Ambridge

Our internet connexion here seems to improve over time, though not without the occasional step backward. Now I'm able to listen live to the BBC, (and I must get speakers today...). That's great, but when the connexion was slow, and listen live sounded like a dalek in a metal tank underwater, I got into BBC podcasts. It took some patience, a half hour programme could take 90 minutes to download, so one had to plan ahead. But once downloaded, I could sync it to my phone, put in the head phones, light up the pipe and look out onto the North African night, watching for the Scops Owl, and listen to Front Row, or Start The Week, or... The Archers.

I've been listening to The Archers (which has got a comprehensive website, btw,) since I got my first radio at eleven years old, (my parents aren't Radio 4 people). Since then, I've listened to it on and off. Sometimes, several years will go by when I hardly here an episode, when I've been living abroad.

But now, we have the podcast, and I've gone from being a casual, recreational, take-it-or-leave-it user, to a screaming, wide eyed, mainlining junky, almost overnight... Yesterday was a staggerer, with Roy and Haley's premature baby, Abigail, arriving, and Jennifer threatening Brian with divorce: that was two Major Life Events within 13 minutes, mind.

Comments

  1. PETER SHAWSun Mar 09, 11:37:00 am GMT

    A good way to keep in touch with the UK is Radio Four's "News Quiz" which is available on an I Cast or something of that technical name. Its funny and its topical. Enjoy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alex NixonSun Mar 09, 03:34:00 pm GMT

    If you're after TV channel 4 has the same sort of thing as the BBC iPlayer. channel4.com/4od or something like that

    ReplyDelete
  3. MichaelSun Mar 09, 03:40:00 pm GMT

    I know the feeling: the appeals of Southern Italy or the Czech Republic were as nothing to me compared to the crackly Westway omnibus every Sunday night.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Leech or flatworm? Ants and Swiss Chard

Image
For the 2nd time in a week or so, (1st time regarding dwarf beans ), I'm following Alys Fowler's advice, this time with regard to Swiss chard .  Long story short, after midsummer plants which often bolt if planted in spring will resist the impulse to do so, probably because of shortening days; (I say shortening, but in Glasgow, in July, we're still getting 18 hours of daylight).   I got a packet of Bright Lights , at a good price, (another reason to wait until July before sowing, lots of bargains, I've noticed). But where to sow them? Most of the 2nd bed is under a tarpaulin, but it wasn't quite big enough to cover the whole bed, so the last 5ft or so went under a sheet of plastic, (in the background of the photo in this post, here .) Transparent plastic was a foolish idea, weeds were growing underneath it, so I covered most of it with sheets of metal from the old shed. I decided to leave the tarp, but use the area beneath the plastic for the chard. Who-ah there
Read more

LTPTP XXV: We Shall Overcome

Image
We shall indeed.  It's a lovely wee tune to learn.  I've almost memorized it this morning, the idea being, when I encounter a piano, I want something to sit down and play on the bugger.  I've a feeling that my keyboard's keys are lighter than a proper piano's, and there'll be a bit of effort transferring the skills I've gotten so far.  Probably, at some point this year, I'll be in workplace with a piano.  I'll print off some simple music and scales, and work at it, but it's likely to be in a public place so I want something to avoid making a twat of myself initially. It feels right that this should be the first tune I learn by heart.
Read more

"Chevy Chase. Fuck ever happen to him?"

Image
As Paulie Walnuts said in The Sopranos. It got me thinking. As it happens, he's been working steadily , but you can see what Paulie means. It's like that with film and television actors: you don't see them in anything for a year or two, and you wonder if they're dead or perhaps on a lengthy charlie and booze session. Or maybe doing proper acting on the stage? Only appearing on the telly gives them meaning to us. That video with Paul Simon was on one of the cable music channels the other day. It always makes me smile. As for Paulie and the rest of the crew, the clock's ticking. Of course, America already knows how things finish, but we don't. My mate Ian was telling me about a friend of his, visiting the States a few weeks ago, flicking through the channels in his hotel bedroom, he hit on a repeat of THE final episode, just beginning. What a quandry! He watched it, as it goes, but kept shtum when he came home.
Read more