I'm still a little nervous about it given what happened on Good Friday but I have started taking Jack to the park across from our house again. Although he gets plenty of walks he hasn't had a great deal of opportunity to have a really good run at full speed and I figured that as long as I was careful he would be okay. As soon as I picked up Jack's ball thrower he went mental with excitement and dragged me all the way there so I knew he must have missed it. I took the precaution of tying his lead round the gate in order to slow down anyone coming in, as the last incident happened because the person was unfamiliar with the unwritten rule of 'gate closed, don't come in'. As part of his reintroduction to the park I decided to take him out for short periods of time to begin with, and have generally been there for half an hour with him constantly running up and down after his ball until he gets fed up and takes it upon himself to stand at the gate and wait for me to put his lead back on him ready for home. Today he worried me slightly because the weather was (at the time) boiling hot and Jack was running constantly for about twenty minutes before he decided that he had had enough fun for one day and stood by the gate panting for all he was worth and downed two bowls of water when we got home. I had a little bit of work to do so Jack followed me to my office and sprawled out on the floor still panting. Eventually he calmed down but for a moment I thought he would have a heart attack, but he was soon back to his usual self.
On the subject of things returning to normal, I have managed to get the podcast back on track thanks to some computer tinkering and the discovery of a new programme that I can use. It has been seven weeks this weekend since a new edition of The Sunday Alternative was released and I have been desperate to get back into it as the music has been piling up. The good news is that there are some brilliant tracks in the bank so the quality of the podcast will be as high as it ever was. Now that I have sorted things out I will also be able to power through and get the audio books sorted and I am planning an end of year Nottingham music themed podcast. This started as a throwaway idea that didn't get thrown away; I play through my favourite tracks released this year but I won't be publishing the track list or telling the artists that they are on, I will just release it and let people find out for themselves whether I think their song is worth including. It isn't as if I'll get any thanks for it anyway seeing as local musicians save all of their gushing for Mark 'literally' Del and Dean Jackson despite the fact that on several occasions we got there first yet nobody thanked us. I might possibly record another Christmas show for American airplay like I did last year but it depends on people pulling their fingers out and releasing new festive tunes. My 2015 Nottingham podcast might cover several podcasts to be released over the Christmas period. My reason is simply because The Sunday Alternative isn't totally Nottingham-centric and now that I no longer present NottinghamLIVE or The Sound of Nottingham UK I don't have an outlet for Nottingham music, for how long though? Things might be being arranged behind the scenes for all you know.
The Sunday Alternative will return soon.
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June housekeeping
The audio book of Bowie Day (a short story inspired by A Christmas Carol) will be released on August 31st. In the meantime the book can be downloaded to your Kindle from here.
All donations made using the PayPal button will go towards making podcasts, comedy sketches, live video sessions, documentaries, short films and more that will be made available online for free.
The Sunday Alternative bag and t-shirt (and other products) can be purchased from my shop page. All money raised will go into the fund to create free content.
steveEoliver@gmail.com
