Holidays booked

 

Can you tell that I had grown
a moustache for Movember?

Monday 24th November 2025 - 

I got in from work at 7 in the morning after stopping off on the way home for some coolant. 

I fell asleep at about half past eight, and woke up at 10:25, thinking “oh great, it’s the Popmaster game on Ken Bruce’s show on  Greatest Hits Radio at 10:30.” 

I told Alexa to put on the radio station, and then fell asleep before the game started, waking up I thought properly at about one o’clock. 

I went downstairs to get some breakfast and a cup of tea. Sat in the living room. A little over an hour later Louise brought me a lovely bowl of her homemade Pumpkin Soup. 

At about half past three, Louise wasn’t feeling great, so I went with her back to bed, with my idea being to do some work on editing. 

I fell asleep again, before I was woken up by the delivery of a new torch for work. I then fell back to sleep again, waking up at seven in the evening. 

Personal information, but last week a growth somewhere personal opened up, and there was a lot of blood that came from there. I think that might have sapped me of energy. People will probably be screaming at this saying “you haven’t seen a doctor about it,” to which I admit that I’d be embarrassed about it. Yes, embarrassment got in the way. 

I’m now hoping that it will sort itself out after a bit of time. However, there’s still a nagging thing there that tells me to see someone, as if I could afford financially to have the time off if it was something that needed time. 

Louise made a lovely fish and chip dinner with homemade curry sauce and mushy peas. 

We watched the film A Christmas Date For Dad (also known as My Dad’s Christmas Date) starring Jeremy Piven. In the film they showed a clip at a cinema of the Alistair Sim starring A Christmas Carol. 

Tuesday 25th November 2025 - 

Terrible sleep on Monday night. I think I dropped off to sleep at about two or three in the morning, waking at about six, falling back to sleep at about nine, waking again at twenty past ten. Then I switched on the radio for Greatest Hits Radio, hoping for Ken Bruce’s Popmaster Quiz. 

Of course, I fell asleep again, and eventually woke up at one in the afternoon feeling like an idiot. It’s unlike me to sleep so much. I usually get between three and five hours of sleep six times a week. 

I got the songs listened to for a Toppermost of the Poppermost recording about the U.K. singles charts of December 1965. 

Among our viewing we watched the film Death Becomes Her, which we also both watched together back when it came out at the cinema in 1994. 

The previously mentioned podcast was recorded with Ed, Kit and myself discussing the aforementioned chart, as well as some other bits. I think we recorded from 10.30 to about 2 in the morning or so? 

I was late falling asleep again - well, sort of. I kept phasing in and out of consciousness while Louise needed to go down a rabbit hole about something. Eventually sleep came properly at about five or half past five in the morning. 

Wednesday 26 November 2025 - 

Happy birthday to me! 

Fifty blinking five!!! 

The alarm went off at ten o’clock. I stopped it and fell back to sleep until 10:45, when I switched on the radio just in time for the second contestant on Popmaster. 

I went out to do some bits, and did some podcast listening while doing so. 

We watched Mary Berry at 90 episodes 4 and 5 on BBC iPlayer. 

We watched the film Christmas Love and Fudge, which is called A Recipe For Christmas Romance on Channel 5. 

Thursday 27 November - 

We watched Is Is Cake? Holiday special season 2 episode 1. 

Nipped to shop. 

Tried listening to songs for Toppermost US December 1965 chat

Podcast listening. 

We watched the film A Kiss Before Christmas starring Teri Hatcher and James Denton, who were a couple on the television show Desperate Housewives as well. It’s strange to think of them as characters that aren’t Susan and Mike. 

Friday 28 November - 

This daft guy forgot to take notes on what happened. 

I remember that we went into town… 

I think I woke up early again, just like I have now while I’m writing this bit of the post on the following Wednesday when I woke up at 7:45am - let’s see if I remember that when I write about the following time off!

We went into town to mainly do some things that Louise wanted to go into town for, where we parked once more at what used to be Wilkinson’s in Mansfield. Now it’s just an enormous empty shell of a building, that once was a great shop. I liked that place. 

I think that Louise needed to go to Savers, Poundland, Card Factory, and somewhere to buy a black shirt, the latter of which she didn’t actually get. Instead she got a small handbag from Primark. 

I did my usual, where I saw the homeless lady selling copies of Big Issue near to Greggs, stood outside Marks and Spencer. Me and Louise bought her a cup of tea and a round of sandwiches. They have been out there all day, and it was cold that day. 

When we got back I got on with more listening ready for recording Toppermost of the Poppermost later that evening. 

We watched some bits on tv, but I don’t remember what they were. 

The recording of Toppermost saw us starting at around 10:30pm, and finishing around 2:30am. When Ed, Kit and I took a break for Kit to get some food for her parents, I listened to songs that I hadn’t at that point, so that we could talk about them. If it wasn’t for that then we would have finished earlier. 

Back to work on the Saturday night and Sunday night, before being off again from Monday December 1st to Wednesday 3rd. 

I don’t actually remember what I did on the Saturday prior to going to work that night. So, with that in mind, as Clint Eastwood apparently says to finish filming on sets where he directs movies, “that’s enough of that!” 

…that is apart from a follow up post where I list the shows that I recorded. 

Also, I recorded a Pods Like Us episode on the Saturday afternoon (before work) where I spoke with Aria and her mum Claire about the great show Something Different, where Aria chats with guests who do something different for a living. At the point of recording that chat they had released two episodes, both of which I had listened to while I was having this time off. Claire produces the show. 

The first episode they had released was with the stunt double for Harry Potter, and the second a professional ice skater.