Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin: Stalker alert!

I had a bad night last night due to *ahem* environmental difficulties

So as I was awake at 3am and, prodded by a podcast listener’s email asking about something I mentioned on last week’s show, I spent the early hours of the day in the company of google, facebook and linkedin, trying to answer the question ‘Whatever happened to…?’

John Deloach. Or is that John De Loach? Who knows.

John was a presenter on the radio station AFN SHAPE.

I used to listen to AFN SHAPE, and John in particular, whenever I was recalled ‘home’ to NATO’s No 4 Wing, 2nd Allied Tactical Air Force permanent base, from wherever in the world we’d been sent to, on yet another detachment.

I liked his microphone style and his personality.

I would have described John as an American version of Kenny Everett. Not as madcap as Kenny, John was still a long step away from his more mainstream colleagues.

And I’m not naive, I know that he had a set-list and an A and a B playlist, but it was obvious, from listening to his colleagues, that John mixed it up as best he could.

And the music was good; AFN SHAPE played more diverse music than any of the German or Benelux stations we could get on FM.

Anyway, my googling, facebooking and linkedining were mostly fruitless, but I did come across a four-year-old discussion, on Craigslist, that offered up an email address of someone who used to work with John when he moved from SHAPE to USAF Ramstein.

So maybe there’s a chance.

And what happens if that chance bears fruit?

I’m going to drop the guy a line and say ‘Hi John, you don’t know me but 250 years ago I used to listen to you on AFN Shape and…’?

Lame.

Lame, lame, lame, lame.

No, I’m not going to do that.

But, you know, I just want to *know* that he’s still around somewhere.

Still OK.

Still using that sense of humour of his.

That’s all.

And on this week’s podcast I’m going to play a snippet (maybe more) of the first track I heard John Deloach (John De Loach?) play on AFN SHAPE, all those centuries ago.

Oh yes.

And the music is still excellent, even after all these years.

Radley College Randomness

Sometimes funny things happen when you least expect them to (is that what makes them funny?).

I’ve recently been arranging pre-season Cricket nets for the club at one of the local colleges. I have selected to use Radley College as they have some of the best facilities in the area and because Straussy went there.

Radley College is over 150 years old, and very much set in its way. The cliché boys boarding school: no girls; lots of lessons; strange looking tutors; almost military discipline. Check out the grounds, oh yes they offer Golf as a sport and have their own course:

I would have gone there myself, but my hair is too long, and I quote:

No dyed or highlighted hair is allowed.

Hair should be kept neat, tidy and off the ears and collar at all times, but not excessively short.

Anyway, I digress from the story…

I emailed them earlier today, asking for confirmation of my booking after being told on the phone early last week that someone would get back to me ASAP with information. Nothing happened so I emailed. Now, I don’t know what goes on in Colleges like this, but the reply I got surprised me:

I told you about this lesbian just in case u cant remember, 3.30 down the road still, plus can drop off more leaflets and posters…..

It’s a lie, they didn’t tell me anything about lesbians, for a boys school this seems slightly off the cuff.

Dear Jonathan Ross…

Dear Jonathan Ross…

I saw you presenting the BAFTAs last night and thought you did an excellent job. However I saw the part where the guy from Gavin and Stacey threatened to take the job away from you next year and when they cut to you there was a sense of resignation in your expression. Is he bullying you? Has Dickie Bird Attenborough been covering it up? With him gone now, I’m sure if you go and tell Prince William about the problems he will help!

If he can’t let me know, I have a contact number for Mr T (found it on the back of a Snickers wrapper), or if you get really desperate we can call Chuck Norris (If you say his name 9 times backwards whilst holding a transformers car he appears).

Hope the family is well.

Sincerely,

Colin M

A Matter Of Perspective

Yes indeed, it is all a matter of perspective, looking at the above picture, what you don’t realise is that each of those desktops are the same size!

Ok so that is bollocks, but I hope you are enjoying the view of my Nokia N97 + Asus EEE PC + Samsung 32” LCD. Each one has a very important part to play in my working set up at the moment, as you can see below…

All that tech, and still probably the most important thing is the note pad and pen… weird hey?

So farewell then Bill McLaren

The voice of my youth, Saturday afternoon television commentator on Rugby internationals, Bill McLaren has passed away at the age of 86.

And now, sitting here in Oxfordshire, but remembering the sound of his voice as we, in Llanover in those days, watched The Old Enemy (that would be England) getting dismantled by just about every other country on the international Rugby Union stage, memories occur.

In defence of that statement, this was a long time ago. It was a period when the Northern Hemisphere had one team everyone had to beat (Wales, of course), and the Southern Hemisphere also had one team everyone had to beat (New Zealand).

And I’m not too young to remember that epoch-defining, historic match day at Parc y Strade when the final score read Llanelli 9 – 3 Seland Newydd.

There were boys who didn’t come to school the Monday after that match. Intoxicated with pleasure, unlike the adult males of the valleys, who were intoxicated by many different types of liquid – many different types of liquid because some pubs ran dry of beer that weekend.

I remember the smell of haddock, too. For some bizarre reason the family evening meal every Saturday, while we sat and watched and Bill McLaren did his stuff, was haddock. No wonder I’m a vegetarian now.

Haddock!

And all these memories have been woken by the passing of one man? That’s impact for you.

Isn’t it?

Last Day At 1000heads

Yes it is true, today is my last day working for 1000heads.

In my 3 ½ years I have been an Account Assistant, WOM Analyst, Relationship Exec/Manager, and a Community Exec. Now its time for a change, to move onto pastures new and put my hand to something different, what or where this will be you will just have to wait and see. Many of you will have seen my commute rants over the last few months, this has of course had a massive influence on my decision.

A lot of people reading this will have met me, been introduced to me, had the misfortune of me contacting them because of my work at 1000heads. I would like to thank everyone I’ve been involved with, it has been an excellent experience and would not change a minute of it. Well maybe the 5am start to get to Manchester to sit on a street corner for 8 hours in the rain.

A couple of confessions which I have to admit to:

1) I once intentionally wasted 3 staples.
2) I once lost a pen under a train.
3) I once left a business card on a plane with the hope the Stewardess would find it.

I just hope that I can be forgiven for these misdemeanors and that they are not held against me in the future.

Tonight sees a small leaving bash with the ‘heads crew, this may get messy, as has been known in the past. I’m thinking London Beer Fest, Away Day @ Oxford Four Pillars, any Xmas / Bday outing and many more.

I have always kept my work there and my writing / thoughts here very separate so nothing is going to change there. If anything it will give me a little more license to express myself how I wish. Cue brand ranting.

Now all the dirt from the inside… just kidding!

Venture Into The Cold Wilderness

This weekend I went over to Bristol for my Bro’s birthday din dins. A group of us went to Zero Degrees for pizza, good pizza at that! Thanks to @photobliss @ghosts_galleons @jefffo @mercer182 for making it an ace evening.

However this is not what I want to talk about… I want to show you where I went on the way to pick another (non tweeting) friend.

In the middle of no where, down a steep hill (that was fun in the snow) we came across his little ‘hippie compound’. A couple of tent houses, they’re called Turks apparently, one for the family and one for my mate. We had a little walk around in the woods, a couple of snaps below. Everything there is outdoors, the kitchen, toilets, showers etc outside, it was cold, very cold.

But the view is almost certainly worth it (click the images for the large view)!

I Can Haz Shn0wBall

Yep that’s right, come near my house and you’ll get Shn0wBalled. Eric is on guard!

Close-up:

The lesson here is not to let your house mates build snowmen in the dark, good effort hey? Eric lasted 3 days, until he got his head chopped off… we needed to get cars on the drive again.

The real shame is that he couldn’t defend himself from the dog that pissed on him…

Shine Manchester 2010 (#shine2010)

I like Charity and I like the challenge of fundraising. What I don’t like is having no control over where my hard earned cash goes. This means I like the new Cancer Research fundraising fest that is Shine. You have the control, you choose which part of the Charity the money goes towards and fight a specific type of Cancer. Nice touch.

What is shine? A walk of only 13 miles or if you’re a real man 26 miles through Manchester in the middle of the night. Sounds like fun, who’s Sofa can I crash on?

To help spread the word of Shine, the challenge is to answer the following question: “What will make you shine in 2010 #shine2010?” Making sure that everything is hashtagged #shine2010.

That explains my tweet yesterday yes?

I do what with this now?

So, I went to work today.

Yup.

I was the one.

OK.  I exaggerate.  The Costa ladies in Witney were there way before I wandered in and dripped all over them at 8.15am.

Ah, yes.  I went to Witney Library to work.  Well, driving to Abingdon would have been suicide.  And homocide.

It’s annoying though, because Abingdon was closed due to staff not being able to get in.  So all the staff whose local library is Abingdon didn’t have to work.  Bah.

But it was fun.  There were two of us from Abingdon and many from Oxford Central and a couple from Witney itself, so we weren’t all doing everything wrong (I may have made the till make beepy noises, due to it being weird…or my not being able to figure it out…).

And can you believe it?  People came into the library.

In this weather.

We ARE an essential service after all! Huzzah!

But we closed at 3pm, due to weather and stuff.

Anyway.  I was really tired when I got home.  Nothing strange there, except I’d worked less hours than usual.

But walking in snow is tiring.  Yes.

So I polished off the blue cheese (no, it didn’t tell rude jokes) that was stinking the fridge, and therefore the house, out.

Which means I had a snack of 6 Ryvita smothered in butter and cheese.

Is it bad to eat blue cheese with a spoon because it’s too crumbly?

Shortly afterwards I washed the salty-smelliness down with many Christmas chocolates.

All while watching Channel 4 late afternoon telly.  Bliss.

Halfway through The Simpsons, I noticed my darling husband had closed his eyes and was breathing slightly heavier than usual.

And I thought ‘Hmm.  I would like some of that snoozing due to my over-eating in the afternoon’ and snuggled up under my fleece and fell very much asleep.

To be woken by the house phone ringing half an hour later.

I jumped up and ran over to where the phone is.

And looked.

And looked.

Until Bren said ‘Well, answer it then!’ and I remembered what I had to do.

I had a conversation that made no sense at all.  Luckily, it was with my Mum, who has had conversations with me while I’ve still been asleep, so she will understand.  Or she’s already called the men in white coats.

But I am slightly freaked out, because I was staring at the phone, but for some reason was looking for a hand-held phone, rather than our old fashioned corded normal phone.  And I was feeling the area around the phone as if I was missing something with my eyes and needed that extra sense to put the final piece into place.

Is that weird?  Because I do wonder if my brain is slightly…wrong, sometimes.

Can you get Early Onset Alzheimer’s at 30?

*Goes to interwebs to find out*