Thursday 31 January 2008

I never learn

I must not put empty milk cartons back in the fridge ...
I must not put empty milk cartons back in the fridge ...
I must not put empty milk cartons back in the fridge ...
I must not put empty milk cartons back in the fridge ...
I must not put empty milk cartons back in the fridge ...
I must not put empty milk cartons back in the fridge ...
I must not put empty milk cartons back in the fridge ...
I must not put empty .....

Ever had one of those days?
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Jon Cuthill is a presenter on BBC Radio Solent. You can listen to him every weekday from 9am-12.30pm, or listen again online at his website.

Wednesday 30 January 2008

It's all kicking off

The Germans aren't drinking as much beer as they used to.

It's official - according to figures released by the German Drinking Association or whoever's in charge of drinking related statistics - they're drinking less. The reason? Obviously global warming which would appear to be the root of all evil and the most over used excuse of the moment. But also the fact there hasn't been any recent major sporting events. Are you kidding?

Two words - Havant and Waterlooville.

Anyway - take note my German friends - major sporting events in Team UK are alive and kicking as too - I suspect - is our beer consumption. Off to Twickenham this Saturday with middle brother James (I'm the youngest) and dad to watch England (possibly) stuff the Welsh.

(Apology to Wales will follow on Monday if prediction proves less than accurate)

Should be fun - and it's the first time ever that we three have trooped off to a major sporting event together. There's something quite nice about the thought of watching it with my dad and my brother. I'm sure families do it all the time but for us it's a first.

I guess as you grow up a bit you begin to realise how lucky you are to have family around and want to make the most of it.

A sport we all like - a time when can all do - and a place we can all get to.

The Cuthills get organised.

There's a first time for everything.
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Jon Cuthill is a presenter on BBC Radio Solent. You can listen to him every weekday from 9am-12.30pm, or listen again online at his website.

Tuesday 29 January 2008

Egg on face

Alright, alright - it didn't work.

Just proves you shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet. Attempted to cook an egg using two mobile phones on the show today. Two hours later and I think the egg was more raw than when it began. However - salmon cooked in dishwasher - amazing! (carbon footprint botherers may want to look the other way.)

It's funny we're into our food at the moment on the show what with strange cooking methods and Faster Chef. It's exactly the same for me at home. I've really got into my cooking (probably due to cost of new kitchen) and am loving every minute of. Have bought a couple of new cook books and I'm away - the things I can do to a hallibut you wouldn't believe. Only problem is it's proving a bit expensive. If you're not a regular chef you find you don't have all the store cupboard ingredients and so for every dish it's a monster shop and a shopping bill to match. But - as a man - surely I'm scoring more points with the ladies learning how to cook?!

Short term pain for long term (weight) gain.

Speak soon
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Jon Cuthill is a presenter on BBC Radio Solent. You can listen to him every weekday from 9am-12.30pm, or listen again online at his website.

Monday 28 January 2008

Night on the (Scrabble) tiles

Cheers Matt for looking after the blog. Poor guy looked absolutely shattered and has gone home for a well deserved kip. Above and beyond the call of duty on every level but really interesting to see how it affected mind and body - I possibly would have ceased to function a long time ago but these reporters are made of tougher stuff.

Back from a great weekend. Had a shred-a-thon on Saturday sorting out a box of paperwork. A truly tedious exercise but boy do I feel smug now. Poor old shredder didn't know what hit it and began belching out smoke at one point. Still - all sorted - and am determined to keep on top of the countless bank statements, gas bills, pizza flyers from now on (well at least until the end of the week.)

Possibly one of the most exciting football related 45 minutes in my life (after all I am a Cherries fan) listening to the Hawks give Liverpool a scare. Truly brilliant - you kind of knew their legs would give out eventually - but they did themselves proud and hopefully they might get a bit more home support. Am going to try and get down there to watch a home match before the end of the season. Looking forward to it.

Yesterday was meant to give arch Scrabble rival Jemma a game over a bottle of wine. Apparently it's the in-thing to do. Was all ready for another stunning victory but realised had negated to buy necessary alcoholic beverage so had to scoot down to local convenience store. On way back we bumped into work buddy and evening quickly deteriorated/improved at a local drinking establishment.

Still haven't painted kitchen ceiling.

Or played Scrabble.
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Jon Cuthill is a presenter on BBC Radio Solent. You can listen to him every weekday from 9am-12.30pm, or listen again online at his website.

Hour 53 - The End

Yeahy - it's all done. I'm about to trot off home and get my head down for an extended bout of snoozetime. But, before I go, I thought I'd share some of the tips bits of info I learnt this weekend:
  • Sunday night is statisically the worst night of sleep in the week. Friday is the best.
  • 20% of all serious accidents on motorways are caused by tiredness, meaning that more people are killed on our roads due to sleepiness than through drinking and driving.
  • One in five workers in urban societies is now working outside of normal office hours and paying the price in terms of an increased risk of accidents and of heart disease.
  • An afternoon nap can cut the risk of death from heart disease among men and women by a third.
  • I get really quite grumpy when I'm tired.

Thanks to Elaine and Dave at the bakery I visited this morning (the Shoebox Bakehouse in Southampton) and Dr Lindsay Browning (you can find out more about her work here). The BBC has an excellent site about everything sleep releated which you can find here.

I'm off to bed. Jon, here's your blog back.

Matty

Hour 43 - back to the office

I've come to work.

No particular reason, but the walk in the cool foggy air did me good, and my home laptop has started to play up so this is the only way that I can keep the blog up to date.
Enjoy my picture of the clock tower on Southampton civic centre in the fog at 01:05am.

Sunday 27 January 2008

Hour 38 - it's been a roller coaster!

Emotionally today has been really tough. I wouldn't have expected it because I did have a few hours of sleep that I hadn't intended to have, but actually I have just bickered about petty things and been dead grumpy for a lot of the day.

This afternoon I perked up a bit, buoyed by a nice Sunday lunch and meeting up with a few friends.

I'm now totally zapped of all my energy, and am going to have to come up with some clever strategy to stop myself falling asleep again tonight.

Hour 26 - more bickering

That bad mood has not gone away - it's gotten worse. I'm a misery to be with this morning: I'm grumpy, easily irritable and generally not nice to be around this morning.

The girlfriend is staying well clear....

Hour 24 - Gutted

I had a small snooze. Well, three hours in total!

I'm gutted. I tried so hard to fend off the Z's, but I simply couldn't hold my eyes open long enough. I slept from about 3am to 6amish Sunday morning. I'm very disappointed that within the first 24 hours I've already failed in my attempt to stay up all weekend without any sleep.

The worst thing is that it has done me no good at all. I feel pysically rubbish, and mentally I'm just annoyed with myself.

Grr...

Hour 21 - The real work begins

We've just come back from seeing Air Traffic in Bournemouth. It was a great gig, and I'd bought tickets for myself and a couple of mates.

However, they've all gone now. Everybody in the flat is asleep. Except me.

This is where the hard part starts.

I was so so tempted to just sneak off to bed myself. Lots of talk of pillows, soft duvets, and fourty winks had me really wondering why I should be doing this... but I really want to give this my best shot.

I've already made myself a cheese sarnie - which is dangerous. People who regularily sleep for less than four hours a day are 73% more likely to be obese according to a study. There's plenty of reasons for this, but gradually I am realising that my body is just going to be confused as to what meal it's owed next...

I think I may need some more cheese.

Saturday 26 January 2008

Hour 12 - Moody

My lack of Saturday-afternoon-snooze may have been a mistake. Me and my girlfriend have just had a stupid fight about why I didn't wash up two plates. *sigh*

That's not normal for me, and I was rather stuburn and moody throughout.

I'm a little better now after a cup of tea and a biscuit.

The Havant & Waterlooville match lifted my spirits and pulse rate for some of the afternoon too! What a match to listen too...

We'll be going out tonight to a gig, so hopefully some loud music and bopping around will keep me going this evening.

Hour 7 - Show done

Wow. What a show.

I've just been coming down from a great Sally on Saturday show - even if I do say so myself. Highlight for me was a tour around Air Traffic's tour bus... plus their live set in the studio. We took some pics and they are available on the BBC Dorset website now.

Anyway - I'm feeling quite tired now. I have spent all morning rushing around keeping the show on the air. Normally I would have a nap-ette on a Saturday afternoon to recover. I'm sure I'll be fine without it.

I told Sally about my plans for the weekend, and I've got a video of her reaction:



Matt

p.s. You can play a fun game of 'spot-the-BBC-South-member-of-staff-in-the-background' on that video... answers on a postcard.

Hour 1 - The first morning

I may not have made the best of starts.

You'd think that before trying to stay up all weekend I'd want to get a huge amount of beauty sleep, but in the end my brother came round to watch films instead.

As my head finally hit the pillow I glanced at the clock and it was 11.40pm. Drat.

My alarm got me up at 5.15am this morning. I _really_ didn't feel like getting up, but I have some work to do. Every Saturday I produce Sally Taylor's radio show, so it's quite an early start to put everything together.

I'd better crack on preparing the studio, but thought I'd let you know that I've started... and I'm already tired!

Friday 25 January 2008

Sleeping Trial

Hello,

reporter Matt here. This weekend I will be looking at what happens when you get no sleep.

There are plenty of reasons why people don't get the sleep they need: shift work, babies, lumpy matresses, etc. but over a long period of time not having a good nights sleep can really harm yourphysical and mental health.

I've been told to expect a wide range of symptoms including difficulty concentrating, finding it tough to make decisions and possibly even feeling depressed.

Exciting stuff!

I am quite nervous, to be honest, about the whole thing. I will be fascinated to see if I can do it, and what effects it could have on me. I've burned my fair share of midnight oil, especially through University, but if I do this it will comfortably beat any previous personal records.

Just thinking about it is making me nervous... and sleepy!

Wish me luck,

Matty

Lend us a squid

Right! That does it! I'm cooking tonight.

Just had a taste of today's Faster Chef recipe and it is fantastic! Need to buy some calamari which will be a new experience. What do you ask for? A leg of octopus? Not sure - research is needed before I venture to the shops. Trust me though from the forkfull I just had it's a belter. Apologies to any squid reading. Anyway am determined to try more cooking now I've got a kitchen back and I'm even thinking of exploring an evening class. Top tips always welcome.

Don't forget reporter Matt is going without sleep this weekend in a bid to see what happens to the human body. He's a brave old soul for volunteering but it should be really interesting. I can't think of the longest time I've been without sleep for - probably as a reporter on general election duty - although I remember they found me downstairs fast asleep on the mixing desk, snoring and slightly dribbling. Have never lived that one down. There are some that can do without their sleep - there are others which can't. I'm definately a can't.

Matt is going to take over the blog for the weekend so keep logging on to see whether he's still awake. And don't forget we'll find out on Monday morning's show how he got on.

Sleep tight.

Not you, Matt.
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Jon Cuthill is a presenter on BBC Radio Solent. You can listen to him every weekday from 9am-12.30pm, or listen again online at his website.
Posted by Jon Cuthill at 13:47 0 comments

Thursday 24 January 2008

Mr Blue Sky

It's post lunch back in the office writing blog early due to tonight's planned events. Will update on quiz possibly tomorrow unless it proves a complete failure. If that's the case will never speak of it again.

Anyway just looked out the window and noticed it's a beautiful blue sky, hardly any clouds and sunshine that could be mistaken for Spring. And it's January!?? Places I would rather be than in the office - Mudeford Quay? Corfe? It's that kind of day.

Book. Beer. Perhaps a wander to stretch the legs. Bliss.

Currently getting lots of emails from PR agencies and media peeps on the subject of Valentine's Day. Do I want to do interviews on what to buy? How to find love? What to cook? Weekend getaways? What red roses say about you? 1 rose or a dozen? Valentine's Day for pets?!?! "Help your dog find true love this Valentine's." Is your goldfish happy in love?

Beach, anyone?

Wednesday 23 January 2008

Not another sports round

It's all getting rather serious. If you had any doubts a life in media was competitive you need look no further than a BBC South quiz night. They don't happen often - but like Halley's Comet - when they do it's truly spectacular.

It's game on tomorrow night downstairs in the bar. Walk around the corriders at the momet and you'll come across hushed conversations around coffee machines of who's in who's team and who's in everyone elses. The sports department is in complete chaos due to other teams poaching key members because of their specialist knowledge and drinking ability. BBC1's Inside Out team have come out of their undercover investigations to take part and even a visiting team of digital trainers have formed a 5 (rumour is it they'll be in matching shirts).

Sally Taylor has so far resisted but it's only a matter of time.

And there's something hugely satisfying about knowing something no one else on your team knows. Convincing the other 4 members is another thing all together but it's the sheer joy that a piece of rubbish your brain filed under "keep that for later it might come in handy" has actually found a use.

How many noses does an ant have? 5
World's fastest bird? Swift
Film budget of Star Wars? 11 million dollars

On which level of the multi storey I parked my car? No idea.
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Jon Cuthill is a presenter on BBC Radio Solent. You can listen to him every weekday from 9am-12.30pm, or listen again online at his website.

Tuesday 22 January 2008

A leopard never changes

So much for those New Year resolutions.

There were the old chestnuts of course - I should drink less, exercise more, be happier with my lot in life and generally be a better sort of chap. But whilst the majority of those are still just about standing one has fallen by the wayside - deadlines.

Now I've never been a deadline sort of chap. I know when things have to be done, I'm constantly told when things should be done and I always tell myself when I should do things by. But unfortunately it just never seems to sink in. There's always something else slightly more interesting to do, there's always someone slightly more interesting to talk to and there's always another day to put things off to. But then with an almost boring inevitability the deadline is tomorrow, I'm stressed out to the max and I'm furious again that I didn't start it earlier.

I suppose all of us have at least one ultimate deadline. As I get older I'm beginning to realise you're better off doing things today and not waiting until tomorrow.

Otherwise it's going to be one hell of a crazy last day.
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Jon Cuthill is a presenter on BBC Radio Solent. You can listen to him every weekday from 9am-12.30pm, or listen again online at his website.

Monday 21 January 2008

Calling all grown ups

Well you would, wouldn't you? Provided no one was looking.

There I was, with female who should know better, in a pub in the New Forest enjoying a spot of Sunday lunch. We'd both earned it having arrived caked in mud on mountain bikes with the prospect of a long cycle home.

Anyway lunch eaten, just about to leave and we remember the aforementioned pub has a children's obstacle course. It's mid winter. It's vaguely hidden. It was completely empty. We're both adults.

In a split moment the decision was made - no words needed to be spoken.

Thirty seconds later it was all wobbly planks, chain linked bridges, monkey bars and cargo nets. For three glorious minutes I was six again unable to stand up straight through laughter as she bounced clean off the wobbly plank. Next thing I knew I was back to being 36.

I hope I'm still the same at ninety.
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Jon Cuthill is a presenter on BBC Radio Solent. You can listen to him every weekday from 9am-12.30pm, or listen again online at his website.

Friday 18 January 2008

Fast forward

Is it just me or is someone sat on the fast forward button?

I can't believe it's nearly January the twenty something-th already? Feels like only yesterday we were seeing in the New Year. It's a weird thing but I've noticed that as I get older time seems to be speeding up.

Remember when you were at school and the six week summer holidays felt like it would go on forever? Each weekend was a lifetime of push bikes, footie and E numbers. Nowadays blink and you miss them. One minute you're shutting down your PC on the Friday. Before you know it it's Songs of Praise on the telly and you're wondering where it went.

Anyway in a bid to get better value out of the ever trickling sands of time I decided action was needed.

I think it's fair to say I'm not the most organised person in the world and this year I bought myself a diary. Apparently at the age of 36 I can no longer forget where I am meant to me, not remember who I'm meant to be seeing and rely on only vague recollections of what I'm meant to be doing. So in an effort to achieve the new me I invested in a slim leather number. I even purchased a special diary sized pen for writing in all those appointments.

This was the moment I became efficient.

This was the moment I became dynamic.

This was the moment I became organised.

This was the moment I became forgetful.

And left it in the shop.

I'm got a nasty feeling I'm meant to be doing something this weekend ....

See you Monday.
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Jon Cuthill is a presenter on BBC Radio Solent. You can listen to him every weekday from 9am-12.30pm, or listen again online at his website.

Thursday 17 January 2008

Closed: Gone to Anfield

What an amazing night! Congratulations to Havant and Waterlooville for restoring my faith in the FA Cup. Unbelievable. Almost as good as Bournemouth beating Manchester United in '84. (almost)

But for the mighty Hawks what an amazing achievement! The chance to take on European giants Liverpool - for players and fans a near once in a lifetime moment. Even if you're not into footy it will be one of those occasions when I suspect the whole of Havant and Waterlooville will shut up shop and hold it's breathe .... and could you imagine a draw?!

Anyway whilst all the drama was unfolding at Westleigh Park I was honing by culinary skills back home. I seem to have a knack for double booking myself with great sporting moments. (Maybe I need to find more things to do when the Cherries are playing!?!) So there I was cooking and chatting with the Crocker (note the multi-tasking) but in the background was the BBC Radio Solent commentary of the big match. Very low volume but just enough to hear the tone of Loz's voice. So first goal goes in, Laurence spontaneously combusts and I attempt to continue conversation with Charlie without breaking eye contact, dancing around the room or throwing both arms in the air and singing "They're on their way to Anfield .... la la la la".

I failed miserably.

But it was worth it.
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Jon Cuthill is a presenter on BBC Radio Solent. You can listen to him every weekday from 9am-12.30pm, or listen again online at his website.

Wednesday 16 January 2008

The rain in Spain is falling mainly over here

If it rains any more I will grow webbed feet. It's official. I am now bored of rain.

Granted, as one wise listener pointed out to me, there's no such thing as the wrong type of weather only the wrong choice of clothing. But enough is enough when you have to swim out to your car, sail it to work and then moor it up in the car park. Am considering shipping some of the wet stuff to Kent where, as I found out yesterday, we actually have a spot of land which can be classified as desert. I'm hoping for a bit of sand and a spot of sun in return.

Here's a question for you which I can't answer. Is there always the same amout of rain falling at any given moment on earth? On the basis that it can't leave this glorious planet and that it must keep falling for the whole 'O' level geography cycle to work - does that mean if we get lots some poor souls don't get any? Answers on an email please.

The whole life coach thing was interesting last night. Some truly painful moments of silence when said life coach took the whole "I'm not going to talk so that means you have to" approach. Luckily it would appear I have an uncanny knack of talking complete and utter rubbish in any conversational lull. Judging by the look on the poor woman's face she may take a different approach next time. Although it made me realise what it's like when the boot's on the other foot. Asking questions ain't a problem - it's answering them that's the hard bit.

Aiming to get out on the mountain bike at the weekend although if the weather stays like this it's going to be a bit on the sticky side. Bought myself a new gadget which I want to try out. It's a GPS thingy (technical term) which tracks where you've been. You get home, plug it into the laptop and it plots your route on a whizzy map. I was very excited about it until a female colleague correctly pointed out that as I had just riden the bike I would already know exactly where I'd been and what was the point of the map.

It's a fair point.

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Jon Cuthill is a presenter on BBC Radio Solent. You can listen to him every weekday from 9am-12.30pm, or listen again online at his website.

Tuesday 15 January 2008

No running, ducking or petting

I'm doing something slightly odd today. Well saying that I suppose it's something that I regard to be slightly odd. Others may treat it as the absolute norm. Americans I'm sure probably do it at least twice a day and most will say I should have done it years ago.

You see I kind of see myself as the human equivalent of my old VHS recorder. I know what it does, I know what it's for, I even know how to make it work without accidentally recording Songs of Praise but I always get the feeling I've never got all the functions. That would involve reading the instruction manual and as we all know real men never ever do that. So - how to get the most out of the old Cuthill VCR? Are you sat down? Are you ready? Please don't laugh.

I am going to see a life coach. As opposed to a life guard.

I have know idea whether it will make the slightest difference as I've pressing any old buttons for the past 36+ years and why I'd suddenly want an instruction manual is beyond me. Perhaps it's just my age. Again quite what a life coach does I have no idea but I'm about to find out. I'm hoping they're the thinking equivalent of a cold sponge and half time piece of orange. If not then we're all in trouble.

Of course I've got all my family and friends and colleagues to talk to but there's something quite appealing about hearing from someone who has absolutely nothing to do with you. The shopping equivalent of asking a complete stranger if your bum looks big in this? I will tell you how big my bum is when I find out tonight.

Elsewhere have decided what to cook the Crocker when she comes round. It's a totally goats cheese and pine nuts affair which Gordon Ramsay promises is quick, easy and edible. Football last night was rubbish - the words barn, door and can't featured quite heavily but an honourable 2-2 draw left everyone happy.

Oh - and I really must finish painting the kitchen ceiling.

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Jon Cuthill is a presenter on BBC Radio Solent. You can listen to him every weekday from 9am-12.30pm, or listen again online at his website.

Monday 14 January 2008

Shopping can be fun

I'm worried people are losing out.

Apparently, and I've yet to try this myself, you can get other people to do your supermarket shopping for you. You pay your selected superstore a fiver or so and then send them your shopping list. They then scuttle around bumping their trolley into the backs of people's ankles and forget the milk, causing a major incident attempting to negotiate against the flow of traffic, before loading it up and delivering it to your house. (There is of course the whole shouldn't we be supporting local shops? But I'll save that for another day.)

Anyhow - what I'm worried about is that if you do decide to go down the whole supermarket route and you hire the services of a personal shopper - you're missing out on all the fun. And what splendid fun it is.

The fun starts as soon as you enter the fruit and veg section. Now as everyone knows all the best veg is kept at least three layers below what's currently on show. You'll regularly see the more seasoned shopper check the coast is clear before peeling back two layers of parsnips to get to the stuff that looks as though it has a fighting chance of getting home before shrivelling up. All it takes is one person to do it and then everyone's at it. Just like the biscuit selection box at Christmas.

Next is the well known shopping fact the freshest stuff is always at the back of the shelf. Why supermarkets still bother shuffling the packets around is beyond me. To be honest if they want to get rid of the old stuff they should now stick that at the back as that's where everyone is grabbing first. The only people taking anything from the front are those under 5'2".

Then it's the random placement of objects around the superstore game. I was in the DVD section of my local supermarket at the weekend and amongst the DVD's was a packet of ham. Now clearly the shopper who placed it there had had a change of mind or simply realised a packet of ham could only provide somewhat limited entertainment on a Saturday night. Mind you given the choice of watching four slices of honey smoked ham or Liz Hurley's new flick for two hours it's a close run thing. My favourite misplaced item of all time was the genius who mid curry section had placed a packet of four loo rolls.

Now that's what I call forward planning.

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Jon Cuthill is a presenter on BBC Radio Solent. You can listen to him every weekday from 9am-12.30pm, or listen again online at his website.

Friday 11 January 2008

Barking up the wrong tree

"There is a dog up the tree."

Not something you hear every day but those were the words I heard last weekend. Completely forgot about it until today. It's probably because my brain is attempting to cancel out any memory of such a ridiculous event because as we all know dogs can't climb trees. Squirrels, bears, monkeys, 10 year old kids but never dogs. So there I was - with Jemma (used to work on the show but now is high powered personal executive assistant) when I heard the immortal words.

Initially I feared it may have been the bottle talking - it's a high pressured role - but sure enough 5 minutes later a border collie runs past and then straight up a tree. And I mean straight up a tree. Owner of said dog then saunters by, not batting an eyelid, calmly says to the dog "that's high enough" whereby dog scuttles down the trunk and shoots off up a neighbouring oak.

Fearing for my sanity I mentioned tree dog to producer Al and to my great relief discover he too has seen the K9 marvel at Southampton Common. Where's That's Life when you need it? Alsatians and a pub soda bottle are one thing but a tree climbing dog?!

Skate boarding duck your time may be up.

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Jon Cuthill is a presenter on BBC Radio Solent. You can listen to him every weekday from 9am-12.30pm, or listen again online at his website.

Thursday 10 January 2008

Hell's Kitchen

It's the moment of truth next week.

After all the hassle, the no hot water, the no floor, no walls, no fridge it's time to see if the new kitchen was worth all the pain. Granted most of that pain does appear to be self inflicted and in the world of DIY I must rate fairly low down the scale of efficiency and know how but save for a few finishing touches the project is complete (ish).

Have promised The Crocker she can come round for dinner next week and am planning on doing the cooking. Over the past year i've eaten more than enough takeouts and ready meals and seeing as I now have a fully functioning kitchen - all be it with slightly out of control dancing washing machine - I might as well put it to good use. And on the basis I now have 8 gas burners and have only ever used 2 am hoping to come up with some multi panned marvel. Blow the washing up and/or the fossil fuels it's time to burn some serious gas. Just the one problem - she's a vegetarian.

Now my cooking skills are fairly limited so I need something which will guarantee edible and possibly a round of applause. Bored of pasta, can't do fish - nothing dead allowed - just need something simple which oozes (perhaps not the best choice of word) sophistication and proves once and for all men are vaguely capable at more that grunting and drinking beer. Beans on toast is apparently not allowed. Anyway am scouring cook books at the moment trying to find something tasty and feasible. Any suggestions/ideas gratefully received.

Really tired at the moment - have caught myself slowly but surely turning into my dad. Remember always teasing him when I lived at home as he slipped into his regular post dinner coma in front of the tv.

What did I do last night? Sound asleep before Eastenders.

Shoot me if I start wearing corduroy.
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Jon Cuthill is a presenter on BBC Radio Solent. You can listen to him every weekday from 9am-12.30pm, or listen again online at his website.

Wednesday 9 January 2008

I can see the light

Is it just me or is it no longer a legal requirement that cars need two lights these days? Staggering back from the gym last night there were five or six cars in the space of five minutes all with only one light working.

I even saw a police van the other day with just the one. Although, to be fair, it would take a very brave person to tap on the window and say "Excuse me officer but did you know ....". I would imagine they'd be searching your boot quicker than you can say "but I was only trying to help".

Seriously though I've seen loads of cars recently with just the one - call me a traditionalist but I like to see where I'm going and more to the point who's coming. It's worth a quick check I reckon - rear lights too - and courtesy of a shop window how about those brake lights?

The other thing about lights is the switching them off bit. I walked past a car parked outside a row of houses the other night and they'd obviously arrived at dusk and jumped out leaving their sidelights on. Having drained my battery on numerous occasions half of me wanted to knock on doors and say "Excuse me, but did you know that...". Although the other half of me was thinking you'll just look like a lunatic - keep walking.

Anyway knowing my luck it would be the police van man. "Pop open the boot, son."

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Jon Cuthill is a presenter on BBC Radio Solent. You can listen to him every weekday from 9am-12.30pm, or listen again online at his website.

Tuesday 8 January 2008

Skipping down memory lane

Where did it all go wrong? Have just been flicking through my old school reports this morning over (yet more) porridge. Matt needs them for the new website for the show. Still got most of mine from secondary school and loads from junior school.

July 1978 at Burton Church of England School and Jonathan Cuthill of Class 5 was making very good progress in english reading, had careful, accurate work in maths and his presentation was good.

30 years later I can't add up, have trouble getting my words out and haven't picked up a book for weeks. Talking of which have found Lance Armstrong's autobiography which I'd forgotten I had so will get stuck into that this week. Will work on the maths later.

Message from Cuthill HQ in Dorchester - old photos have been dispatched to the beeb for the new website. The embarrassment continues. However I am a scientific marvel - appear to have completely shaken off my man flu.

Porridge is the wonder drug. TP (Tristan Pascoe) has just been recounting the best of his 5 goals he allegedly scored last night. Even Johnny Cantor put in an appearance - apparently providing the cross that he volleyed so cleanly into the top right hand corner.

Have just talked to Marcus White from the newsroom who also plays and he can't recall the magic moment or indeed any of the 4 previous. They're all talk these Saints supporters. Back to the gym tonight. Really must paint the kitchen ceiling.

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Jon Cuthill is a presenter on BBC Radio Solent. You can listen to him every weekday from 9am-12.30pm, or listen again online at his website.

Monday 7 January 2008

Under the weather

Far be it for me to make a fuss - but I'm still ill. Currently eating porridge in a bid to make a miraculous recovery but I fear I'm too far gone. Always get a bit frustrated when I get the lurgy - all this hanging around waiting to get better seems a bit of a waste of time.

There are better things to do in life than cough, sneeze and blow your nose. Talking of which - have you ever noticed some people are much better at it than others?

Go at it with great gusto usually into something spotty. They're the sort of people who sneeze with an "atchooo" which registers a 6 on the National Geographic Society's seismic survey.

Others look positively embarrassed about the whole thing and turn their heads away hoping no-one will notice. I'm somewhere in between. Slightly half hearted, slightly awkward. Had a great guest on the show a couple of months ago talking about customs around the world and apparently the Japanese can't for the life of them understand the concept of handkerchiefs.
Why would you keep something in your pocket which is covered in precisely what you're trying to get away from. I always remember when I was young my mum used to keep her tissues up her sleeve.

As a 6 year old it was amazing when she'd whip out a hanky like some sort of magician. Always convinced a bunch of flowers and string of knotted handkerchiefs would follow.

Anyway it's not like I've got the Black Death but ... being a man - it's all very serious. Have decided not to go to footy tonight - it's the first one back after the New Year.

Tristan Pascoe (TP) has put on a few pounds - perfect opportunity to poach a few goals as he waddles about. No doubt will hear all about it tomorrow - especially if he scores.

Producer Al called about the show and more importantly beers later in the week. Work then bed. More porridge needed. Really must finish painting kitchen ceiling.

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Jon Cuthill is a presenter on BBC Radio Solent. You can listen to him every weekday from 9am-12.30pm, or listen again online at his website.