My sleeping pattern has taken
on a more sensible direction this week, on occasion I have been asleep before
midnight and awake early enough to see Mandi before she goes to work. Jack has
also benefitted from this as I have been taking him for his morning shit in the
park (I do clear it up, I’m not one of those cuntish dog owners that leave it
for people to step in) before I start working. The downside of this is that I
haven’t been getting a lot of work done as I tend to work at night. I read
somewhere that people these days aren’t relaxing enough compared to once upon a
time, as we are all too busy and tied to our jobs. We have lost the ability to
switch off and think about ourselves for any length of time. My laptop stays in
my office now so that I’m not watching the television and looking at my
messages at the same time, and I flatly refuse to check my email on a Saturday
(not that anyone sends an email at the weekend). After recently writing about
how much work I have lined up for next year and what a busy time it’s going to
be, I feel that I should go to bed early sometimes. Taking Jack for a walk is
an excuse to go out and walk more, and I don’t take my phone out with me
either. More time needs devoting to reading, swimming, baking, walking, and
generally going ‘off duty’. I’ve seen people sitting in restaurants seemingly
unable to even wait until the meal was over before checking their phone, it is
sad to see this. Before we all had email on our phones we had to wait until we
got home to check our emails, before email we didn’t go to the doormat every
few minutes to see if the postman had been as we were quite happy with one
delivery of letters a day. I’d like to be able to get rid of my mobile
altogether to be honest, although I appreciate that they come in handy for
emergencies and I imagine that there aren’t many working phone boxes around
now, especially when you need one. I can’t actually remember when I last saw
someone using a phone box, and to be perfectly honest I don’t even know where I’d
find the nearest one to my house.
Talking of relaxation, I of
course work on a Sunday (self-employed people don’t get double time) so I
should really make the most of down-time. This evening I really enjoyed the
show even though I was on my own. I’m taking two weeks off from the show to
enable a reshuffle of the Trent Sound schedule, which moves More Than Jazz to the 7pm-9pm slot that I was occupying.
This reshuffle means that the 7pm-9pm slot is now devoted to specialist shows
every night of the week, and The Sunday Alternative
isn’t classed as such. I was given the chance to do 9pm-12am as before but didn’t
really fancy that, especially in the winter. I have chosen to do the show in
the afternoon slot of 1pm-3pm. I’m looking forward to the challenge of the new
slot, as Sunday is a radio day and I like the idea of families across
Nottingham (and indeed the rest of the country) having my show on in the
background during the family Sunday lunch.
I am formulating plans for the
next stage in The Sunday Alternative’s life,
bringing live music sessions back to the forefront. There’s also going to be
greater emphasis on the multi-media side of things, with a lot of filmed
content to create a visual version of the show featuring the live bands,
interviews, and general behind the scenes stuff to give it a TV feel. The video
will be available for free (I am generous) at a later time, my favourite idea
of the ones I have had so far) is to release the video the following Sunday
morning before the live radio show.
Sunday evenings, I remember
them and am looking forward to having them back. I hope to bring back the
teatime egg and chips!
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I’m raising money to make a film about The Sunday Alternative and put on a free screening, please read my latest newsletter.
