11th November 2013

Armistice Day. The 11th day of the 11th month, and at 11a.m., ceasefire, thousands of people stand where they are and remain silent for two minutes in remembrance of those who sacrificed their lives for our freedom. 

That's why I wear poppies and why I respect this deeply solemn moment every year. I really value that freedom. And I very much appreciate the growing numbers of young people who do the same. Sadly, many of them are suffering too, having lost fathers and brothers, not forgetting sisters and mothers, in recent conflicts. War is terrible, and so often counter productive. We gain little but enemies so often these days. 

It's also been one of those days when I've lost far too much to a duff download on my computer. Not being technical by nature, I struggle when the 'wrong' things happen as I press my computer keys. Staring at the screen looking for clues doesn't help much, unfortunately. It's the language that beats me. I've found that everyone under twelve knows it from birth, which is where being born well before the age of computers puts me at a disadvantage. My one redeeming feature in this area is stubbornness. I just don't give up. Like a dog at a well gnawed bone I keep worrying at it. A tentative key press here, a slight file-drag there, and eventually my computer gives in and springs back to familiar life. That's when I turn it off and go to lie down in a darkened room, exhausted. Such was much of my day, and a lot of productive work just didn't get done. Remember, I am a mere man. I can't do multi-tasking.

What I did get done was to prepare my weekly programme for Cirencester Hospital Radio. There are actually two of us sharing the 7 'till 9 slot we've been given. Cliff does the first hour and I do the second, roughly speaking. If he can't make it I do a longer show to cover as much of his slot as possible, and vice versa. It's all voluntary and fun, and we usually share ten minutes or so on air changing seats. We're getting quite good at it now, but whether listeners would agree I really have no idea. In fact, we have no idea whether we actually have any listeners. We act as though we do, in order to improve our skills, but is there anybody out there? Who knows? 

Hospital radio audiences are, by their very nature, variable. Many patients aren't in hospital long enough to hear us; others more long term patients are possibly more ill and don't want to listen. Others might hear us once and then are discharged (and I'm not claiming that the two events are connected ). 

Whatever, however nicely we ask for notes and comments, we never get any. My own approach is the old Terry Wogan technique of imagining that I've got just one 'dear listener' out there, and I talk to them. They're great! I can play them jazz, comic, classic, romantic, blues, rock, they listen to it all, or not. I just don't know, but at least they haven't stormed the studio yet with pitchforks and burning torches. We've got away with it once again and lived to tell the tale. 

Now, next week a little light rock and roll I think ...