop, although slowly.
After I started out doing the non-league show at Radio Leeds and some occasional match reports for a couple of months in late 2003 and early 2004, I moved on to proper match reports for Radio London from November 2004.
And yesterday, I did an interview that went out on Radio Devon. 
I'd only gone along to practice my commentary - at the moment I only do reports, and the next stage is moving up to proper off-air commentary that they can record and replay. But as Radio London didn't have a match for me this weekend, I asked them to get my a pass for the press box at West Ham v Argyle, the idea being that it would be a lot easier to commentate on that as at least I'd know one of the teams really well.
It wasn't that easy, as it turned out. For one thing, I'm not very good at commentating yet. And for another, I found out that commentating on your own side is about as hard as it gets, because my own emotions as a fan were getting in the way all the time. The fact that we gave away a penalty and an own goal in the first 20 minutes or so and went on to get stuffed 5-0 didn't help much either
So I gave up with the commentary practice pretty early on. But Radio Devon's commentator asked me to go and interview the Argyle manager, Bobby Williamson, for him - basically he has to write and file a one-minute match report as soon after the final whistle as possible *and* get a post-match interview, which is a bit of a tough ask. So I went down to the tunnel and did it, and they played the whole thing out on Radio Devon on Saturday night. 
So it was a bit of a mixed bag, all in. I was gutted about our performance (West Ham weren't that good, yet still stuffed us 5-0) and worried that my commentary needs a lot of work. And it's not easy trying to work out what to ask after a 5-0 defeat and you know your interviewee's going to be in a bad mood and not want to talk to you. But I think it was the first one I've done since I started reporting again in which I didn't ask a 'closed' question that could have just a 'yes' or 'no' answer. So I was quite pleased with my interview, as it goes. 
I'm doing Brentford v Sheffield Wednesday next week. I hope Martin 'Mad Dog' Allen's going to be in a good mood. He's a great character, and I've got a lot of time for him as a manager, but he more or less had me for breakfast last time I interviewed him... he sounded suitably amusing and I sounded suitably stupid.
But you can't take yourself too seriously in this game 
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Latest reply: Feb 20, 2005
A real Tony Wilson moment
Posted Feb 20, 2005
I'm sure at least some of you will have seen the fantastic film '24 Hour Party People' - charting the career of Manchester-based pop svengali and local news presenter Anthony H. Wilson and his involvement with Joy Division and, later, the Happy Mondays. So as well as him running Factory Records and setting up the Hacienda, we see some of the rubbish local news stories he's forced to work on, like an item about a dwarf washing an elephant at Chester Zoo.
One of the best lines for me in the film is the following exchange, after he comes back from the Chester Zoo story and complains to his producer:
Wilson: Look, I'm a serious f***ing journalist, I went to Cambridge University, and I want to work on some proper stories.
Producer: How about a feature on t'North-West's tallest man?
Wilson (walking off, over his shoulder: F*** off!
Regular readers of my journal might remember just over a year ago, when I spent three months working on sport for the local news in Yorkshire, the previous most Wilson-like moment of my career. I arranged for the Chuckle Brothers (Children's entertainers and celebrity Rotherham United fans) to appear live from Millmoor on BBC Look North to preview that night's FA Cup Replay against Northampton - winners at home to Manchester United.
Well, last Thursday, I topped it. The job I do at the moment involves working with all the BBC Nations and Regions and seeing what sport stories they're working on and arranging for the pictures to be fed down to TV Centre in London for News 24 and the National News.
So. I had to call the Edinburgh office and arrange for some pictures to be sent down to London.
Of a new-born pygmy hippo at Edinburgh Zoo that the staff there had named after Ellen McArthur.
I ask you.
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Latest reply: Feb 20, 2005
Signed off work until the 17th
Posted Jan 6, 2005
On Tuesday I found the little leaflet that they gave me when I left hospital before Christmas.
It seems that if I suffer from any of four symptoms including difficulty concentrating, then I should refrain from:
Going to work, watching television, drinking alcohol, smoking, and playing sport.
Since returning to work on Boxing Day, I've had two days off. My work involves being surrounded by about 40 monitors. I've had the odd pint or glass of wine or two over Christmas, and I went for a run the other day, which f***ed up my neck for a bit.
Not the best recovery plan, with the benefit of hindsight.
And I've been making silly mistakes at work. Putting Liverpool on a graphic even though I knew - if I'd thought about it - that it was Newcastle United who were playing West Bromwich Albion. It's been a lot of that kind of thing - basically little lapses in short-term memory, forgetting details in between starting to do something and actually doing it.
So I went back to the doctors today, and they said I need to take a complete break and relax to let my brain recover.
So tonight I'm going to the Darts at Frimley Green, Saturday I'm going to see Argyle at home to Everton, and on Sunday I'm going to watch Yeading v Newcastle United.
The last one's technically working for Radio London, but someone else is going to be doing the commentary and I think really I'm only there for the ride - Yeading asked for me to be sent to the game 'cos I'm their lucky Cup mascot, which was nice of them.
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Latest reply: Jan 6, 2005
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