Blog Number 2

Rascal’s a girl, JT, Gym (not Mr. Hughes), Fish, Figures and Heroes
Well that just about sums up the week to be honest. I think it’s gone really quickly and I’m very pleased that Friday is here for a whole variety of reasons...Firstly I get to blog again. I really enjoyed writing it last week and want to say thank you for the feedback via my twitter page www.twitter.com/benatbreakfast. Secondly I have to admit it; there is one TV programme which I am a 100% geek about. Yes I admit it. My name’s Ben Stone, I present breakfast on 102.5 Radio Pembrokeshire and I am a LOST geek. I love it and it is without doubt the only TV show I really couldn’t miss. Well tonight the final season of LOST returns on SKY 1 and I’m a little bit excited. Well alright quite a bit. Alright loads! At 9pm this Friday evening: Facebook is off, Twitter is off and TV is on – can’t wait!

Rascal (ella??!)
In October we “adopted” two boy cats from the RSPCA as we felt our house was missing something since our own cat Amber had herself been adopted to my Step-Brother and his girlfriend. We met a lovely lady from the RSPCA in the main car park in Llandeilo and she introduced us to the two boy cats who we homed and called Oscar and Rascal. Well after 4 and a bit months that dreaded day in the life of all boy cats arrived and on Monday it was time for the “boys” to have their “bits” chopped off! The only problem being that whilst Oscar’s “bits” were very visible there was very little evidence that his Big “Brother” Rascal was in a similar situation. So to cut a long story short I received a phone call from the nurse on Tuesday at the vets who said “Hello Mr. Stone I can confirm they’ve been operated on and that Rascal is in fact female”! Oh well you live and learn, best buy him..sorry HER a new pink collar...

JT – GONE
Believe it or one of my colleagues at work (who shall remain nameless) asked me today “Who is John Terry anyway?”. It did make me chuckle because since Saturday the England and Chelsea captain has been plastered all over the front and back pages off all the national and local newspapers. Today Fabio Capello has earned my respect and convinced me that the England national team is in good hands. I have no time for the view that JT’s personal life is separate to his professional life. Football and footballers have gone beyond that and for the good not just of the England team but for the good of every football match going on from Hundleton to Chipping Norton, stripping him of the captaincy was the only way.

HOLIDAYS
Well that’s the John Terry stuff done and dusted. I really enjoyed writing last week about my memories of holidays in Lampeter Velfrey staying at my Grandparents bungalow so I am going to continue on that theme right now. One of my favourite summer holiday past times was without the simple pleasure of going on a boat from Saundersfoot on a fishing trip. In the late 80s and early 90s the harbour at Saundersfoot would be awash with about 5 0r 6 caravans each serving as a booking office for the various boats that operated fishing trips.

We were hooked (excuse the pun) and in a typical three week holiday would probably go fishing about 7 times – it was £2.50 an hour, what a bargain! The boats that you could go fishing on had brilliant names and a few came and went over the years, but the ones I can remember include: Shimo Sham (red and white), William Hall (white and blue), Liverbird (blue), Rosalind (blue) and Swift (light blue). One of my favourite memories is a two hour fishing trip on Swift where we ended up fishing just off the idyllic Caldey Island and no word of a lie we ended up catching enough fish between 4 of us to virtually feed the entire village of Lampeter Velfrey. I think we bought back 250 fresh mackerel and we ended up knocking on neighbours doors offering them fresh fish! Even now I don’t think you can beat a hot summer’s day, fresh mackerel on the BBQ and chips from the fish and chip shop – amazing.

FIREFIGHTERS
For two different reasons I have seen at first hand this week the amazing work that the Mid and West Wales fire service do. I had the absolute pleasure of welcoming into the studio on Thursday Gerwyn Howells, Phil Irving and Paul Dyson – 3 grat guys who are based in Pembroke Dock and who’ve just returned from assisting the rescue effort in Haiti. They gave me an incredibly emotive interview as they went through their experiences and the incredible fact that they only knew 2 hours before that they were indeed off to Haiti. Listening to them made me want to do more. It is so reassuring to know we have people like this in Pembrokeshire and the fact that they don’t realise that they are real life heroes made them all the more endearing. If you’re able to they are supporting an event at Sur Thomas Picton School next Saturday (13th February) where they will give a presentation about their time in Haiti and answer any questions that the audience may have. Alongside this will be music from some young Pembrokeshire people. It starts at 7pm next weekend.

Secondly an example of brilliant customer service. We got woken up on Tuesday night at 4:15am by the fire alarm going “BEEP” “BEEP” “BEEP” every 30 seconds and when I went to remove the battery I saw the label saying the battery didn’t need changing until March 2017! I mentioned this on the radio and within an hour I had received a phone call from the Fire Service in Haverfordwest offering to come round and replace the fire alarm free of charge. When I explained that I lived in Carmarthen the Fire Officer said he would phone the station there and explain we were a priority due to our faulty alarm. By 4pm on Wednesday I had received a call and by 6pm we had a new fire alarm installed – now that is customer service that some large organisations would do well replicating.

The Mid and West Wales Fire Service = an organisation to be proud of and thoroughly nice people to boot.

GYM
I’ve started the New Year’s Resolution this afternoon and have been to the gym. I will ache tomorrow and as of Sunday will be starting my 55 minute programme – wish me luck!!

That’s about it from the blog for this week. I do need to say thank you to the good people of Pembrokeshire as with your support 102.5 Radio Pembrokeshire remained market leader in the latest RAJAR figures! We want to improve all the time so keep telling people about us. Every day we make so much effort to cover all aspects of County life and we will continue to do so with your support.

FAVOURITE MOMENT OF THE WEEK: Without a shadow of doubt – meeting the fire fighters! Interviewing Linda Robson was a nice end to the week.

COMING UP NEXT WEEK: On the radio on Monday morning at 8:30 Tommo’s secret gets revealed. I’ve also got info on the Sport’s Start scheme in Pembrokeshire on the show as well.Blog wise – I’ll look at the news, old fashioned sweets, gym update and some more reminiscing. Follow me on Twitter – www.twitter.com/benatbreakfast.