WHAT A GREAT MORNING!

I knew I was going to be at the radio station this morning doing some more training, but it turned out to be quite a different morning to the one I was expecting.

My mother lives quite near to the radio station, which is based at the rear of Liden Library, and when we had been over to see her a couple of days ago, Mr. HCB found a necklace on the ground next to our car.  I said that I thought that it had probably been dropped by someone from the car that was parked next to ours, so told him to just drape it over the mirror on the driver’s side and then hopefully, it would be seen by the person whose car it was.

This morning, I was telling Shirley Ludford, the Manager of Swindon 105.5, about my new roving microphone, when I noticed the beautiful necklace she was wearing - and what a coincidence - it was the one that Mr. HCB had found!  I asked her if she had lost it recently, and she told me that it must have come undone and slipped off when she got out of her car, and that she had found it on the mirror.  She said she was so pleased because it was a gift from a very special friend and would have been very upset if she had lost it.  I then told her the story of Mr. HCB finding it and telling him to drape it over the mirror, so she was delighted.  How’s that for a lovely story - and what a good job we found it and not someone who would just have taken it.  

I have mentioned Adrian before in my Blips about the radio station and this morning, once again, he was very helpful to me, when I was trying to edit a couple of interviews that I had done recently.  He is very knowledgeable and already I have learned a lot from him - so later on, when he was helping me again, I was showing him my microphone and told him that I had blipped this yesterday.  He then wanted to know more about “Blipping” so I told him that I had been posting a photograph on Blipfoto.com for the last six years without missing a day.  Then I told him about my self-imposed challenge, “My Street Challenge” and how I was hoping to go in and interview Darryl, the Local Studies Librarian in the main Library, who was very knowledgeable about Swindon and the surrounding area.  

Adrian was very interested and told me that if I wanted to, I could go on his lunchtime programme today, “Musical Lunchbreak” and tell his listeners more about Blip.  Well, you know me, not one to refuse an offer like that, I rang Mr. HCB to tell him I would be late home, because I would be on Adrian’s programme, so he told me he would listen in!  

Shirley also told me that she would be listening and although she knew I didn’t really want to do presenting, it was a good idea to know how the desk works and to see how the chat, music and jingles all slotted in, and she was right.  It was fascinating to watch Adrian, who is so passionate about what he does, but I doubt I will ever get to his standard, but I can try.  I was originally only going to stay for fifteen minutes, but got so caught up with the excitement of the programme, which went out live, that I ended up staying for the whole hour.  I have to say that I felt Adrian and I “bounced” off each other well - but not literally, you understand - and he was even kind enough to dedicate the final piece of music, "Stranger on the Shore" by Acker Bilk to Mr. HCB, who is a fan of AB.

I gave a good “shout out” for Blip and of course, when I get my programme up together talking about “My Street Challenge”, I will be giving more information about Blip - so who knows, more people may start blipping.

The collage shows Shirley, wearing her beautiful “electric blue" necklace, with a big smile on her face, the desk and screen, which looked rather daunting but which Adrian made look so easy - and Adrian and me getting “ready to roll”!  

Such a fun morning - with special thanks to Shirley and Adrian - we are now going to do the shopping - bit of a comedown, but it has to be done - you can’t be up on Cloud 9 all the time!

“What made something precious?
     Losing it and finding it.”
Celeste Ng

P.S.  Forgot to say, I made a pair of fingerless gloves for Charlie, one of the young men who wants to be a radio journalist and who presents the Sport programme and he was delighted.  When Louise saw them, she ordered five pairs - so better get knitting!