It has been a crazy few weeks. For those of you who work in the events sector, you’ll know that work isn’t evenly spread throughout the year. In the build up to the festive period, be it lunches, dinners, award shows etc, they tend to come thick and fast. I am forever thankful for that and hope it continues. I’ve realised that the buzz I get from periods like this really does make me tick. Arguably it’s when I enjoy my job the most. Although a lack of sleep probably isn’t the best thing for me. So with the balls in the air I pen this during a break in Omagh where I am hosting a ‘Road Safe Roadshow’ with the PSNI which tours NI regularly throughout the school year.
The Beautiful Game…..
Over the past year during the football season I have been presenting a show discussing the Irish league alongside journalist Steven Beacom. Each week we chat to players, managers and legends from the game. We discuss the main talking points of the week and predict the scores for the coming fixtures. It’s great fun. When we started the show we had no idea whether it would last a few weeks or get a longer run. We are now in our second season. We record the show at Windsor Park, Belfast (National Football Stadium) and it is hosted on Cool FMs Facebook.
This week was a first for us as we got to broadcast it live. It added a different dimension and I loved every minute of it. Ballymena boss David Jeffrey who has won everything in the game joined us alongside this seasons most talked about player, Mark Sykes. As Beaco (Steven Beacom) would say, ‘it’s a great watch’. You can find it here https://www.facebook.com/officialcoolfm/videos/1154002514756193/
Ho Ho Ho……
As I write this, my attention has been drawn to ‘black Friday’ which is tomorrow. I really wish it was at the end of the month after pay day. I also wish I had the requests from my kids for Christmas so I could avail of the discounts. Let’s just say they can’t make up their mind. At home in recent times Julia (my wife) and I decided to stop buying each other gifts for the sake of it and instead have a day out in town or a night away. I don’t know about you, but like my kids, I too am indecisive. It would probably be ‘surprises’ for me. The best thing about Christmas in my eyes is catching up with friends and family and even better seeing the look on my daughters faces when we take them to see Santa. This week we went to Titanic Belfast to see the main man. He was brilliant craic putting the kids at ease plus he had an epic beard. The magical experience had various craft activities for them to do before they got to see if they were on the nice list ! The biggest result came though when we got the official picture. Both Ivana and Elayna were looking straight at the camera and smiling.
21 November 18, Mandatory Credit ©Press Eye/Darren Kidd
Humbug………
Many congratulations to Conor Grimes, Alan McKee and the cast of ‘Bah Humbug’ currently taking place at the Lyric theatre in Belfast.
It’s been a few years since I’ve made it to one of their festive productions. I know what I’ve been missing. From start to finish, it was laugh a minute. There were lots of local references and the customary inclusion of some of the audience on stage towards the end of the show. Being honest, when I saw the run time was 80 mins for the first half and 35 for the second I feared I wouldn’t be able to stay awake having been up since ridiculous o’clock for the radio show. That was definitely not the case, the show was a ‘sketch’ as my Mum would say. Check it out. It’s a brilliant night out. https://lyrictheatre.co.uk/event/bah-humbug/
Little lion men…..
As I’m about to note down my final paragraph or two, it hasn’t been all work over the past wk, I also went to see Mumford and Sons. I am a massive fan but not as much as Julia who ‘loves’ Marcus Mumford.
We have seen them numerous times over the years and they always deliver. The new album ‘Delta’ was released two days before the Belfast show. On stage Marcus joked ‘here’s another new one, it’ll be pretty boring for those here who just want ‘little lion man’ 25 times tonight’. He was funny, charismatic and on form, as were the rest of the band. They have created a stage that splits an arena floor in two. There is so much to see, you don’t know where to look. Marcus typically hyped up the crowd to create an awesome atmosphere.
We were actually very lucky to see them as since the Belfast show they have rescheduled the next few dates in the UK to perfect the new stage and production. It’s their biggest tour to date. Band members Ben and Winston told me in a recent interview that they wanted to tour the world and launch the dates at once so they could finally produce a Mumford T-shirt with 65 dates on the back. The new album ‘Delta’ is a great listen, it’s out now.
It’s all gone……
This weekend I am excited (besides myself) to be warming up for Pete Tongs ‘Ibiza Classics’ show at the SSE Arena. My set is from 19.15 – 20.45. Hope to see you there. It’s going to be some night. https://www.ssearenabelfast.com/whats-on.aspx?strSearch=Pete+tong
Thanks for reading.
Pete
#PS003
