Happy New Year! Its 2012!
I thought I’d do a ‘Highlights of 2011’ blog update, using posts from my own blog to remind me what I did…
JANUARY 2011 – BBC 6 Music
As part of my birthday present, Mum managed to organize a trip to BBC 6 Music’s studios, at BBC Western House in London. With one catch: it had to be early in the morning. So Mum and I went drove down the night before, stayed the night at my Aunt’s house in Greenwich and then got up at about 4 in the morning, so that we could sit in on the second hour of Chris Hawkins’ Early Breakfast Show.
Read more and see a photo of me in the 6 Music studio.
FEBRUARY 2011 – Driving Lessons
In February I started learning to drive. I had 5 lessons with BSM which went OK, and then after several weeks in which I had no lessons (it was Easter by this time), I switched to Phoenix Driving, a more local driving school.
This article, written on February 12, is about my first driving lesson…
MARCH 2011/APRIL 2011 – Nothing!
Nothing terribly interesting written on my blog during March and April 2011, so I don’t think anything happened.
MAY 2011 – Voting!
We had local elections in the Cotswold district in May, along with the referendum on whether to allow AV or not. (For the record, I voted Conservative and NO TO AV).
JUNE/JULY 2011 – Corinium Radio
Corinium Radio’s annual Summer broadcast, using an unused classroom at Cirencester College as our studio, after moving out of the Cirencester Bingham Library, our previous home. I did a few shows (including my pre-recorded Early Breakfast Shows, in which I put lots of music and recordings from the Corinium Radio archives), and I also did all the Tech and ran the technical side of things during our Outside Broadcast from the Cotswold Show.
Some of my shows are still available to listen to online…
JULY/AUGUST 2011 – Annual Holiday to Greece
Every Summer we go to Greece: 2011 was no exception. For this holiday we were on the Greek island of Corfu, staying in St. George South, a quiet village in the South of Corfu, not far from Agyrades, and also not far from the horrible town of Kavos which is full of English people who think that a holiday in Greece means discos and alcohol! Although a quiet village, St. George South was slightly more touristy than some of the places I’ve been to in recent years, but I still enjoyed it.
Read more on my Corfu 2011 website.
AUGUST 2011 – A Level Results
Shortly after returning from Greece I got my A level results, 3 Ds at A level and Distinction in BTEC Music Tech – giving me enough to get in to Radio Production at the University of Gloucestershire – my first choice on the UCAS thingy. I like to interpret my results as 4 Ds. I opened my results live on BBC Radio Gloucestershire’s Breakfast Show. I did find it funny when their multi-million pound van with a satellite dish on top didn’t work parked in our driveway at home – there was a tree in the way!
SEPTEMBER 2011 – Starting Uni
Everything changed in September and I started at uni, studying Radio Production at UoG Park Campus – as I write SEM1 has finished, and I’m really enjoying uni so far. I spend 4 nights a week at the halls close to the FCH campus, and 3 nights a week back at home in Cirencester. And I also do a show for Tone as well, which I like, because I can play my music on the radio.
Have a read of this blog article which I wrote after the end of Freshers’ Week.
OCTOBER 2011 – Driving Test
In the middle of October I took my driving test – and passed first time! This either proves or disproves (haven’t worked out which, yet) my Grandmother’s theory that those who pass a driving test first time aren’t very intelligent. Whoever told me that a driving test would be hard was lying.
Read this blog article written shortly after passing my test.
NOVEMBER 2011 – Corinium Radio
Corinium Radio’s annual Autumn broadcast, we again stole a classroom at Cirencester College and set up all our broadcast equipment. And as our other technician is now an ICT Teacher at a school on the other side of the country (Surrey, to be precise), I set up a Technical Committee and recruited some people who like pressing buttons to help me set up the studio. I did a couple of shows, and on the Sunday evening I went with the Marantz recorder in to Cirencester’s Christmas Market to record some jingles, and then turned the recordings in to daleks, cybermen and other Dr. Who monsters, before playing an on air game of ‘Jingle Bingo’… Well that’s what happens if you let me and Cameron use the studio whilst not supervised by a responsible adult. 😀
DECEMBER 2011 – Christmas and New Year
19th birthday: whilst most uni students go out and drink on their birthdays most nights of the year, I spent my evening doing my show on Tone Radio, and really enjoyed it. To this day, I have yet to drink a drop of alcohol: that’s not because my parents disallow it, but because I don’t want to drink: what is wrong with water, Apple juice, Ribena or Tesco’s Winter Berries Squash!?? 😛
Christmas in Greenwich, London with Dad’s side of the family. Including not having the keys to my Aunt’s flat, me having to wash up the starters of Christmas Dinner – somehow, I enjoyed it! (All 12 of us had a seperate job to do, assigned by picking a piece of paper out of a bowl, in order to break up the job of washing up.), a trip to the cinema to see the new Sherlock Holmes, and a Greek meal on Boxing Day night.
New Year in Crowle, Worcestershire with Mum’s side of the family. I stayed up to watch Jools’ Annual Hootenanny, which I watched on the Internet on my laptop in bed. Tried to send a text at midnight, my phone was still searching for a network that hadn’t crashed about 10 minutes later. I sent an e-mail instead.
And we’re now in to January 2012. Haggis for lunch today (I like Haggis), and then I should probably make a start on the POM105 assignment for uni some time this week. I will return to Tone Radio in the middle of the month, and will continue producing my Internet radio shows as well as doing lots of stuff for Corinium Radio.
Happy New Year!
