If you’re still filling your trolleys with food for the festive period but are missing a few bits, then pop on over to the East of England Co-Op and grab some of their Sourced Locally festive goodies. Unfortunately our large Co-Op is shutting at the end of December (making way for an Asda sadly) so they didn’t have much stock on the shelves so we had to travel to a couple of different ones in our area to finish our shopping.
If you’re a fan of the Mallow Whirls, well they’ve jazzed that there firm favourite for Christmas with a little white chocolate and the cutest little holly making them look uber festive. If you don’t fancy that, then grab the hand crafted Mince Pies from Leggs Bakery, all crumbly shortcrust pastry hugging the sweet and juicy mincemeat below! Pour yourself out a glass of Golden Ale and pile your plate with Fairfield Crisps for an evening in front of the TV.
Sourced Locally is by far my most favourite of ranges that incorporates all of our amazing local producers in East Anglia, and shows what makes this county great.
For a quick snack, we popped the pasties and sausage rolls in the microwave from Hollybush Farm and for dinner used the leftover pesto from the sensational Butternut Squash and Feta dish we tend to eat once a week, smothering spaghetti in it’s fresh green creaminess piling the bowl high with the tomato and herb focaccia – again locally sourced.
If our largest Co-Op had still had their shelves stocked high then I’m sure we could have showed you many more delights to whet your appetite but sadly the small ones don’t carry very much.
I had been looking forward to trying “Tinsel Toes” seasonal brew from Woodforde’s, the Sage and Onion Scotch Egg from Wolff Evans and Sons, and Cranberry Sauce from Stokes Sauces. All total favourites in their regular everyday forms and which look so mouthwateringly good in their festive forms, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be this time around.
We mustn’t forget our little furry friends this festive season, so we’re going to take a look at what’s available for them in a bit. First, it was my little fur boy’s 1st birthday on Thursday so we decided that we’d organise a little party for him and the furries so they could have a bit of a treat.
I ordered a cake from Pets Pyjamas a few weeks ago and it arrived Wednesday morning via Doggylicious and unfortunately didn’t look as neat as the picture that promotes it. The yogurt icing was quite messy and it actually looked like they’d kicked it about a bit before putting it in the box. It was incredibly dry too which was a shame. I actually wish I’d purchased the cupcakes or birthday cake from Barkers of Suffolk because they look more moist and scrummy. But nevertheless, once we put it all out on the table, Pea couldn’t wait to try everything.
Armitage Pets so kindly sent Pea some Christmas presents, but we thought that we’d use some of them for his special day, so we poured out for him:
Pack of Good Boy Succulent Festive Bangers
Pack of Duck Bites (from the Doggy Deli Pack)
Pack of Chewy Chicken Strips (from the Doggy Deli Pack)
The Festive packs are taken from the Christmas Festive Range by Good Boy which include regular choc drops, Christmas Pud & Christmas Reindeer squeaky toys, Flashing Christmas Nose Balls, Mince Pies, Christmas Dog Stocking and Chocolate Orange Mini’s which were consumed the night we received the parcel as Pea and Ali wouldn’t leave the box alone so we had to open up a packet to quell their curiosity. They’re not that expensive either, so if you want to get your furry friend a little something for under £10 they’re pretty good value for money keeping them happy while you tuck into your Turkey.
Needless to say Pea’s party went down a storm, all bangers were consumed and albeit looking a bit dry, the cake went down a storm with Pea trying to steal his furry friends pieces for himself. Typical Pea really.
Over the last few days I’ve reached out to a few old colleagues, mainly just to say hello and ask how they are. It’s been met with a deathly silence apart from one person. The only person to have come back to me is an old hospital radio colleague who still presents hospital radio and has no grandiose ideas of becoming famous. Just a lovely down to earth bloke. Shame the others weren’t the same.
On guy I messaged write a nice little bit about himself, and once I showed him who I was ignored me. The others have been active on their feeds but have just totally blanked me. What I find insulting about that is the fact that these people have gone on to be “well known” yet never seem to discuss their past (probably ashamed of it) and so me, saying hello has been a bit of their past popping up that obviously has no influence on them now to help their careers. I was there at the start but now I serve no purpose I’m ignored. And people asked me why I wouldn’t attend a reunion….
Probably is when they have a taste of stardom, they change, they become notoriously big headed, self centred and more interested in friends that can influence their career than those that grafted with them at the beginning teaching them their trade. I had more respect for my teachers at school than they have of me.
Sometimes I feel like an intruder when I try to reach out. Shunned to a life forever back in my box. Don’t get me wrong, a few people in the past that I’ve spoken to have been more than happy to take time out of their lives to chat to me, find out how I am and if there’s anything they can do for me because they thought highly of me. More surprising when these people were the ones that I never called friends. The ones I called friends are now it seems to far up their own arses, pretentious little wannabes that I’m far too common to even pass the time of day with.
Thing is, I still have a bit of influence, and if I so wanted could knock a few bricks out of their fairytale castles but I wouldn’t because I’m not like that, but I can bet you now. You used me and my talent on the way up. I’ll be waiting when you’re on the way down with the carpet corners in my hand to pull it from under your feet. Time will tell.
I was having a discussion with Andy this morning as I turned my computer on and loaded up Radio Jackie for another day of listening and writing. Paul Coia standing in for someone or other was chatting away in his Scottish accent and something struck me (no, no flying dog toys or anything like that thankfully) just a thought that these days radio has no personality any more. Long gone are the days when you’d load up a CD, or get a record cued up with your backtiming sorted to the news, and your notes of what you fancied chatting about and in has crept huge conglomerates buying up each and every station to add them into the big world of automation, same playlists, same chat, same ads. What the hell has happened to all the personalities now?
DJ’s rock up to do their slots, sit down in front of their 2 screens with everything already loaded, they type in what the producer tells them that they’re going to talk about and when and that’s it. The same playlists loaded over the radio groups multiple stations to play the same thing at the same time, just different person doing the segways. No more Kenny Everetts, Chris Tarrants and the like, personalities shining out from your radio with their own opinions, favourite music and quirks that lead you to tune in day after day.
I think I know what’s happened though. Back when I started (after volunteering at mainstream originally as general dogsbody) we did the hard graft. Hospital Radio although got frowned upon was usually where DJs of that day had learnt their trade. Ward Radio where I volunteered was responsible for more than one well known DJ including Graham Gold, Steve Hyland, Sutish Sharma, Andy Milburn, Darren Spence, Steve Reed… oh the list goes on. But back then hospital radio laid the groundwork for mainstream and personalities were nurtured. Our station never had much money but we made sure our presenters were fully trained, had access to the most up to date equipment (as then) and were ready to send their aircheck tapes off to “proper radio” if they so wanted. Then along came reality TV and these nobodies with no talent started to replace our personalities. Kate Lawler rocks up as a DJ on Capital Radio and sits there whilst other people around her do the work. Mark Wright does the same. Now we hear Georgia Moffatt is lined up to do some radio show up north. All the hard work done by hospital radio to train the DJ’s of today tossed aside like an old chip wrapper for some bit of totty seen on TV that’s got some Radio Executive’s loins a twitching. What the actual eff! These talentless scripted reality himbos and bimbos get thrust into the limelight because they’re perceived to be “totty”. As far as I knew totty sold magazines not music (unless it was just in music videos) so radio executives have their priorities wrong. It’s them that have changed my once loved career into a laughing stock. No talent needed now, just “tits and teeth”. Sad and shameful.
I don’t know if I’m the only one that’s noticed but this year we seem to have quite a few funky tracks gracing the airwaves unlike the usual drivel of slow, moody stuff, or music from TV talent shows (famous last words, you watch). So to celebrate this I’ve put together a little playlist of my own (feel free to ignore it though, I’m no Simon Cowell after all). Give me your verdict if you too think December is is bouncing with top tracks?
This one is my absolute favourite at the moment, originally released in October this year, but didn’t seem to be on anyone’s radar until now. Le Grind – Pillow Talk (check out the video – who needs big budgets these days when you’ve got a cracking tune).
Take That – Hey Boy. Gets me waving my arms in the air.
Take That – I Like It. Now this one I’ve sent over to Mastermix asking them to mix it with 2 other tracks which mix perfectly! They need to mix it with Rachel Stevens – Some Girls and Goldfrapp – Strict Machine (you could even add a little 2 Hearts from Kish Mauve’s original, or Kylie’s one at a push if you speed it up a bit).
Wouldn’t be Christmas without a little bit of Kylie so this one with little sis Dannii seems to do well. Well it’s played pretty much on every station I tune into.
I’m no fan of Asda but the marketing team found a corker with Fleur East I guess. I was shaking my bits in a fury after hearing this for the first time so I guess it’s got to be on the playlist.
It’s only taken them 12 years, obviously no hurry for decent music in that time. Darkness – I Am Santa. Not as good as Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells) but nice to see the return of jingling bells at least.
Last one, I’m throwing a bit of a curve ball out there. I love it, but the video is a bit creepy and to be desired. Ah well, you make your own mind up.
Over to you lot now. What tunes will you be loading up this Christmas. This lot will probably be on Andy’s DJ list no doubt (well I’ll damn well sneaky in there if I have to myself just to get my “groove on” at any parties he has to do).
I don’t normally court controversy and tend to keep away from anything which the mainstream press report due to their utter immoralistic reporting and disinformation pumped across various channels but this last week after reading a few reports about someone who I have worked with in the past has been quite disturbing.
Neil Fox has been accused of sexually assaulting “victims” including one at his former workplace Capital Radio. Now, reading this story they claim that when Neil was a DJ at Capital Radio he kissed a girl and forced his tongue in her mouth, as well as other reports of having sex with girls in the station’s record library (amongst other allegations). One of the stories claims that it was one of the girls that used to hang around the radio station around 1988-1991. Now, thing is this. I was one of these girls that hung around the studios at this time. I’m utterly ashamed of it these days and would strongly urge that if you feel the need to hang around places – DON’T do it if you are under 18 years old. Now my reason for saying this isn’t the fact that the person you are hanging around to see is predatory. In fact in all the years I religiously went up to Warren Street to sit outside and wait for DJ’s to emerge I never ONCE saw any of the DJ’s become predatory. However, a LOT of the girls that did hang around at that time were very, very forthcoming and didn’t think twice of grabbing DJ’s in some very inappropriate areas. There were never just 1 or 2 girls, there were upwards of 10-20 girls at any one time bombarding DJ’s when they exited the building.
There is also a claim that one of the girls (probably the main one in this case or the one who made the initial claim) that she was left alone with Neil Fox in the underground car park after asking her to take some things to his car. NO. This would not be correct, simply because the girls were like a herd of sheep. If one girl went to his car then all her friends would have followed too. Not once were any of the girls singled out in the time I was part of the crowd as inevitably they ALWAYS moved around like sheep together.
Neil Fox: Image from http://www.geocities.ws/radiointheuk/hit40uk_gallery.html
As for her knowing where he lived and went to his flat. Yes, lots of girls knew where the DJ’s lived because quite a few of them had either followed them in cars to where they lived, or found out illegally with the help of insiders. It was common knowledge of where they lived and more often than not these girls would visit en masse to visit the DJs. Thankfully I was not like that and refused to follow them to where they lived. I think the furthest I got was on the train a DJ had boarded but got off halfway. More often than not because where we got off, there was a chippy outside that did bloody awesome chips (I had my priorities straight, obviously). But it was disgusting behaviour.
A lot of these girls were indeed under the age of 18 and would literally lust after these guys who were either in their 20s or early 30s. Neil Fox was one whom girls got utterly obsessed by because he was really friendly and really quite bubbly.
In 1991 however I got the opportunity to work at Capital Radio in a voluntary capacity. I was kind of an assistant that would do pretty much anything to learn the job. When these girls found out that I was working there I would often get death threats, and followed on the tube home with girls stalking me with daggers in their eyes. I stayed there for about 18 months and moved on but in all that time when I did work with Neil Fox, I can honestly say, hand on heart that all we ever had was what is now named (thanks I’m a Celeb) as “flanter” just purely flirty banter. Yes he would touch you but never inappropriately. It was more in a friendly flirty way. The guy even asked me out on a date while one of my friends was with me when I bumped into him on my way home at Warren Street but again, there was no touching and certainly no groping. At the time it was just a young guy flirting with a young girl, end of. All this propaganda of what he’s supposed to have done, if true (very unlikely) would have been encouraged by the girls themselves. They were certainly not innocent of provoking these young guys (as they were then) and the thought of them coming out now to claim they were abused sickens me to my core.
Also as for him signing “Kissy Kissy” when asked for an autograph. Oh come on! All DJs sign something flirty if they’re a flirty kind of person. I once had a conversation with another DJ about something and his words were “Promises Promises” but I’m not going to run to a solicitor complaining that he was being forward. It’s utterly pathetic. Neil Fox once signed a skirt for me for a charity raffle. He signed on my knee. Wow. If I had fancied him I imagine I too would have asked him to sign my bum but I wouldn’t be reporting him 20 years later for doing it. You did it at the time and no doubt all your friends around you would have cheered him on and laughed with you about it. But you can’t go complaining about that 20 years down the line. If it upset you that much at the time why didn’t you complain about it then? I know, it’s because at that time you were bigging it up with all your “posse” no doubt.
The media are as usual making Neil Fox out to be the predator. Those of us that were around the place at that time have seen quite a different thing and no doubt, the guy will be dragged through the court and lose his career through claims from someone who would have encouraged him to get closer to her. She still has her career (if it’s who I think it is).
I know no girl/woman deserves being attacked, but what was back in the 80s/90s and was just flirty (and encouraged by the girl 100%) now seems to be tainted with accusations of assault. The guy was no Sa Vile that’s for sure. But in my time I’ve heard all sorts. One girl told me that Neil Fox had made her pregnant – which he hadn’t, she was just a totally over the top, completely obsessed fanatic, living in a fantasy world. The girl was my best friend (and wasn’t pregnant, nor saw him on any kind of intimate moment because her mum wouldn’t let her out on her own). How’s them apples. Same is happening again here, but 20 years later, accusations with really no substance . Shame. I’ve seen it from both sides and it’s not all black and white. Don’t believe everything you read.
