Tag Archives: radio presenter
The Game Of Life
Bat Out Of Valencia
Party Goals
The year seems to be flying by the summer appears to have come and gone in a flash there is now a definite chill in the air. The other weekend Lynda and I went to Northampton to celebrate a friend’s 60th Birthday, something which we did in style as it turned out. I will be honest with you nowadays a great night out for me is one where you have an amazing time but you are still in bed by midnight. This is not exactly how this tripped worked out.
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We headed there after I had got home from work on the Friday. It was about nine when we checked into our hotel and by half past we were in their local pub having a drink with the birthday boy, his girlfriend and some other mates. It was a great night just chatting and laughing. We stayed there until closing time, then went back to their house for a few more drinks and got to sleep at 3am in the end.
The next day we had to be up reasonably early as a big group of us was going to see the rugby team that the couple we knew supported. We met up at midday and found ourselves in a pub just down the road from the stadium an hour before kick off. We went to see Northampton Saints play London Irish in the Premiership which is the main rugby union division in the United Kingdom. It was the first time that I had been to their ground and to a top flight professional game. The atmosphere was great and there were plenty of places to get drinks and food, sadly though I could not eat any of it.
The home team won and I did enjoy it although a lot of the time I was not totally sure what was going on. I mean I did know when a try had been scored but that was about it. I had no idea that you were meant to stay silent whenever there was a kick to be taken. That does not happen at the football when there is a penalty kick in fact normally the crowd make more noise at that point. The first half lasted an hour as unfortunately one of the London Irish players suffered a nasty injury after being knocked out.
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After the rugby we went back to the hotel and because I had not eaten at the game or was not totally sure if there would be gluten free food at the party we were going to later. I ordered a takeaway from Pizza Express. I ate that while I was watching the first half of Tottenham against Leicester on my phone. At halftime we walked down to the local pub again to meet everybody else and I watched the second half of the game. Obviously I was very happy with the 6-2 win and it was brilliant to see Son get a hat-trick. A nice way to sign off before the international break. We got a minibus from the pub to the party venue which was about a fifteen minute drive.
We arrived and nobody had any idea where the function room was so we ended up going in the furthest door away and then twenty of us had to all trudge through the restaurant and bar there to get to the private room. It was a nice little set up with its own bar, toilets and outside area away from everybody else. We saw a few people we knew so had a good chat to them. There was a barbecue which did have some chicken and salad that I could have. There was also a band who were great. The played a nice mix of cover versions and even got me up on the dance floor a few times. That is quite a rare occurrence nowadays.
The party finished at midnight then we got the minibus back to our friends’ house and just continued the celebrations there. We got to bed around 4am this time. This weekend away did prove to me that I could still be rock and roll when I needed to be but it is a lot harder doing it than it used to me. We headed back to Lynda’s house on the Sunday afternoon after stopping in to see our friends’ for a cup of tea and a quick debrief of the previous night.
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As it was now a Bank Holiday Weekend we decided to go to Prezzo for a meal and to raise a glass or two for Queen Elizabeth the Second the day before her funeral. I enjoyed a three course gluten free meal there with some Prosecco. That just happened to come free with the food thanks to an offer they were running. I mean we could have stayed in after a busy weekend, but I am glad we went out. We did however have a fairly early night in the end to try to catch up on some sleep and because I did want to watch all of the funeral proceedings the next day. I am a royalist and support the whole family but the Queen was always somebody I held in very high regard.
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I started watching the television coverage just after nine in the morning. The first journey for the coffin was a relatively short one but it was still a very impressive spectacle as Queen Elizabeth The Second was taken to Westminster Abbey. The building in which her Coronation had taken place nearly seventy years earlier. I thought the ceremony was lovely and I was holding myself together well until I noticed Prince Edward crying and then that set me off.
Once I had recovered my composure I watched almost transfixed as the procession made its way gracefully to the Wellington Arch at Hyde Park. It was so well marshalled and organised but then you would not expect anything less from the armed forces. Everyone who took park in that parade was immaculate. It was a fitting send off from the capital for our longest reigning monarch.
I stayed with the coverage as she was transported by road to her final resting place at Windsor Castle. As she arrived there it was beautiful to see a couple of her Corgi’s and her favourite riding pony on the grass to welcome her “home”. The committal service was very emotional particularly at the end when they removed the Jewell’s and the Crown, then the coffin started to disappear into the vault below.
It is still going to be odd not seeing her or hearing from her ever again. But I do take comfort from her being buried with her parents and her beloved Philip in the King George V chapel. I did not realise that there are quite a few royals laid to rest there at Windsor Castle including Henry VIII.
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Last Sunday Lynda and I went to see a play that had been on our radar for a while. First of course we went for a meal at Wahaca. They are really good with Coeliac Disease sufferers and have a special gluten free menu plus they send out all my food with a special little allergen flag in it, which I really like. After a three course late lunch in there, a dessert is a must at all times, we took a slow stroll to the Criterion in Piccadilly.
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We were there to see 2.22 A Ghost Story. It has been playing in various theatres in London for quite a while now and they seem to regularly update the cast. It is written by Danny Robbins who also has his own podcast and Radio 4 series called Uncanny which features real life ghost stories. The play however to the best of my knowledge comes from his imagination. We both really enjoyed it the plot was very clever. It makes you jump and laugh in equal measure, it is funny but it touches on a lot of very modern real and serious subjects with a constant spookiness running through it as the title suggests. And I hope this is not a spoiler but there is also a clock on stage.
The cast in the current show are Laura Whitmore, Matt Willis, Tasmin Carroll and Felix Scott and they are all brilliant. We had seats in the stalls and you really do fee part of what is happening on stage. It is very clever how they create the atmosphere and at times leave the whole audience feeling on edge. The other great thing is they have a performance at 6pm on a Sunday which means you can see the show and still be home at a reasonable time ready to start the week.
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I went to the England game at Wembley on Monday with my dad and a mate. There are few bigger games in world football than us against the German’s. Although the first half did not really live up to the billing, it seemed very slow and more like a game of chess. It did pick up in the second half and ended up being an entertaining three all draw, which was about the right result in the end to be fair. I did enjoy seeing Harry Kane get his 51st goal for his country with an unstoppable penalty.
After the game only to wait for the queues for the train home to die down you understand my dad and I found a nearby pub. We plonked ourselves down on a couple of seats at a table with another lad who had also taken his father to the match. As it happened both kids and parents were around the same age, so we had a great chat for about an hour or so. They were both ace gentleman from Cheshire who had some good stories and who had done some fun and cool things. In is always interesting to meet new people randomly and have a good laugh with friendly strangers. We left them in the bar and wandered to the now nearly empty platform to get our train home. Another successful family night out for me and the old man!
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A reminder that you can listen to me every Saturday afternoon between 2pm – 4pm on Radio Ninespringshttps://www.radioninesprings.co.uk/
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Yesterday I had a day out at the races with a group of friends. It was our annual Ascot trip which had to take an enforced two year break, so it was good to all be together having a few drinks and watching the races. I will tell you about it next time we speak. Have fun and we will catch up again soon. Stay safe! Cheers Neil.
Time After Time
I hope you enjoyed your Easter Weekend. My mum still insists on buying me an egg which although I always tell her that she does not need to, I did as ever enjoy. In other news I did find some gluten free Hot Cross Buns that I had with some mini eggs for breakfast on the Sunday. Chocolate is an acceptable breakfast food for that weekend that is just a fact!
![Neil Quigley](http://www.neilquigley.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/147576211_10164632594130591_6553748944242834890_n.jpg)
The trains were completely screwed during the Bank Holiday weekend, with lots of cancellations due to engineering works. Therefore I had to for the first time ever drive to a Tottenham game. Parking at the stadium is not that easy, so I decided to be organised and use one of those parking websites to book someone’s driveway. It worked out great to be fair I found a space in a nice little cul-de-sac about a thirty minute walk from the ground. The sun was shining and it was quite warm so it was a pleasant stroll. Even the traffic there and back was not too bad. In fact what was on the whole a decent experience was quite predictably ruined by the team getting beaten by Brighton thanks to a goal in the last minute. That made the walk back to the car in the sun a little bit less fun.
![Neil Quigley](http://www.neilquigley.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/228253322_10165312605410591_3863920838299301672_n.jpg)
When I got back to Lynda’s after the match she was doing a barbecue. Her brother and his family were there along with her aunty and one of her cousins. It was nice to see everyone and have a laugh. Plus to be fair the burgers and sausages did actually cheer me up after the football. It was still nice enough to sit out in the garden and eat. The food was great as ever and there just happened to be some homemade gluten free chocolate chip doughnuts for pudding to. I think I may have eaten my own body weight in meat but in my defence I did miss out on lunch while I was watching Spurs lose.
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I do not have my own Netflix account but Lynda does and the other Sunday night she managed to convince me to watch one of the films on there. I do not mind a good heist movie I normally find them quite entertaining. The one we watched was called Red Notice. It starred The Rock, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot. I actually really enjoyed it, helped by the fact that it was more of a comedy than a thriller. There were some nice set pieces and nods to lots of other well known films plus a rather surprising but obvious cameo at the end. If you fancy some easy to watch light hearted fun, I would recommend it. This film is not going to change your life but it certainly will amuse you for a bit. Maybe I could still be the new Barry Norman with insight like that.
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I appreciate I am a little behind the times on this one but last weekend we finally got round to completing series three of After Life. I like Ricky Gervais and always enjoy his shows, as ever there were some very funny and largely unexpected moments. It is I guess in many ways sadly a pretty accurate reflection of real life and the different types of people we come across most good some of course bad. This may just have been me but if I am honest I did not like it quite as much as the first two series. It was still good and I am glad I have seen it but it just felt like something was missing somehow. As far as I am aware he is not doing any more of them and it did tie up a lot of the loose ends nicely in the final episode as you would expect.
I did keep getting a bit distracted as a lot of the outside shots were filmed around the Hemel Hempstead Old Town area so I kept seeing a few locations that I recognised. I have the same problem when I very occasionally see any Midsomer Murders or Morse as a lot of that was made near where I live and always like to work out where they were. The first series of After Life used Beaconsfield quite a bit and I do remember watching an old episode of The Professionals where I was thrilled to see Bodie and Doyle driving through Old Beaconsfield in their Capri’s. Not sure why I like seeing places I have been to in random television programmes but I do!
I have recently celebrated the fourteenth anniversary of the day that John Nettles came on to my radio show in Somerset to film for a documentary that he was doing about the arts. I interviewed him on my show and then he asked me some questions afterwards. Both sections were used in the finished programme. During my bit to camera when he was asking me about the pressures of live radio when things go wrong I out of nowhere uttered a phrase I had never used before saying “you have just got to power on basically” which I still maintain is good life advice. I have a DVD of it which I do watch every now and again. John was great and it was a pleasure to meet him and appear on screen with him.
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Late Easter Monday afternoon I met up with a mate of mine who I had not seen for a while. It was a nice day so we decided to go for walk, meaning not only could we have a good chat but we could also get some fresh air and do some light exercise. He suggested we go to Dunstable Downs. Even though I must have driven past it a hundred times I had never actually been there, so I caught up with him there. To be fair it was also pretty much the half way point between us which as I am not a massive fan of driving was another selling point for me.
The car park machine either accepted change which I did not have on me or you had to pay via an app or by calling a phone number. Annoyingly I did not have any 4G signal so I could not get the app which left me with the phone number. I called the automated line thinking that I could just pay for the parking and be done, but oh no! I had to first create an account then assign a credit card to it before trying to enter the registration number of the car, in to some sort of voice recognition system that could not seem to understand a single word I said!
Ten minutes into this process just as I was losing the will to live and still miles away from completing the task in hand my mate arrived and lent me the change to pay at the machine. Most of them accept cards nowadays but not that one. Anyway to relax after my parking issues we had a nice ninety minute walk with a tea break at the cafe in the middle. It was good to see him to talk radio, football and quote various comedy shows’ dialogue at each other, a great way to round off the Bank Holiday weekend.
![Neil Quigley & Andy Holmes](http://www.neilquigley.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/CNV00010.jpg)
Last Saturday Lynda and I went out for a meal at Pizza Express. It is on the Coeliac UK accredited list, which means that it is totally safe for me to eat there. I booked us a table for 8pm and when we arrived the place was packed. We both had a three course meal each with a couple of glasses of wine. By the time our main had arrived we were the only people still left in there. We had the whole restaurant to ourselves.
The girl who was serving us had already told me her mum was also a Coeliac which made me feel relaxed as she was clearly fully aware of the condition. Then as I was paying she spotted the screen saver on my phone which is a picture of Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son she told me she was not only a Spurs fan but was also having a trial for our ladies team. We had a lovely meal in there and needless to say our waitress got a nice tip courtesy of the information we learned about her.
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I have a new fun challenge at work next week as I am covering for someone who is off on holiday and working on Radio 4 Extra. I just hope I do not break the station while he is away. I am sure it will all be fine!
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I am looking forward to going to a Comedy Night at the Boxmoor Social Club in Hemel Hempstead tomorrow night. It is being run by a mate of mine Lee Bryant. He puts on a lot of events in the area. Back when I was doing a tiny bit of stand up comedy I did a few gigs with him. I will let you know what this one was like next time we speak.
![Neil Quigley Stand Up Comedy](http://www.neilquigley.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Neil-Stand-Up.jpg)
A quick reminder that you can listen to me every Saturday afternoon between 2pm – 4pm on Radio Ninesprings https://www.radioninesprings.co.uk/
![Neil Quigley](http://www.neilquigley.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/thumbnail_Image-34-768x1024.jpg)
Have fun and we will catch up again soon. Stay safe! Cheers Neil.