Eight Days A Week

Sunday morning in Stonehaven

Sundays are an odd day. Since being given the Sunday Breakfast show over a month ago now, my weekends have completely changed.

I’m rubbish with early mornings, which isn’t the best of starts when you are being asked to host a breakfast show.  No matter how tired I am, trying to get to sleep before mid night isn’t an option for me.  In fact trying to get to sleep full stop when I know my alarm is going off at stupid o’clock isn’t an option for me. I have this fear I will sleep through it, or my phone (which I use as an alarm) will magically stop working in the middle of the night (given the state of my phone that is highly likely).

Because of this I end up going to work on a Sunday morning having had about 1 hour of really light sleep.

So once I’m off air at 10am, I tend to head home and have my full 6 hours sleep and wake up at about 5pm in a complete daze, and my breakfast show feeling like it took place the day before. As a result, my sleeping patterns are completely messed up for the rest of the week. It’s a vicious circle and before you know it, it’s Sunday again and I’m once again getting up when the rest of the world is asleep (or at least that’s what it feels like).

I am enjoying the Sunday breakfast show though.  It is a hard show to do. I like to put 110% in to all my shows, but Sunday breakfast is just that little bit more demanding than the Monday to Friday evening show (which seems to role along for 3 hours a day quite happily).

On this mornings show I was quoting Bushisims. One of the worlds favourite comedians, George Bush, stands down this week to be replaced by a new president. While I don’t doubt Barack Obama’s ability to run America, I do feel American politics won’t be as funny as it once was (and I can’t help but feel sorry for the writers on Have I Got News For You).

Some of my favourite:

“For every fatal shooting, there were roughly three non-fatal shootings. And, folks, this is unacceptable in America. It’s just unacceptable. And we’re going to do something about it.” –Philadelphia, Penn., May 14, 2001

“They misunderestimated me.” –Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000

“If this were a dictatorship, it’d be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator.” –Washington, D.C., Dec. 19, 2000

Good luck Obama, you’re going to have a hard act to follow!

David

I’ve got the flying bug

US Airways Flight 1549 Plane Crash Hudson in New York taken by Janis Krums on an iPhone

Stunning pictures from New York as US Airways Flight 1549 lands in the Hudson river.  It’s shocking that while the world tries to battle terrorism, my main concern when flying  now won’t be the possibility of a bomb on board, but the terrifying fear we cross flight paths with a flock of geese. 

It is a great example though of a plane landing in water and everyone survivng.  Every time I fly I look at that emergency instructions card thinking “when has a plane ever landed on water like that?”, well now my question has been answered. Maybe I’ll read that card more carefully next time I fly.

Speaking of which, the middle of January blues have struck and I’m already thinking about where to go on holiday this year.  I have already pencilled in a trip to Norway in August.   I had one of those spur of the moment purchases before Christmas and bought tickets to see Coldplay in Bergen.  I could have gone to Glasgow to see them, but thought it would be more exciting to go to Norway, not to mention more expensive.

But we can’t wait till the end of August to go somewhere abroad, so it looks like a trip somewhere at Easter possibly.  Faro in Portugal and Croatia are two destinations that are looking promising.  The problem is, I’m quite lazy and would prefer to fly from Aberdeen airport which is 20 minutes from where I stay, rather than driving to Glasgow where the choice of flights are considerably more.  Therefore flying from Aberdeen to somewhere exotic tends to be double the price as it involves a stop in London or Paris (and after travelling through Paris last year I vowed never to do it again).

However if Emma doesn’t get over this plane landing in the water in New York, it looks like a weekend camping in Lossiemouth might be our only option.

David

Flying home for Christmas

Off home to Shetland for a few days tomorrow.  Took the unusual step this year of booking the plane instead of the boat. I’m quite glad I have, the boat has had its fair share of cancellations in the last couple of weeks. The plane also has the added benefit of only taking an hour, versus 12 on the boat. I don’t mind the length of boat trip, I quite enjoy it at times, but when you are only home for 4 days it seems a waste of time.

I’m not sure Emma is too impressed that I’m disappearing for a few days, especially over Christmas.  We had our Christmas at the end of last week, spending a couple of days in Glenshee which is where the above photo was taken.  It snowed which was nice (but apparently it always snows in Glenshee at this time of year – it is a ski resort after all!)

Radio wise, Christmas is/was always my favorite time of year.  You get to hear your favorite presenters doing different shows at different times. With that in mind, here’s what I’m doing over the next couple of weeks.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of this week I’m on air my normal shifts 7-10pm.  (Despite being off to Shetland tomorrow, try and work that one out if you want).

Christmas Day/Boxing Day off.

Saturday December 27th normal shift of 2-6pm (including Aberdeen v Hearts live football).

Sunday December 28th, normal shift of Sunday Breakfast, 6-10am.

Monday 29th, Tuesday 30th, Wednesday 31st, Drivetime 2-7pm (looking forward to this one)

Thursday 1st January Breakfast, 6-10am. Working that early on New Years Day should be interesting.  Will sleep from 10am onwards!

Friday 2nd January, back to normal, on air 7-10pm.

106.3/106.8FM in the North East of Scotland and online at www.originalfm.com

David

Starting Afresh

I’ve decided to start afresh with this blog.  For various reasons.

Mainly, the last blog was 2 and a half years old (which in the world of David Lewis is quite a long time).  Things have changed quite a bit in the last 2 and a half years and quite frankly some of those really old posts make me cringe.  I have kept those old posts just in case I ever decide to write memoirs in years to come.  I’ll maybe go through them one day and decide which ones the world can see again, but for now they are hidden.

I’ve also moved the blog over to wordpress.com, it’s a bit like Flickr, but for blogs instead of photos. Why?  Well like Flickr, I could have put all my photos on my own website, but then no one would ever have found them.  Stick them on Flickr and suddenly people find them.  It’s the same with blog postings, I hope.

I’m going to try and do something useful with davidrlewis.com. Possibly a website which promotes me as a radio presenter, TV production graduate and freelance grass cutting. That is work in progress.

And maybe I’ll blog a little more than I used to. I’ve promised that before, and it is yet to happen.

David

Dr Karl

Everytime I meet a “celebrity” I end up having a little bit of a smile on my face for the rest of the day. I’m sure it is something that will soon wear off after a few years in the radio industry.

Today was the the turn of Dr Karl Kenney from Neighbours (his real name is Alan Fletcher, but he answers to Karl).  What a nice and friendly man.  More than happy to take part in anything you asked him, and more than happy to get your photo taken with him (take note Noel). I suppose he thrives on this sort of thing.

The work load has been increased recently. I’ve gone from 14 hours on air a week to 23 hours (if only it was in one go, I could host nearly a whole day of Original 106).

You can now hear me,

Monday – Friday, 7 till 10pm.
Saturday, 2-6pm, the Saturday afternoon sports show (hosting a sports show still amuses me slightly).
Sunday, 6 till 10am, Sunday Breakfast (strangely was a really good experience despite being up at ridiculous o’clock on a Sunday morning).

106.3/106.8FM in the North East of Scotland, or www.originalfm.com if you want to listen online.

David

Attic Lights do Minder

Attic Lights, Wickerman Festival 2008 – by edinburgh photographer on flickr

A lot of up and coming bands come through our door.  A lot of those bands show a massive amount of talent. Naturally I prefer some bands sessions to others, but I have begun to start noticing a theme running through all my favourite sessions… they have all been well mannered bands who aren’t big headed and are genuinely appreciative of the support we’ve just given them.

Favourite sessions include The Little Kicks, Frank Turner, The Red Light Company, Mia Riddle and our most recent session… the Attic Lights.

Attic Lights are an up and coming indie band from Glasgow who have had a fantastic 2008 and by the looks of things are going to have an even better 2009. Their debut album “Friday Night Lights” is one of those albums that you can listen to from start to finish and not skip any track, something I find very rare these days.

When they came in on Sunday, Andrew spoke to them about the recent news that they had been asked by Channel Five to perform the theme tune for the newly recommissioned 80′s comedy drama Minder… they then performed the theme for us.

A bizarre but rather enjoyable session.

Attic Lights do Minder

You can download the session (including an acoustic version of Wendy) and the interview on Episode 52 of the Sunday Showcase podcast.

Noel Gallagher

It has taken me over two weeks to get round to posting this.  I’d like to think it’s because I am incredibly busy between work, studying and partying, but the real reason is because we’ve just got a Playstation and a new telly and between writing this blog and playing Grand Theft Auto in High Def, it’s clear which one is going to win.

That’s me meeting Noel Gallagher, all thanks to work.  It still seems like a bit of a dream.  I’m just a normal member of joe public and next thing I know I’m sitting in a room with one of the Gallagher brothers.

Thankfully my colleague Neil was doing the main part of the interview which meant I got to sit there enjoying the moment without getting too nervous.  You can hear the interview on episode 51 of the Sunday Showcase podcast.  I ask Noel about his favorite tv show, Seinfeld… a bizarre moment.

It was that night I realised I have one of the best jobs ever.

David