Yesterday was one of those days I refer to as "recovery days." Days when I don't have anything specific to do but just catch up with tidying, sorting bits and pieces and just let the time roll by. That way I get much more done than if I refer to my ever increasing list of "things to do".
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When it comes to changing radio channels when I'm driving, I am very lazy. I tend to put on Radio Two and just leave it there. I could play my own playlists, play music from Spotify or Amazon but don't bother. Just leave it on Radio Two. I could listen to one of my many audio books but I don't bother. I just put it on Radio Two.
Scott Mills is doing the morning show. It's always disappointing when Ken Bruce goes on holiday (Ken Bruce seems to have an awful lot of holidays). To me there are two kind of radio presenters. The first are consummate professionals who bring something different to their shows (Ken Bruce and Steve Wright spring to mind). Then there are the others who seem to come from the DJ/Radio Presenter clone academy. Scott Mills is one of these. You just get the idea he is going through the motions.
Then we had the Jeremy Vine show. This is a current affairs phone in style programme where Jeremy focuses on some of the issues of the day. I enjoy the show and actually like Mr Vine but I did feel flat yesterday when he had an item on bed poverty. He was talking to teachers who have pupils in bed poverty. This basically means kids who have no bed and have to sleep on floors or chairs. It's a terrible comment on modern society. My problem with this feature was the fact that Jeremy Vine was talking about people without beds from the safety of his six figure annual salary. It made me uncomfortable.
On the way home I hit some awful Radio Two rubbish hosted by Joe Lycett who is presenting more from the fact that he is a celebrity (???!!!!) than from the fact that he is a bona fide DJ. He was rambling on about the show being his New Year's Eve's eve's eve's eve party (or some meaningless drivel like that). He played some dreadful music under the general term of "great bangers" as he continually told us. There are two phrases I hate when it comes to radio shows. One is the use of the word bangers to describe certain songs. This has only just come into use. The other one is when people ask for a "shout out." Don't know why these annoy me but they do.
Lycett morphed into a mix tape show where Oti Mabuse talked about her life and put together a series of songs. It was interesting and I will do a similar thing at sometime.
Then as we approached home I heard a bit of the Jamie Cullum show. I quite like the guy despite the fact that our tastes in music are a million miles apart. He did produce an album a short while ago that I enjoyed. It had a track entitled Taller which had the lyric I Wish I Was Taller which is something I can certainly equate to.
By and large I hate celebrity presenters on the radio. They are there for who they are rather than any interest in the music they are playing. Most have egos the size of a monster egg and it's all about them Of course Michael Ball is the exception to this! Jamie Cullum is ok of course because 1/ he's a musician and 2/ he is vertically challenged (as all the best people are).
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I have mentioned before those part work magazines where you can build a model over some appalling length of time like two years and at great cost. The latest is a model of the Titanic. This one has the first part for £1.99. But what point is there in just having edition one without the rest? You would just be left with a thin magazine and a couple of pieces of the boat's hull.
This model is in 140 issues (that's over two and a half years of a weekly publication). The cost is horrendous at £9.99 an issue. That's 139 issues at £9.99 and one at £1.99. And that comes out at an earth shattering £1,390.60. I hope my maths is correct as I never use a calculator when I can work things out in my head or on a piece of paper to keep the old brain cells ticking. That's just plain ridiculous.
It's the equivalent of paying out just under £40 a month and sometimes more when there are five weeks in a month. I just wonder who buys these things?