Did I mention this was a rant? Sense really has no place in it!

 
Cue the Twilight Zone music...

Since I started constructing my Mr Majeika website I have been subject to the most unusual set of coincidences. Perhaps the strangest was receiving an email from Nic Ayling who wanted to say how much he liked the site. He turned out to be a regular listener of the show I work on on Saturday nights with Dave Cash on Radio Kent, as well as being a good friend of several people who work in the office on the TV side of the local BBC, as well as being a regular co-presenter for a show on Southern Counties Radio. The list of weird coincidences goes on :-)

Anyway – I’ve just about got over that particularly unbelievable coincidence, only to be struck down by an entirely new one today. This all started back in the glorious days of summer (ahh - *thinks back to when the skies were blue and you didn’t need 14 layers of winter clothes and 12 layers of waterproofs just to go out*) Anyway I digress. It all started in summer when I was driving the OB’s horrendously early on Sunday mornings. The regular gardening phone-in show was off on the road every Sunday morning for about 5 weeks, and I was booked to drive the desk.

One day I turned up, and one of (then) freelance presenters, Julie Maddocks, was covering for the usual presenter on the Religious Programme. I walked in to set up, and we said our hello’s. I should point out here I had never met Julie up until this point. She said in a very chirpy way
“Oh hello John, how are you?”
I said, “I’m fine thanks – but my name’s not John”.
Julie looked a bit puzzled by this, and said “I was sure your name was John – we’ve met before haven’t we?”
I said “No”
“Are you sure – not in Chatham?” (that’s Radio Kent’s other studios)
As I’ve never been to Chatham I assured her that we would not have met there. Soooo we left it at that, had a little joke about her getting my name wrong, and left it at that.

So several months go by – I’ve worked with Julie many times since then and we get on like a house on fire. Anyway up to date now – Julie has been employed full time on the Afternoon Show, and I’m doing cover for people who are on Christmas and New Year holiday. At some point during the afternoon she made reference to Pat Sharp – (the mullet haired TV presenter from “Fun House”) and said that she used to work with him, and what a lovely guy he was.

Well, back in my own dim and distant past (1995 to be precise) I worked with Pat Sharp when I was on work experience when he was one of the presenters on Sky’s quiz channel “Challenge TV”.

Pah I hear you say!! Is that the weird coincidence that he’s been rambling on about for the last hour?!! Hundreds of people must have worked with Pat Sharp over the years, what’s so special about that? Well I’ll tell you.

I said to Julie that when I worked with him I didn’t find him all that pleasant, but I said maybe that was due to the fact that I was a snotty 15 year old on work experience, (and no one likes them!!) All of a sudden a light came on behind her eyes, and she said

“That’s where I know you from!!”

It turns out Julie was working at Challenge as a Production Co-ordinator at the time I was there!!!!!!!! AND she remembered me!!!!! I mean I was only there a bloody week!!!

It also turns out that she is a good friend of the aforementioned Nic Ayling (which isn’t that much of a surprise seeing as he is based in The Maidstone Studios, where Challenge is broadcast from!)

So there you go. Perhaps one of the weirdest coincidences of my “so called” professional career, I feel like a media savvy already :-)

Swanny says …. Never forget a face!

posted by LAMPS at 00:51

 
HAPPY 2003!!!

Well, it’s the start of a brand new year, and what a miserable one it is!!!! So far we’ve had rain, wind, rain , rain and more rain!!!

Still I had a good evening last night. I went over to a Sarah's flat with James, Karen and Chris and had lots of food, made lots of noise, and everyone else has lots to drink (I was driving but I had a great time anyway). Sarah had bought these fantastic bags that you blew up through a straw, and when you popped them a confetti type stuff comes out. Created a right mess, but it looks really nice and made an interesting change from party poppers :-) We watched the Queen's Golden Jubilee concert (again), and used it as a warm up for our karaoke session afterwards!!!! I Will Survive, Hi Ho Silver Lining, Standbye your man, Hey Jude and god know what else :-) Then we played "Hogs of War" on the Playstation, finally getting home just after 3am - Felt like like I could have done with another days worth of sleep this morning instead of getting up for work!!!

Anyway, back to the miserable weather. This has actually had quite an amusing (well I think it’s amusing) side effect on the sports show I’m working on today. New Year’s day is apparently a big day in the football calendar, and we were supposed to have three matches with reporters, as well as an army of local and national matches to keep an eye on. Plus we were planning to split the frequencies of the station, so we would have one full match commentary on our FM frequency, and one match on our AM frequency. Well the heavens have opened, and all but one match in the county of Kent have been cancelled due to waterlogged pitches :-) We’ve had several amusing reports of covers being blown away due to strong winds, and just the centre of the pitch being flooded, as well as big machines that are effectively rolling sponges trying to soak up some of the excess water!!!

Essentially this all means that we’ve gone from having FAR too much work to do, to having almost nothing whatsoever, hence the ability to update my blog. It’s always fun to try and make up a show from scratch whilst you’re on air – but it’s also quite scary, as I’m the one at the sharp end who has to pull it all together. We’re now searching the stations music library for the longest songs we have in order to fill the almost completely empty last hour of the show!! Plus I’ve now got to contend with looking like a freak on the studio’s brand new webcams!!! (as well as the people who stare at me through the “Weirdo Window” from the shopping precinct – now I know how Richard and Judy felt – except they had their backs to their window!)

So far this afternoon it appears that I have done nothing but look like I’m asleep, eat, stare aimlessly into space, and not be in the room at all :-)

Still I can’t imagine a better way to spend my New Years Day. Erm well actually yes I can – but as it’s chucking it down outside, I’m better off here in a nice warm studio :-)

Swanny says …. Na, na na na na na naaa. Na na na naaa hey Jude. Na, na na na na na naaa. Na na na naaa hey Jude. Na, na na na na na naaa. Na na na naaa hey Jude.
posted by LAMPS at 16:27