I thought I had seen it all when it came to men’s dress, but on Monday I was proved incredibly wrong. I spent the afternoon filming with my colleague Diana Mather in Tarporley, Cheshire, for an Australian television programme called ‘Caravan of Courage’. It’s fronted by a popular antipodean double-act called Hamish and Andy, who host the most listened to radio programme in Australia (UK readers, think Ant and Dec meet Chris Evans). They had come to the UK to do a road trip and one of their many stops included an etiquette lesson with Diana and myself. The boys, who were really very charming when the cameras weren’t rolling, were wearing what they called ‘onezies’ which is something similar to what a racing car driver may wear, although these ones had uneven sleeve and leg lengths, and Hamish’s was particularly grubby. Someone commented that it looked like they had cleaned the windows with them. Anyway, after getting over the bafflement of their sartorial choices, we progressed with the filming. The boys were trying to out-smart everything that Diana and I said, which made it hard work, but I think we managed to leave them with a good impression of why manners matter.
William, Hamish and Andy, Diana Mather
On Tuesday I drove down to Bristol to stay with family for the week. When I got back to Bristol that afternoon I went to the Apple shop and bought a laptop, which I am very pleased with (and on which I write this blog). However, I think I should express my feelings on the Apple shop here and now. Despite their high-quality products and sleek design of both shop and stock, they really wind me up.
How so? The staff look like they’ve just jumped out of bed; for the men, I really do think it is a company policy that you must have facial hair (and straggly, wispy, unkempt facial hair, at that). The gentleman that served me on Tuesday had the biggest, straggliest and unattractive beard I had ever seen; one to rival the Roald Dahl character of Mr. Twit. The shop assistants address you as if they’ve known you for years, usually suffixing everything with ‘mate’ or ‘buddy’ and lean against the display tables as they tell you about the history of their own Apple products. Then, when you want to pay, there are no till points and so one wanders around holding whatever one has picked up looking for an assistant (if you haven’t already been seen by one) to let you make a purchase. Call me old fashioned, but I like knowing where one has to pay, and who to see if I have a question when I am shopping. But in the Apple shops (or ‘stores’ as they insist on calling them – everything is a store nowadays) the normal conventions are lacking. This is probably a deliberate ploy by the company, but I got an email two days after my Tuesday trip asking me for my thoughts on my shopping ‘experience’ and so I gave them a piece of my mind, for what it’s worth.
Other than spending some time in the gym under the eyes of my trainer, this week has been mainly catching up with family. I did an interview for BBC Three Counties (@jvsshow) about the World Cup: I hasten to add that I was saying how I am dreading it, I was not there talking about the line-up or tactics of the England squad!
I return to Manchester tomorrow, back into the swing of things. Bristol is a fairly nice city, but I always feel it’s far too retrospective. Every day in Manchester feels like a Monday morning – people are going places, businesses are relocating to Manchester, there are always cranes in the skyline, building the future.
Tea Rooms, Football, and Lemsip
Saturday, June 19th, 2010I write this week’s entry from my sick bed. What was quite a good week has ended on a low, sniffling note. I woke this morning (Saturday) to find that I ached all over, had a runny nose, sore throat and no appetite – the latter is very unusual for me, so I must be sick. But we will forget about my illness and focus on what I did during the last few days when I was functioning on all cylinders.
As I reported last week, I was in Bristol, so on Monday morning, following a phone interview for BBC Radio Somerset, I drove back up the M5 and M6 to Manchester. I normally loathe this journey as traffic never fails to grind to a very tiresome halt as the two motorways meet, but on this occasion it did fail to grind to a halt and I (almost) sailed through – I say ‘almost’ as I was going at 20 miles an hour for five minutes or so, but this like racing at Silverstone in comparison to what it usually is. This rarity pleased me, and so all in all, it was a lovely journey.
Tuesday morning it was back to the grindstone, and off to my second-home of BBC Manchester to do an interview for BBC Radio Scotland on swearing. I was, as you’d expect, against regular swearing and was up against a little-heard-of Scottish comedian, whose name escapes me. I always like doing radio items on swearing as I go into the interview with the upper hand; my opposition, who argue that swearing is good, are not allowed to use profanities, as it’s live radio. I then spent the rest of the day in a few meetings with various people – I won’t bore you with the details here, but I am excited about a few local projects that are coming up in the next few months.
I spent most of Wednesday waiting in for a delivery of a mobile internet dongle to go with my new laptop, so I can access the internet wherever. It finally arrived, after I had washed the balcony furniture, cleaned the skirting boards, and deodorised the microwave. I know how to live.
My week then took a slight knock when friends came round for dinner. This in itself always is a delight, but not so much this time. They came round and said they’d cook: they brought the food; they drove themselves here so I didn’t have to drive them back, and they even cleaned up. Too good to be true… they then wanted to watch the world cup. I knew there’d be a catch somewhere. We watched the first half of South Africa versus Uruguay, which is 45 minutes of my life I won’t get back any time soon. Thankfully, they decided it was a boring match and so we switched channels. Hoorah!
Spent Thursday lunchtime on North Manchester FM, guesting on my friend Hattie’s (Twitter = @hattiepearson) show for two hours. This was most enjoyable and we both had a lot of fun. I then drove to Hale to meet my friend Emma (@emmabclarke) for coffee and a catch-up. I had that morning made chocolate crunch bites for us to eat – we met at Costa Coffee so had to be bit discrete in eating them. That evening I had a friend, James (@cumbrianjames), for dinner (not literally) and then we went off to BBC Radio 5 Live, where I had been booked to talking about social kissing (he was just coming along to watch – I’m the talent, not him!).
Chocolate Crunch Bites
Finally, Friday saw me potter off to Harrogate to see some friends. Now, regular readers will know that I am addicted to Lakeland Plastics; I didn’t realise that they had a Harrogate shop. Well, Christmas had come early. I bought a strawberry huller and a cake leveller: I don’t know how I’ve managed up until now without such items. Lunch was taken at Betty’s Tea Rooms at Harlow Carr. Betty’s really is a British institution. The service is so wonderful, if sometimes a little trite. The waiting staff greet you warmly and are exceedingly attentive – perhaps one of the only places in Britain where service is not at a premium. If only more places were like Betty’s, the world would be a nicer, stem-gingered place to live.
Back to bed. This blog has quite drained me.
Tags: baking, BBC, BBC Radio 5 Live, Betty's, Bristol, chocolate, cooking, diary, England, English, etiquette, Harrogate, health, illness, kissing, Lakeland Plastics, manchester, manners, poorly, Scotland, sick, social commentator, Somerset, swearing, tea room, UK, week, william hanson
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