18 September 2009 (Friday) - Radio 4


I woke at 5.45am this morning thinking there had been a gas explosion. Then I realised that it wasMy Boy TM ” going to work. You’d think I’d be used to his noise by now. Hopefully it will be quiet tomorrow as he’s gone fishing for the weekend.

I set off to work via Asda (it’s on the way when cycling) where I got my “lunch” - a “weight watchers tortilla wrap” which was almost, but not quite, as lame as salad. I arrived at work early, and started the day with a cup of green tea. It’s foul, but I have it on good authority it starts off my metabolism. I was hitherto of the opinion that had my metabolism stopped, I would be dead, but it seems I am wrong. Green tea starts it off. One lives and learns.

I sat down to a pile of work, and tuned the work’s PC to radio 4.
Half way through a surprisingly interesting article about Nelson Mandela, one of the trainees asked what I was doing. I made a rather supercilious speech about having the freedom to listen to radio, and how interesting and educational radio 4 is, and about how mundane and dull the radio in the main laboratory is. I felt a bit of a twit when I eventually realised that the trainee wasn’t asking about the radio. He was asking why I was at work before 9am when I wasn’t due to start until 11.30am. Woops!

The radio then had an article on premier league footballers. 96% of the population feel they are overpaid. Apparently that statistic is the highest agreement on any subject radio 4 has ever had. An ex-premier league footballer tried to justify the pay by pointing out that the career of the average premier league footballer isn’t that long, and they need to earn a lifetime’s wages (plus pension) in less than a couple of years. I can’t see that myself. What’s wrong with getting a job after the footballing’s done?

Next came a damning report on the outbreaks of E. coli that are making people ill across the country. Various tourist resorts are being held responsible for the children who are now sick. It seems odd that a farm can be blamed for that which grows naturally on a farm. E coli comes from animal poo. If you go near an animal, you go near E. coli. It’s that simple. Any blame for the sick children should be laid firmly at the feet of those who took the children to see the animals. You simply don’t take a child to see farm animals if the child can’t keep its fingers out of its mouth. You don’t. End of story. Rather basic, really.

And then to lower my blood pressure, the afternoon play was about a milk float race from Middlesex to Bognor Regis. The afternoon ended with something about the impending retirement of Terry Wogan, and his planned replacement with Chris Evans. I don’t listen to either, and have no idea what either is like, but the BBC would seem to be under a hail of criticism about the choice. It would seem that there is no clear distinction between radio 1 and radio 2 these days, and the choice of Chris Evans is merely muddying the waters more.

I’ll stick with what I know….

1 comment:

  1. Parents always want to blame someone other than themselves even though failed to follow the signs that told them to wash their hands. On a similar vein my favourite comment to parents who ignore the signs and allow their kids to stand in trolleys at the supermarket (and why Leng hates shopping with me) is 'I hope you washed the dog sh*t of your kids shoes before you put them in there.' This normally gets the same response, the child is rapidly removed from the trolley along with any food stuffs that have been placed in their as well.

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