Ever since I rose to the ranks of Z-list media personality and narrowly missed out on inclusion in the Nottingham Post's list of influential people in Nottinghamshire (I believe I was one place behind one of the security guards at Bulwell Tesco) the perks of the job have been few and far between. Obviously I am sent music by the truckload along with the occasional guest list place, and I was sent a couple of books to review but I imagine that the days of plying broadcasters with gifts have gone for good. Invitations to high profile events are always accidentally not sent to me (that's how I like to see what happened) and so far the high point of my career was the Sunday morning I answered the front door to a butcher delivering a freshly made pork pie in response to a short lived feature on the radio. 

This evening however, my patronage and endorsement of Goose Fair paid off. Today is the third day of the fair and every evening I have met my dad for a couple of helpings of mushy peas from the (the) mushy pea stall and this evening we were given our first ones free of charge. To top it off we went back for our traditional Friday night visit (Mandi always joins us for this part of the fair) and were only charged £1 for our peas. I want to think that this is a thank you for my tireless work promoting the stall, setting up the Facebook group and of course saving the future of the stall by stamping all over the controversy of Mushy Pea-gate a few years ago, and they are just waiting for me to die so they can re-name it The Steve Oliver Commemorative Mushy Pea Stall. Of course they might not even be aware of any of that and just decided that we deserved it thanks to buying so many pots since the fair opened. 

The Sunday Alternative Podcast #57 is available from here

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October Housekeeping

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