Nancy With The Laughable Car
A slight thaw is turning the snow-crusted pavements of Aberdeen into brown slush as I tread gingerly up to Beechgrove Terrace and head for the ´óÏó´«Ã½ studios. There's a clapped-out old Renault blocking the car park and, as I draw nearer, I see the driver roll down the window and start shouting at me. It's Nancy Nicholson, presenter of of Grassroots.
"I must get a new car, " she explains, "the engine on this one just cuts out from time to time, but it starts again after a few minutes. It can be quite bad at traffic lights."
I take the opportunity to start an ad-hoc debrief of the recent Grassroots programme on bird flu. I'm just warming to my theme about the temperature required to kill a virus when Nancy signals that enough time has elapsed and her engine splutters back into life.
It's a good day in Aberdeen with lots of ideas flying around for new programmes and projects. Tom Morton's team want to link up with Vic Galloway's team and launch a competition for unsigned bands. I get an update on the forthcoming archive programme in which listeners are encouraged to search out old audio tapes for hidden gems. We haven't confirmed a title for that yet. I suggest Magnetic Memories. Robbie Shepherd's producer is planning a special concert later this year to mark Robbie's 70th birthday. So a good buzz about the place.
Except for Anne Paterson who looks after the Radio Scotland website. There was a major server crash early this morning and it seems to have impacted on ´óÏó´«Ã½ websites throughout the U.K. Anne looks miserable. No new content can be added, although I guess if you're reading this post (which I'm writing from my home at half past ten) then the problem will have been sorted.
On the train back to Glasgow this afternoon I started shivering and sniffing. It feels like a cold coming on. It must have been all that melting snow dripping down the back of my neck.
