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(Newest entries at the top, oldest at the bottom)

October 10th – October 16th

On Wednesday night I popped along to the Britannia Stadium to support the North Staffs branch of the RSPCA at a fundraiser. The papers have been full of horrendous stories of animal cruelty for a week or so, and it makes me feel so angry. The local RSPCA team was having a fashion show and auction to raise part of the £80,000 they need every year. Volunteers strutted up and down the catwalk, modelling designer clothes which had been donated to the charity, and despite the torrential rain there was a great turn out. I really hope all of their efforts paid off and they raised a good amount.

Friday night… food time again! I did my best impression of Ainsley Harriott at Knypersley First School where I was compering a Get Set Cook display. This is the second time that the school has held this type of fundraiser, and it was a great laugh yet again. The stage in the school hall was kitted out with a big gas hob and oven, work stations and a larder full of goodies. In the style of BBC’s Ready Steady Cook, two local chefs partnered by two teachers went head to head to make mouth watering dishes from the “surprise” ingredients in two carrier bags. It was hugely entertaining as Mrs Fenton knocked all of the noodles onto the floor and we had two dramatic (but well controlled) fires as both chefs employed the art of flambee! The audience voted the Green Peppers (Carl Bailey and Mrs Fenton) as the winners … but the red team (Andy Wright and Mrs Birch) worked incredibly well under pressure too!

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October 3rd – October 9th

It’s been a week for food and Anne Robinson!!

It was fantastic to be asked to host the Taste of Staffordshire Good Food Awards again on Monday night. Over 400 of Staffordshire’s most talented chefs, and catering staff gathered in their posh frocks (not the men… as far as I could see!) at the County Showground… and we tasted some wonderful food. If you want to see who the winners of each category were, just click on the link

Saturday, it was an early start and off to London for Test the Nation: I was one of 40 Radio Presenters taking on the Surgeons, Receptionists, Green Grocers, Freshers and Ballroom Dancers. The subject of the test was The English Language, and as I’ve got an English Language and Literature degree, I felt the pressure was well and truly on! I was surprised to pull into Euston Station on time, but then because of engineering work on the tube, I decided to take a taxi to Wembley, where the hotel and studios were. The taxi driver was great… we chatted about the dangers of his job; areas where he’d never stop his taxi to pick someone up; whether the congestion charge worked (he said no!); and the new Wembley Stadium. The view of the stadium from my hotel window was perfect, and you cannot overestimate how big that thing is… it’s HUGE, and very impressive! I met up with Ramaa (who used to do the travel news on Breakfast) for lunch: she’s doing very well on her course, and is set for stardom, I’m sure. 

We gathered at the studios just before 4 o’clock and then, apart from a 5 minute briefing about the show, spent most of the day chatting to the other presenters, surgeons etc. There was a lot of waiting around, but it was a good laugh… and we all knew someone who’d worked with someone there, so there was plenty of gossip! At 8 o’clockish (and after a couple of glasses of wine!) we were taken through to the studio and “warmed up” by a very funny bloke, whose name I don’t remember. Anne Robinson and Philip Schofield came through into the studio about 20 minutes before show time, said hello to the groups, and then before you knew it, it was ten past nine and we were live to nation!

The actual test flew by. I’m afraid my attention was often stolen by the cameramen running around and falling over each other to get the shots, but I did ok. My final score was 51 out of 70, which doesn’t make me Brain of Britain, but it did help the Radio Presenters to get the highest collective score. Luckily for my pride, I did well on the spelling and grammar sections of the test… but when it came to rhyming slang and texting, I may as well have been somewhere else!!

The strangest part of it all was after the show finished. We were shown out of the studio group at a time… but instead of going back into the bar area, we were taken straight outside. We then had to queue around the outside of the building until we came to a hatch in the wall where we were given our coats!! It was a tad chilly to be outside in a T-Shirt, but you did have to feel more for the ballroom dancers who were in the same queue, but wearing even less! The wonderful world of telly, hey?!

September 26th – October 2nd

Throughout the week on the Breakfast Show:

It’s been a big week for health…

There are major plans in place to totally reform the NHS and we were keen to find out how that would affect us here in Staffordshire and Cheshire. It seems likely that our Primary Care Trusts and Health Authorities (which look after our GPs and hospitals) will merge with others in neighbouring counties so there are fewer of them, but they’re supposed to be more effective! We’re told that it’ll give us all more choice about where we’re treated and who we’re treated by, but are you convinced? If you’re unhappy with the current system, then surely something needs to change, but is this the way forward? Leave your thoughts on the message board below!
We also spoke to the Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, and asked her how these new plans would help our “Herceptin Ladies”. Click on the audio link to hear her reply.

Furniture Mine

As promised, our reporter Liz Roberts brought the telephone number for the Furniture Mine back with her... if you have some furniture that you think the team could use, please call them on 01782 846111.

As for my week…

It’s a busy one!! On Wednesday I’m off to the Stone Food and Drink Festival. I’ve been asked to judge the children’s Pumpkin Growing Competition. Around 500 primary school children have been watering and weeding over the summer, and I really don’t want to disappoint any of them, but I guess there can only be one winner! I’ll let you know how it goes!

Pumpkin Update!! Well none of the children ended up in tears which was great... and I was astonished by the effort they'd all put in. The prize for the largest pumpkin went to Olivia Lockett whose entry was SO large, her mum had to wheel it to the event in her baby brother's buggy! It had a circumference of 132.5cm! The Strangest Shape prize went to Holly Packham who almost threw her withered pumpkin away, but turned it into the head of an old lady instead to scoop the award! Best Decorated Pumpkin was entered by Scallywag's Nursery... they turned it into a giant chocolate orange in a huge presentation box. Simple but SO effective. We'll try to pop some photos on the site next week... they'll be well worth a look. A huge thank you to everyone in Stone for making me so welcome. I really did have a great time.

On Monday and Tuesday, I won’t be presenting the Breakfast Show, because I’ll be in Stafford. I’m hosting the Taste of Staffordshire Food Awards (no chance of shedding the holiday weight yet then!) and so next week, I should be able to tell you all about the best places to eat in the county… yum!

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September 19th – September 25th

Throughout the week on the Breakfast Show, we’ve looked at:

BT Blunder

Why some people calling Cheshire Police ended up on the line to the Gloucestershire force! It appears that BT made a printing error in the phone book ad for Cheshire Police. The number printed for non-emergency calls connected callers to Gloucestershire Police… they’ve since apologised and refunded the cost of the advert!

Speed Humps!

Some people campaign for them… others would sell their granny to get rid of them, but now it seems that they’re causing problems for local funeral directors! Harry Mouatt from Forresters in Trentham says that speed humps in the area bring the funeral cortege to a standstill at times, and that there must be some other way of tackling speeding drivers.

Brits in Bulgaria

Not only are we snapping up property and land in Bulgaria, two local firms are finding that business is booming for Brits there too. 

Cricket

We spoke to Phil Tait in Australia. Phil was born in Porthill in North Staffordshire and moved to Australia when he was 16… his son is the Aussie fast bowler Shaun Tait. So what was it like to be an Englishman with a son playing for Australia in the Ashes? Click on the audio link to hear part of the interview.

As for my week

Well actually, It’s my past three weeks, including my holiday. I decided that the cost of flights to Boston was going to bankrupt me and so spent a blissful week in Bakewell. I hired a house by the river, where no-one could contact me unless I was holding my mobile phone over the bath tub in the top bedroom!! I can honestly say that the walks around Calver were amongst some of the most picturesque I’ve done and I’d fully recommend them. I ate, drank and read books… three of my favourite pastimes, so it couldn’t have been better… well, it could have been a bit better, if I’d done all of that without putting on three pounds in weight!

On my return to reality, I decided to begin my Christmas shopping so that I’m not rushing around on Christmas Eve this year… although I am slightly concerned that starting early means that I’m simply going to end up spending more money in the long run!

Back to work this week, which was a shock to the system!

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August 29th – September 4th

Throughout this week on the Breakfast Show, we looked at:

Hurricane Katrina

 As the death toll continued to rise during the week, we were hearing from those of you in Staffordshire and Cheshire who were waiting for news of relatives living on the American gulf Coast. It was a stark reminder that just because something’s happening thousands of miles away, it doesn’t mean that the shock waves aren’t felt at home.

Former BBC Stoke presenter Alison Greatbach (now Bushnell) spoke to us about her brother. He’s from Trentham but was living and working in Louisiana, and she hadn’t managed to contact him since Sunday. There’s a happy end to Alison’s story now… her brother’s been in touch and he’s fine.
Looking at the horrendous pictures from New Orleans though, I’m not sure that we’ll ever know exactly how many people died in this disaster.

Bad news for Staffordshire Ambulance Service

A crew was responding to an emergency in Hanley, and whilst the team were in the back treating a man with head injuries, the ambulance was attacked. Two so-called missiles were thrown at the vehicle, one smashing the windscreen, and consequently the ambulance had to be taken off the road.
It wasn’t too long before calls started coming into the Breakfast Show, suggesting that anyone who abused the emergency services in this kind of way, should forfeit the right to call 999 and ask them for help in the future. Is it too harsh to refuse someone an ambulance because of trouble they’d caused the service in the past or is it just desserts… what do you think?

Love’s been in the air

 We chatted to a fella who proposed to his girlfriend at thirteen and a half thousand feet before they leapt out of a plane! Grant has been a skydiver for some time and this was Lisa’s first jump.
Unfortunately she doesn’t remember what the fall to earth was like, because all she could think about was what kind of wedding dress and hairdo she’d have!!
Then on Friday, we caught up with a couple who were getting hitched the following day in fancy dress…
If you want to know which outfits they chose, check the audio link (in the box at the top right hand corner of this page)...!

Reporter Liz Roberts was lifted up 17 stories by the Unity House crane on Thursday. It was quite cloudy, and windy, but she had a great view of the demolition work and found out that the rubble is going to be used on the A500 roadworks site… so waste not want not!!
If you want to see Liz’s photos, just have a look at the Unity House feature on this site's Features Section.

And on a personal note, I was pleased to see that the newspapers didn’t lead with conspiracy theories surrounding Princess Diana’s death on the 8th anniversary of her car crash. Her sons might be grown up now, and be well advised on how to ignore these stories… but I felt it was respectful that there was nothing for them to try to ignore!!

Challenges

The best one of the week had to be our chat about holiday camps of the 60s.
The new TV programme “Wakey Wakey Campers” left me feeling that holiday camps must have been more like prisons than places of fun, so I asked you for your memories… and we had a lot. My favourite must have been the one from Yvonne who worked as a Red Coat at Butlins in Clacton in the 60s.
You can hear what she had to say by going to the audio link (in the box at the top right hand corner of this page)...!

As for my week…

Well, I’m helping to host the Heart of England in Bloom Awards on Friday, so I’m looking forward to meeting everyone there.
Apart from that, I’ve been packing for my holiday and wondering why in a world of low-cost air travel, I still find myself facing ridiculously high prices to fly to America. OK, I want to fly direct, from Manchester, early one morning and return five days later in the evening, so I’m being a bit picky, but still!!
Come on Mr Branson… make it easy on me… I don’t like flying at the best of times so I really don’t need this stress! Rant over!

Now, as I’m away for the next two weeks, the Breakfast Show’s in the hands of the lovely Glyn Johnson… but I’ll be updating these pages as soon as I come home!
Have a good fortnight!

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22nd - 28th Aug 2005

Throughout the week on the Breakfast Show, we’ve looked at:

Dealing with depression 
There seem to be two ways: drugs or therapy. A Government adviser says we need ten thousand more therapists in the UK to deal with the demand, and you’ve been giving your thoughts (you can continue to do this on our message board below).

The Seven Man-made Wonders of the Midlands
The BBC’s Inside Out team is looking for nominations from you… and as Unity House is coming down brick by brick, so far the suggestions have been the Trentham Mausoleum, the canal network and Biddulph Grange.

BBC Voices

The launch of the biggest language study that the country’s seen for the past fifty years! We’ve been having some fun re-discovering local words which have fallen out of favour, and trying to give three people (who’ve moved to the Potteries from Ireland, London and Liverpool), a Potteries accent in our Potter or Notter experiment. 
Terry Conro,y who used to play for Stoke City FC, Amelia Rout from Keele University and Rob Faulkner from the City Council have spent the week being tutored by Owd Grandad Pigott, Alan Povey. 

Challenges

As usual, we’ve had lots of great stories. A sighting of a 20 feet replica of the Eiffel Tower in Cheadle sparked a discussion about your visits to film sets or sightings of film props. 

Clive had stumbled across the filming of the Travolta film Swordfish in LA; Phil was out for a walk in the Delamere Forest about fifteen years ago and came across a war film being shot (if you know the title of that film, please post it on the message board).

Also... Chris’s sister-in-law lived in Welshpool and her goats were used as extras in the Empire of the Sun and Don told us how the 75 feet rubber whale used in the 1956 film Moby Dick, starring Gregory Peck was made at the old Dunlop factory on London Road in Stoke. 

As for my week…

Well I spent the weekend at the Tern Valley Vintage Steam Show. It was the event’s 26th year and I was really chuffed to be asked to open it. 

I had to steer a huge steam engine (called the Queen of Great Britain) into the main arena and together with the owner, Jim, take it on a couple of laps.

Then I helped to plough a field with two shires, and finished off my trip with a ride in a helicopter. Apart from being allergic to horses and afraid of flying, I was fine… in fact, I had a great time! 

I managed to come across two silver button hooks to add to my collection, and found out that tractor seats are INCREDIBLY collectable!