- Jeff Zycinski
- 5 Jan 09, 10:55 AM
Most people returned to work this morning and, what with chocolate Easter eggs in the shops, we now have to accept that the merry-making is at an end. Soon it will be Halloween.
"It feels like coming back to school after the holidays," said Suzy Beaumont, one of the producers in Inverness. Suzy then revealed that she had had the same kind of rotten night's sleep that she used to have on the eve of the new term. Me too. I must have had about three hours kip before the radio alarm went off and I heard Gary Robertson talking about the cost of the new bridge planned for the River Forth.
Business as normal then.
I have to say that my weight-loss plans have received more support from blog readers than I got from my BBC colleagues this morning. Even Joanne, my PA, recoiled in horror when I threw a bag of celery sticks onto my desk and announced I'd no longer be taking milk in my coffee.
"You can't go from chocolate to celery in one fell swoop, " she told me, "that could kill you."
There was something seductive about the notion of a gradual transition to healthy food. I could start with chocolate covered raisins and then gradually switch to naked raisins and then prunes.
But no! I know what her game is. She's just worried that I wont be vistining that damned vending machine so often and then sharing my confectionery in the office.
This is going to be tricky.
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- Jeff Zycinski
- 4 Jan 09, 04:53 PM
Please join me this year in my quest to get fit, lose weight and really get to grips with what Scotland has to offer in the way of outdoor experiences. I've been inspired by our Out of Doors programme which has been recommending all sorts of fun activities. Coastal walking, snow-kiting, puddle-jumping (Ok, I just invented that last one).
Of course this resolution would be a lot easier to stick to if we lived in a slightly warmer climate. But that's no excuse. Who was it that said there is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing?.
So sign me up: I'm prepared to do what it takes to shed the blubber...and if you have any suggestions do let me know.
Meanwhile, my plan to walk to work every morning might have to wait until I invest in better footwear. And, anyway, that doesn't include the days I travel from Inverness to Glasgow.
I mean, have a little pity!
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- Jeff Zycinski
- 3 Jan 09, 11:16 PM
When my children were younger and still believed in magic, I used to make up bedtime stories for them. These yarns usually involved fantastic palaces and evil wizards. My son would enjoy the bits where the wizard does battle with the prince and my daughter would ask me to expand the sections where the princess gets to choose fabulous costumes for the Royal ball. So no gender stereotyping then.
These "make-up" stories used to be a regular part of our evening routine but at some point - I'm not sure when - they simply stopped asking for them.
But then today, at the supermarket, I found myself in the aisle full of surplus Christmas stock now being offered at massive discounts. There were tubes of cheese footballs and cartons of brandy butter and... an entire rack of soft toys.
When I got home I gathered my offspring together and told them what I'd seen.
"Just think..most of the other soft toys would have been given as Christmas presents. They'd have found children to love them...but what about those that got left behind in the shop? Imagine their Christmas morning...waking up in a dark, cold supermarket with most of their friends missing..."
"Right Dad...just stop it right there," said my son, "we know what you're up to."
But I'm sure I saw a tear in my daughter's eye.
Ah yes...the old magic. I've still got it.
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- Jeff Zycinski
- 2 Jan 09, 04:05 PM
There was an animal expert on Newsdrive last week telling Bill Whiteford some gruesome stories about the things that pets swallow. She, in fact, had once opened up a dog's stomach to find the contents of a cassette tape wound around its insides. More common finds, however, are socks...and chocolates.
Well it was the half-eaten box of chocs that tempted our own pooch - Rascal - to gorge himself this week. That prompted an urgent call to the Vet who asked all sorts of questions. Were the chocolates plain or milk? Did he eat more than his own body-weight? Was he showing any symptoms of sickness? We were then told to starve him for the rest of the day and keep some old newspapers handy unless we wanted a ruined carpet.
In the end he showed no symptoms at all and when the alloted digestion time had elapsed and I handed him a dry dog biscuit he almost took my arm with it.
Of course, I got the blame for having left the chocolates within reach of his jaws. Just like I got the blame that time I left the garden gate open...oh and let's not forget that time I tried to give him a haircut...
Today I offered to take him for a walk in the fog. I just don't understand why the rest of the family were so worried.
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- Jeff Zycinski
- 1 Jan 09, 03:35 AM
Jazz, a Gay Gordon, a Dashing White Sergeant, a bonfire, fireworks and stovies. That was how Hogmanay panned out the Zed family last night. The jazz came courtesy of Stephen Duffy's Jazz House programme and the dance music from Robbie Shepherd, Vic Galloway and Bryan Burnett. We were listening to the latter en route to a friend's party. The friend in question lives in a house perched high on the hills to the south of Inverness and what a fine view they have.
I tell you, these Highlanders could teach us all a thing or two about hospitality. There was a bonfire and fantastic fireworks and the biggest dish of stovies you have ever seen.
At midnight the thirty or so house guests gathered around the telly to watch Jackie Bird et al
take us in to 2009 with the bells. There then followed a frenetic round of handshakes and kissing before all the children were given leave to resume their games of hide and seek and lets-see-who-can-down-the-most-fizzy-cola-without-bursting.
A good night and a good start to the year.
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- Jeff Zycinski
- 31 Dec 08, 02:00 PM
I'm sitting here like Jeffrey No-Mates this afternoon. No change there, of course, but this time the isolation is visible. The ground floor of the BBC H.Q. in Inverness is eerily quiet.
Upstairs the news journalists are busy, as are my colleagues from BBC Alba. In Lerwick (via Aberdeen) birthday boy Tom Morton is presenting his last live show of the year and, at Pacific Quay in Glasgow, the Music Team is preparing for tonight's Hogmanay extravaganza in the rooftop restaurant. Once again Robbie Shepherd will be teaming up with Bryan Burnett and Vic Galloway.
But here, where I am, just a sea of empty desks and an office clock ticking away the remaining hours of 2008. Worse than that, the vending machine has just packed in. Through the glass I can see crisps and chocolate bars, but there's just no way of getting at them. Not without using a hammer.
I've been out. I had lunch at the Inverness Museum on Castle Street. A very nice ham and cheese sandwich with free Hogmanay shortbread. I sat there in the cafe among the Pictish artefacts thinking about what the future may hold. Luckily there was a copy of the Daily Record sitting on a nearby table, so I turned eagerly to the horoscope page. Apparently us Aquarians should leave our flies unzipped and our knickers tucked into our skirts. I kid you not, that's what it said. I mean...how do they get such specific information from studying the arrangement of the planets?
Downtown Inverness was heaving with shoppers and tourists. One small group of vistors was being led around town by one of those walking tour guides. I saw him point to the spire on the tollbooth steeple and explain that the larger of the two golden balls up there was actually filled with whisky. Can this be true?
Then a final saunter through Woolworths which, according to the posters outside, is set to close in seven days...but didn't seem to have enough stock left to last until teatime. I bought a tub of pic 'n' mix sweets which I plan to store in the attic until it becomes a valuable collector's item.
Or, if they don't fix that vending machine, I might just scoff the lot.
Anyway...that's it for this year of blogging. I hope you have fun tonight and a Happy New Year to all readers and listeners.
Cheers.
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- Jeff Zycinski
- 30 Dec 08, 11:09 AM
I was twenty minutes late for work this morning, but I brought a note from home just in case I was summoned to the Controller's office and given the strap. It's the weather, you see. Inverness sits in a bit of a basin in the landscape and, for the past few days, that basin has been full of mist and the whole city feels like one of those freezer-food shops. I keep expecting to see Kerry Katona wandering around with plates of cocktail sausages and profiteroles.
I had the cunning idea of keeping a bottle of slightly diluted screen wash in the car so that I could douse the windscreen . Alas the whole bottle froze and the contents looked like a huge blue popsicle or a lump of that stuff that falls out of airplane toilet systems. So I had to sit there, waiting for the car heater to do its business and listening to Graham Stewart on Morning Extra talking about plans to install speed limiters in cars. I gave a bitter laugh, but that caused the glass to mist up again.
Technically, me listening to the radio is actually part of my job, so I wasn't really late for work at all.
Honestly, sir.
