5.20am

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Wednesday 18th of January 2023

Since the Christmas holidays, I have been waking up at 5.20am to turn on the radio. I am not sure how this came about. I don’t have an alarm or anything but I have been fairly successful. For years, we used to have the radio on all night but in recent years there was often a lot of shouting and screaming on the radio in the wee hours of the morning that began to disturb our sleep. Furthermore the Today programme was going downhill.

Why 5.20am? You may ask. That is because until 5.20am, every singple night, BBC Radio 4 is taken over by BBC World.

I love listening to the shipping forecast which gently lulls me back to sleep until it is time to wake up usually to the shouty voice of one of the Today presenters at which point I promply turn off the radio!

Accidental Digital Detox

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Last week, I inadvertently ended up doing a digital detox. Strangely, it was only on day two did I realise what was happening! Maybe it was because we were away from home but whatever it was it felt good!

I did pack my laptop but I never once turned it on. Instead, I bought an Alexander McCall Smith book in Oxfam and read that. I had also brought other reading materials with me so there was no opportunity for me to get bored. Like at home, I tuned in to Radio Four for my hourly news.

The detox was so good that towards the end, I even contemplated abandoning my blog for good albeit just for a split second!

BBC Radio 4 Vs BBC World Service

As a news junkie and someone who has lived in different continents, I begin to have “withdrawal symptoms” if I don’t get my fair share of both national and international news. For some time now, I have been pretty fedup with BBC Radio 4. In order to appeal to the so called younger audience, some of the programmes have reached gutter level. For instance, I have been appalled by the use of vulgar language on daytime programmes like the afternoon drama. Book at bedtime is anything but… the amount of vulgar language and violence is a recipe for a nightmare! I have also stopped listening to Woman’s Hour, the Today programme and such likes. The news tend to be pretty much the same every hour when plenty is happening around the world!

The Mhinisteir gifted me a Roberts DAB radio late last year and since then I have been listening to the BBC World Service which is wonderful and I once again feel like a global citizen. I still dip in and out of Radio 4 but these days the BBC World Service is my go to radio station.

It is a shame that the World Service is only available on DAB.

What’s in a name?

Did you know that the name of Evian, the French bottled water becomes Naive if you spell it in the reverse?

I must confess that I didn’t know this until I heard it on a Radio 4 programme.

Interesting!

Are radio listeners second class citizens?

On Monday, I was eagerly waiting to listen to the Prime Minister’s new lockdown measures. I tuned in to Radio 4 at the said time but there was no broadcast.

I soon realised that the Prime Minister’s announcement was only going to be on Television. Great but how about for people like me without television? Isn’t the message important enough for ALL to hear? When the first lockdown measures were announced in March, we listened to it live on the radio so what has changed now?

Heresy of Universalism

I listen to the Daily Service on Radio 4 long wave but am not always very pleased with the choice of presenters. I am surprised by the high number of non clergy who present it.

I am High Church but not Anglo Catholic: I like the service to be traditional and preferably by a member of the clergy. I am happy with a fair balance of traditional and non traditional services but often times, they are more non traditional than traditional.

The theme yesterday was the Criminal Justice System. During prayer, the clergy person addressed prisoners as God’s children! I am no theologian but I was taken aback by that particular description. I know that God is our Creator and We on earth are his Creation. As far as I know, we call God our Father when we enter into a relationship with Him.

Anyway, this subject was a thorn in my flesh as I had just finished reading about the widow of the policeman who was so brutally killed last year. I was very sad to know that they had only been married for a month and that the widow was not even allowed to see his body for one last time as his body was so mangled. How cruel!

Heresy of Universalism means there is no hell. I think one is clever enough to know what I am trying to say. There is forgiveness but only if we repent.

By the way, I got this big term from the Mhinisteir so please don’t be too impressed with my blog title!!!! As I say, I am no theologian!!!

Awful night

Unfortunately, that peaceful night’s sleep slipped away.  No fault of the mattress topper I hasten to add.

I kept waking up every hour as my leg was hurting.  Strangely, my body knows in the form of aches and pains when it is going to rain.  The rain was lashing at the window when I went to bed.  I need a barometer I think.  I tossed and turned and hoped for some respite but the respite never came so this morning I walked around like a zombie.  The Mhinsteir suggested that I get back to bed but I know I won’t be able to sleep.

I decided to listen to the Daily Service in bed instead.  It was only recently that I discovered that I could listen to it online as it is in long wave.  I don’t have DAB radio.   I really enjoy the service and so have been making a point to listen to it everyday.   The theme this week is Old Testament Prayers.

Oh help! I have just waved to my postman in my pyjamas!  The Mhinisteir is in a zoom meeting and so I ran (tried to anyway!) to the window to acknowledge the parcel that the Postie brought.  On my way back to bed, I decided to look at myself in the mirror!

BAD IDEA!   

 

 

 

Times Radio

I am an ardent fan of BBC Radio Four.  For quite some time, I have been dissatisfied with the quality of some of their Programmes.  For example, Book at bedtime sometimes has too much of violence and bad language.   Totally unnecessary!  Instead of gently lulling one to sleep, it keeps one awake.

Thanks to the Private Eye,  I discovered that a few of Radio Four Presenters have been poached by a new rival radio station called Times Radio.  I had never heard of them and decided to listen to them this morning via the internet.  I only tuned in to catch the hourly news brief.  The wonderful thing is that you don’t need to sign in to listen to them.   It is still early days but I hope that they will be a good alternative to Radio Four.

Radio Four is still my preferred Radio station but it is good to have a good alternative at least to keep them on their toes.

Desert Island Discs

I particularly enjoyed this week’s desert island disc on Radio 4 with Call the Midwife’s Heidi Thomas. Believe it or not, I have actually met her before thanks to the company that the Mhinisteir keeps! Of course I didn’t know who she was at that time but just that she was behind some soap called Call the Midwife which I didn’t know anything about. I now know a little about the drama, thanks to yesterday’s Programme.

It was really interesting listening to her and to know more about her. She came across as a warm person despite the personal tragedies that she had to go through. It was very embarrassing when she recalled an incident at her family home in Liverpool when the local Church of England Vicar came to tell her Mother that the other mothers in the playgroup didn’t want her to bring her son who was disabled. How dare they but more importantly what on earth was the Vicar thinking?????

Anyway, I was pretty chuffed when she said that her desert island has to be the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. A woman after my own heart!!!!!

Book at bedtime

I am a huge fan of Radio 4.  Sadly in recent months I have been getting pretty annoyed with some of the Radio 4 programmes.

Book at bedtime is the latest one to earn my wrath.  Why do we need very strong language and sexual content at bedtime or for the matter any time of the day???  This week, I have been turning off the radio whenever book at bedtime comes on and turn the radio back on for the 11pm news!!!!