Interview - Toby Greenwood from It Takes Two on Brecks FM!

It's been an absolute age since I did any interviews on my blog, but finally they return! :)

I've recently become increasingly addicted to the "It Takes Two" show on Brecks FM.  The show is presented by twins Toby and Adam Greenwood, and is on every Wednesday evening from 7pm to 9pm UTC (aka UK time for British readers).  Toby was kind enough to take some time out to answer a few questions about their show, so, here we go!

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Q: Hi! So, for people who haven't heard of you before, who are you, what do you do, and tell us something exciting about you!

I'm Toby and with my twin brother Adam present It Takes Two on Brecks FM. I also work in admin for the Council. Something exciting about me? I have met the chef Ainsley Harriot - he was very tall lol!

Q: So, what's the "It Takes Two" show all about?!?

It Takes Two is a show for anyone- not just the younger listener. we aim to create a show that is enjoyed by both adults, young people and older people. We aim to give listeners the latest news and sport, quirky facts and great music in a professional and fun way.
 
Q: How did you get into presenting radio shows? Has it always been something that you've wanted to do?

We saw an ad in the paper for presenters at Wayland Radio- we went there to give an interview and ended up presenting after that, a little scary!!!!. after this we presented with some others on a show called "Our Turn" a show for the younger listener. After Wayland ceased broadcasting, we moved to SNYA Radio, an internet only station that was run by and presented by young people. We did this for several years before moving to Brecks FM - formerly known as Watton Radio - with some of our old presenters from Wayland Radio.

Q: How long have you been presenting for Brecks FM?

Around a year.

Q: What's the best thing about being on the radio?

Playing great tunes and having such a wonderful audience :)

Q: And what's the worst thing about radio presenting?

None - well the studio gets a bit hot in the summer but I'm being picky.

Q: Radio has changed a great deal over the years, from a purely audio channel received by radios, to today when you can listen to it over the internet, watch the studio over webcams, stream and listen again... do you think radio today is better?  Is it tougher for you, knowing that not only are you putting out a show over the radio, but also often being watched as well?

I think that radio is better- there is so many ways now to connect with the audience, social media etc, this can only be a good thing and provides good publicity for the station .

Q: What's the craziest or oddest thing that's happened to you while presenting radio?  Any technical failures at awkward times?

We were broadcasting but not going out live so the people listening were hearing silence, we were just doing our normal thing, none the wiser.....

Q: Any chance you can let us in on any ideas you've got for future shows of It Takes Two? Anything exciting coming up?

We take each week as it comes- just to keep you guessing.........:)

Q: Thanks for your time - so how can people listen to It Takes Two, and when is it on?

It Takes Two with Adam and Toby broadcasts on Brecks FM Wednesday evenings from 19:00-21:00, tune in online at www.brecksfm.com or on 106.9FM in the Watton Area.

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Many thanks to Toby for his time and for taking part in the interview, and I hope people tune in to their show on a Wednesday evening, either on the radio if you live in the area or otherwise via the website!  They also have a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ittakestwoshow

Car Advert

I keep getting this advert appear on my Twitter feed for the all-new Jaguar.  It looks like an awesome car, but I get distracted by it's name...

Yeah, I'm a twelve year old boy, I can't help but swap two letters over and say "P-Face" to myself and giggle.

In other news, I finally got around to doing a new video, I'm really pleased, particularly because it's one of my parody adverts, which I love to make, but hardly ever have ideas.  Do check it out :)

Upcoming...

It's far too cold! I need a jumper!!!

Just a quick post to say that next week I've got an interview coming (it's been ages since I did one!), I've been in touch with Toby Greenwood, one of the presenters behind the "It Takes Two" show on Brecks FM, and I'm pleased to see that the exclusive interview will be live on the blog next Tuesday!  In the meantime you can listen to their show tonight (Wednesday 7pm-9pm GMT) at http://www.watton-radio.co.uk/ or on 106.9fm if you're in the Watton area.

Writing

Typical day of writing:

6am - I'm awake!!! Today is going to be different.  I am going to get in some time for writing. But not right now, I have to get breakfast on the go.
7am - Okay, better get ready for work.
8am - Let's go to work! And I'm going to do some writing tonight. Hey, I might even do a bit over lunch.
9am - At work.
12pm - Lunch. I'll definitely do writing tonight, I just can't fit any in today on my lunch break though.
6.30pm - Home! Dinner time. And then writing.
7.30pm - Well, I can't miss the bedtime routine.
8.30pm - Okay, the rest of my evening is free for WRITING!!!
10.30pm - I appear to have spent two hours surfing websites, eating snacks, and watching The Big Bang Theory.  Guess I'll make a start on the writing tomorrow...

Anyone else? :)

A Revelation...

Those of you that kindly follow my YouTube channel will already know this, but for everyone else, I've had a bit of a revelation this week.

On Friday afternoon at work, I felt in need of a hot drink.  Now, long time readers may remember the tea vs coffee debate between my blog and Life, Explained, so of course my choice of drink has to be tea (although I do quite like coffee).

I happen to have 2 mugs on my desk at the moment, my regular mug (a present from my son from last Fathers Day) and another mug which I generally use for visitors.  And a somewhat crazy thought crossed my mind.

What if... I made TWO cups of tea???

So I tried it.

And it was good.

I finished one cup of tea, and guess what?  There was a second cup, right there, ready for me.  Perfection.

I can only theorise that this may work for other drinks, like two cups of coffee.  Do experiment and let me know.

In other news, I'm delighted to say that Susan Leighton has very kindly hosted a guest post of mine on her blog, asking how your new years resolutions are coming on, and some tips if you're starting to run into difficulties.  Do pop over and let me know how your resolutions are coming on :)

Foibles

Not sure how this picture relates to this blog post but I went to www.pixabay.com and searched for foibles, and got this.

Today I thought that I'd write about the foibles, aka the little irrational actions, that we take in our lives.  It was kicked off by one of my colleagues, who revealed that she doesn't like eating foods with different textures at the same time.  Instead, she'll eat each different texture in turn - so if she's having a roast dinner, for example, she'll have the chicken, then the potatoes, then the broccoli, and so on.  I tried her with a number of different scenarios, and for each one she came up with how she'd eat it without having to tackle multiple textures in one go.

I told her that she was weird, went home, told my wife, and she promptly told me about someone she knew who did exactly the same thing.  So perhaps it's more common than I first thought.  Other foibles could be not standing on cracks in the pavement, or not walking under ladders.

Anyhow, it's not fair for me to write without revealing some of my own foibles, so here goes:

Sneezing out of windows.  I like to sneeze out of windows. Okay, I don't mean that, when walking past a window, I think "oh hey, maybe I should hang out here for a while in case I need to sneeze!". What I mean is, depending on what is on the other side of the window, potentially it's an efficient way for dealing with a sneeze.

A particular example is at home, when I'm chopping up vegetables or meat for cooking, if I feel a sneeze coming on, I can go to the window, sneeze out of it (and on the other side of the window is a corner of the back garden patio with a couple of plants in pots, nothing particularly troublesome) and return to cooking.  This way I'm not getting germs on my hands when working with food (I do wash my hands whenever I need to, I feel the need to add!)

When I've been at a friends house, when it comes to time for me to leave, I'll sigh, prior to saying something along the lines of "Right, I'd better be off".  The sigh always happens.  I don't know - for me, I just feel that I need to precede the farewell line with something, some sort of noise. Maybe I'll carry a kazoo around with me so that in future I can give a little tune as notice that I'm preparing to leave.

And when it comes to eating food, I have another foible, which is I tackle food by eating my least favourite foods first.  Tonight this backfired on me, as we had pasta with vegetables and bacon, but by the time I'd eaten the vegetables, and subsequently the pasta, I was too full to eat all the bacon. This makes perfect sense to me, as it means that when you're starting to feel full you keep eating because it's the really nice food left.  But I don't know of anyone else that does this.

What's your little foibles (or are you foible-less)? Let me know in the comments! :)

Unexplained Phenomena

Being in a ruminative mood, I'd like to discuss how I'm fascinated by the countless examples of unexplained phenomena encountered in everyday life.

Why, for example, is it not only expected, but absolutely guaranteed, that when we order an Indian takeaway, the following conditions (at least in my house) will always be true:
1 - at least one small part of the kitchen worktop will be stained yellow by the curry, a stain that will be resistant to every cleaning chemical in my house;
2 - I will be wearing a shirt with at least some percentage of white within its design, and;
3 - I will spill some curry down the shirt, making it effectively useless for a work context, except on occasions where the car windows are misted over and I need a rag to wipe them.

In order to examine these phenomena more closely I shall be opening my own university, the University of Minutiae Inc, where PhDs will be available for students to research such irritations of everyday life.  I am already on the lookout for a number of engaged, forward thinking, and most importantly gullible students that can deliver research in the following fields:

• Parcel Delivery - a keen student is needed to carry out a root cause analysis to establish the reasons why parcels are only delivered when you are not in the house, why the local mail depot, which you must visit to obtain the parcel, is only open between the hours of 3.30 and 3.45 in the morning (and is located approximately forty miles away from the nearest human habitations, only reachable by private transport)
• Internet Technologies - an easily distracted student is required to research the design of clickbait websites (i.e. "Click here for 15 amazing photos the CIA doesn't want you to see of Taylor Swift telling you how to be a millionaire with a free iPhone!") in order to discover if the websites do, in fact, have a finishing point where you can stop reading them at last, and en route to the finishing point, to see if there is any actual information of photos the CIA doesn't want you to see, Taylor Swift, how to become a millionaire, or how to get a sodding free iPhone.
• Food - a hungry and imaginative student is required to carry out a inferential analysis of the food within one thousand peoples refrigerators, in particular considering if any of the food in fridges actually went bad by the "Use By" dates on the packaging.  They are also to review the contents of the so called "salad crisper" or "vegetable drawer" to see if, at any point, food is removed from this location to be eaten, rather than just thrown away after going mouldy.

A special UK-only doctorate will be available to someone who wishes to study Argos, an oddity which survives despite combining the worst elements of both internet and high street shopping (you have to go out to the shop to buy what you want, but you don't get to see the item until after you paid for it!)

And of course, there is one very special fellowship available for anyone who can explain why there's such a demand for gym's that are open 24 hours a day.  Who are these people that need to exercise their quad muscles at 2 o clock in the morning, instead of everyone else who is busy being asleep, or possibly drunk and eating a pizza whilst watching reruns of Cagney and Lacey?

We look forward to your interest.

New Flavours

I saw on a bottle of cordial in our kitchen a label saying "new flavour".

Woah! New flavour?!? They've invented a new flavour?  That's truly amazing, and I think not overdue.  With science and technology nowadays I think that we're far too stuck with old flavours based on current foods and fruits, we should be experiencing all kinds of weird flavours which aren't like anything else we've ever tasted.

So, what is this new flavour?

Orange & Peach.

So, not a new flavour, just two old ones combined. It's like me saying that my shirt is a new colour, by combining green and blue.  Perhaps I'll name it bleen.

Orange & Peach, It's not even two unusual flavours.  You always get apple and blackcurrant, and orange and peach, or orange and pineapple.  manufacturers never mix the two lead fruits, you never get orange and apple together, and heaven forbid the secondary fruits get a bottle of their own - blackcurrant and peach?  Get outa town!!!

I'd love for them to go further, let's have some proper fruit mixtures. Lychee and lemon? Cherry and Quince? Gooseberry and Apricot? Coconut and mandarin! Let's see some weird fruits!

And why stick to fruits?  Steak and Lettuce?  Rabbit and Kite? Marmoset and White House?

Or, obviously - Gin and Tonic!

Cheers!

Mister Seahorse

The above photo is of one of my son's toys, named "Mister Seahorse" mid-maintenance.  It's a blue battery powered seahorse that, when pressed, glows and plays various lullabies.  He's had it for some years, but still enjoys having it in his bed when he gets off to sleep.

The trouble with having a battery powered song-singing toy is that about three times a year the battery levels drop to a low enough level that the song becomes slow, out of tune, and basically gives the indication that the seahorse is drunk, or possibly dying from listeria or some such infection. Leprosy, or Typhoid, perhaps - my knowledge of what infections make artificial seahorses lose their ability to play music is not complete.

And of course, the only time that we discover such an event is at bedtime, when my son is tired, ready to sleep, and quite keen for me to clear off and the seahorse to do its job.

So when it happens, as you can imagine the seahorse has to be very swiftly taken away for battery replacement to minimise the emotional distress that a tipsy seahorse can cause.  While I'm frantically fixing the seahorse, I'm always very slightly creeped out by what, to me, feels like carrying out major surgery on a seahorse (albeit a glowing and singing one), by pulling its guts, spine, and skeleton out and frantically testing batteries from our battery drawer to find three (three?!? Who designs a toy that needs THREE batteries?!?) that have sufficient juice in to keep Mister Seahorse singing away for a few more months.  Once done I then have to shove all the innards back into the seahorse skin and magically it works. I'm not completely sure how this counts academically but I feel that I ought to be awarded an honorary degree in something, Medicine, or Electrical Engineering perhaps.  Offers from universities are welcomed.

At any rate, I'm pleased to report that normal service is indeed restored, Mister Seahorse is fully back in action, and my son sleeps peacefully once again.  Therefore, it's time for a beer :)

In other news, my son has invented a new mathematical concept, called "splatting".  Watch the video of splatting calculations now! (and stay tuned to youtube.com/ravenswingthog for the UNCUT version to be released soon!)

Happy New Year!

Happy new year!

Rather horrifyingly, I've had a very productive evening and this is actually the third blog post I've written (four if you count a guest post), hopefully meaning that at least for the next week regular and maybe even vaguely interesting blog posts will be published.

Today marks the last day of my Christmas break before I return to work, and it's been a nice break, with plenty of unhealthy food and alcohol consumed (and I still have a good amount of alcohol to work through!)

Now for me (and quarter of a million other people in my locality) 2017 has a particular relevance to us, because 2017 is the year that Hull becomes the UK City of Culture.

Hull, a city and port in the North of England, I would venture to say has not always attracted the highest of opinions.  I myself was not a great fan of Hull, until I met my wife, and she introduced me to the more continental parts of the city (which I didn't realise existed).

Hull does have its good points, some decent museums and art galleries, places to visit, shopping centres (although it does have a tendency to open new shopping centres which simply drag the custom away from the other centres, making them struggle), and in the Avenues where I reside (aka the HU5 commune) it's quite pleasant and on good days almost cosmopolitan.

Unfortunately I was away from the city for the launch of the city of culture year, which I'm led to understand consisted of quite a few fireworks, but there is now supposed to be an entire year of events in and around the city. If you're looking for somewhere new to try, you might want to check out the Hull 2017 website and the events calendar.

I'm determined (at the moment anyway) to try to do more creative stuff this year, I don't feel that many of my blog posts are the best that I can do, so I'm hoping to do more and better quality.  By all means, I'm always interested in guest blogging (both bloggers on here and me blogging elsewhere) and any ideas for meet ups, collaborations, and so on, both on my blog and on my YouTube channel, are welcomed. Stay tuned!