At the end of the day
footballers will agree, it's about the end of the year, Brian.
You will have your own reflections on the year. I have mine. If it's wisdom and insight you're looking for, there are, as you know, better places than this to find it. But reflecting on the year on PM is difficult. I can never remember what we did the day before yesterday, let alone several months ago.
And yet a couple of things stand out. This blog is one of them. Outstanding, as I've constantly noted, not because of what I write, but because of what other people write. And it's more than that - the spirirt of it has made this blog and this year so striking. We never knew where it was going or what it might do and it constantly surprises. We have never been able to have that kind of relationship with our audience before - and our listeners have never been able to have any kind of relationship with each other before. And I've a feeling this is just the beginning.
Then there was Windows On Your World. For all our problems with duplicate postings, delays and fluffs - it was and is an amazing feature. We got some fun radio out of it in advance, and then when the pictures began to pour in - we reckon around six thousand - we, (again for the first time) got a proper insight, after more than 35 years on the air, into what our listeners are doing, and who they are. It will continue into 2007 and (frankly, if we don't pull our fingers out) into 2008.
In our office, we miss Nick. We worry that changes in our workplace will mean we can't bring you the programme you're used to no matter how hard we try. We fret about where Newsletters go for days on end. Nigel's from Thursday and mine from Friday arrived late last night - drunk with no explanation of where they've been. We may ground them.
Yet through it all, you offer me protection...a lot of love and affection...no wait, I'm rambling now.
If you have your own reflections on the year you can post them here. Maybe your hopes for 2007. Or not. Up to you.
But in any case, thanks for listening, reading, posting, sending, and being patient when we screw up. You can be sure we'll do it again from tomorrow. I'll be there at 5pm. Join me if you can.
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Mutual, I'm sure!
A lovely posting, much appreciated ... as I rise from my pit to make a wee-hours cuppa and can't resist a peek at the blog.
How many ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ current affairs programmes have THAT sort of relationship with their listeners, I wonder?
There's got to be a Sony in this somewhere!
Fifi
what on earth are you doing up at 5 on a sunday morning?!
happy new year!
luc
Why is the fifth most-read story on the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ?
In case it redirects to something else by the time this is approved, it went to a page saying:
"The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ News Player is not able to load on your computer at the moment.
This is probably because you have JavaScript turned off. "
I think we should be told.
Morning Eddie!
Fifi is right in that the blog has become something completely different to anything I'd thought of before. Here it is, earlyish sunday morning, and we're already here. Somehow I doubt Today can claim such devotion. However, I must admit I'm concerned that you started quoting a certaim Mr R Williams near the end!
So, the final day of 2006. As years have gone for me, it hasn't been a bad one really.
January saw oldest child reach 18 and me start going to Man City matches. A story in itself retold elsewhere. February saw me initiated as a Freemason, following the almost vanished footsteps of my father and grandfather. March saw eldest leave home to share a flat with his mate.
April saw us decorate and recarpet the hall, stairs and landing. May saw middle child's GCSEs and the best FA Cup final in living memory - apparently. June saw middle child reach 16 and was the month of my 40th and a luxury trip to Florida with SO, flying Virgin Upper Class (other methods of destroying the planet are available). And I think there was some football going on in Germany.
July saw middle child go "on tour" with her boyfriend's band. August and we fumigated, demolished and decorated our bedroom after regaining it from the clutches of our teenagers (see March) and got middle chaild's exam results. September saw middle child go to college to do an art course and saw me train and start working as a volunteer Appropriate Adult.
October saw SO have interview for new job (for which she is still awaiting her CRB enhanced disclosure), a trip to take youngest child to York and ended with the first frost of the Autumn. November was just work, work, work. December saw youngest child rewach 8 and was filled with plans for Christmas and a record number of turkey dinners. It also probably ended the last year that youngest child will believe all the magic.
Today is special to SO and I as it's our 9th wedding anniversary. Those of you who have instantly thought "how did you get a venue on New Year's Eve?" will be relieved to know that it was a fairly low key affair. That may not be the best word to use here... Anyhoo, there were 19 of us at the church and 12 of us at the pub for a meal afterwards. That night we told Traci's kids (now adopted by me) that we were off to Walt Disney World in the morning...some honeymoon, I can tell you.
I am hoping 2007 will see me settle down to some writing. Real writing, not this blather. Although this blather is rather good practice. (That would sound good in most accents other than mine.) And I hope that everyone in the family continues to enjoy reasonable success and health in the things they do.
Whatever you wish for in 2007, I hope you get as much of it as you deserve. I'm just relieved I don't work in a bank anymore so can avoid that painful checking through cheques to check that the cheque has the right year. Check?
Eddie, I'd just like to thank you and the whole PM team for allowing us to play on your blog, and for letting us turn it into the Frog.
As for the programme itself, I'm constantly amazed at the balance to manage to keep between light and in-depth items. Keep up the good work, and we'll keep up the good play...
Eddie,
I have come to the conclusion that like , you never sleep. But have you ever been banned in Finland?
Seriously though, I had never remotely been interested in reading, let alone contributing to, any blog before this one. When I have read comments on the web, I've usually been put off by those who feel they have to shout, be rude or impose their views on everyone else.
I continue to be grateful to you and all my fellow froggers for being able to set a different tone and create an environment with room for both serious discussion and frivolity.
Long may it continue. And I'd vote for that Sony.
Morning All.
Fearless Fred (4) I think the late arrivals of the newsletter are just a ruse to get us all reading the blog this early on a Sunday morning.
Either the great one never sleeps, or you can pre-date/time a post in advance to be visible later at the time of your choosing...
Methinks Eddie typed this up yesterday and was in the land of nod at 5am this morning. :) I have a terrible feeling I may be helping to shatter people's dreams!
Thank you Eddie and all the PM team for a fantastic radio program & blog in 2006. If you need any help convincing the powers that be that PM should be untouchable - you know where we are!
Happy New Year...
What a lovely post Eddie. I may be a newbie to this blog, but it's become something I really look forward to contributing to and it always feels like a real community, whoever's posting.
For us, 2006 will be the year we decided to leave Yorkshire for a new adventure - even though we thought we'd be here forever. This time next year, we will be (hopefully) comfortably ensconced somewhere in Surrey, with a few new friends and lots of visits from old ones. May 2007 be a year of big and little adventures for you all and may PM continue to be the beacon that lights our evenings!
Thanks for the lovely posting, Eddie - I too put the blog on my list of good things that have happened this year.
And happy anniversary, Jason G! Have a great day!
Has anyone seen the man who has as many noses as there are days in the year? It's my husband's favourite 31st December joke so you can bet he will ask everyone the same question today! Well, it makes him happy!
What a lovely posting Eddie. I've really enjoyed reading the PM blog since it started this year - it's been fun & I love following the unexpected twists & turns in the threads as they veer off the original topic to something completely different. And it's always exciting to see what you have written to keep us amused. It's given me a whole new perspective on the programme to see some of the faces in the photo gallery (not Lissa, alas, but Mr Knibbs quite a satisfactory stand-in for the meantime), and to hear of the office goings-on (mince pies, chocolate coins etc). Do your managers read the blog to find out what's really going on in the office when their back is turned? And has the frog/blog become an unofficial focus group?
I have to work tonight so in case I'm not back in time, Happy New Year to all on the Frog, & the PM Team. I wonder what 2007 will bring us???
Wow! What lovely post from Eddie! A very happy New Year to you and your team. A huge thanks for this blog which is a very special place full of really special people.
Jason I'm astonished at your year and what you can remember, I can't remember one month from another. I have a case of "where did this year go?"
Happy New Year all.
Mary
Happy Anniversary to Jason (5)....and well done to Eddie for giving Jason the chance to have a final fling with his Round Robin. I'm still full of festive cheer....and food, with more to come tonight.....but am depressed to see Easter Eggs in the supermarket so early. Is this another result of Global Warming? Happy New Year to all at PM and PM Froggers everywhere
at the risk of sounding like an echo - Eddie, what a lovely post. And who cares if it was pre-written and sent on a delay button - it's the fact that you wrote it at all that matters. I'd like to bet that none of the Today presenters wrote a special blog entry for their listeners on a non working day.
It's typical of the care the PM team take of us and with us; you may have the best ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ blog of them all, but these things don't happen by accident (or even simply because you have the best audience!) They need nurturing and that's what Lissa and Richard and everyone else does.
Thank you all for that and more power to your collective elbow in 2007.
Well, you are all rather kind. As for whether it was pre-written - you should know my lack of ability with technology by now! It was written "live" when it said it was written - though the time logged indicates when I started, rather than when I finished. My body clock is better suited to Moscow time, I fear.
The best bits of 2006 for me have involved (in no particular order!) family, friends, music, North Cornwall & St Endellion, great fun & banter at work, late-night texting when I really should be asleep, learning to unwrap an everton mint by remote control (on a keyhole surgery course),
my new car (sad or what!), hearing Vadim Repin play the violin and last but not least... discovering the PM blog!
The saddest losses of 2006 to me are Linda Smith and Nick Clarke. I shall really miss hearing the easy familiarity and wonderful voice of NC and LS's just amazingly sharp wit.
I could easily get depressed about the state of the world in 2006 - so much aggession & greed and posturing. And we just continue to trash the planet. I should make more effort to be genuinely more green on the outside rather than just on the inside.
But I can't and won't let that any of that get me down and think (perhaps naively...but who cares!) that most people have their hearts in the right place and none of us get it right all the time and that other people who are important to you just make life worth living.
So... a happy and healthy 2007 to all new friends on the blog and Eddie, Lissa, Carolyn et al and looking forward to a blogging good year!!
GMX
Was it Midnight in Moscow?
What devotion, Eddie! We all really do appreciate it and just for the record, this blog is full of such nice people and works so well largely because of the charming and unassuming way you started it all. Thank you.
You may clock your body anywhere you choose! Oh purlease .........
I think Aperitif will echo that sentiment!
But how will you stay awake until midnight?
See you all there ....
Just to avoid echoing all the above....
xx
ed
A Happy New Year to you all at PM.
Thanks for another years efforts to uncover the sleaze and ask the difficult questions.
My New Year wish is that, on departing the scene, T Blair gives some apology to the Beeb for the lies and cover-ups that led to the illegal war in Iraq and incomprehensible abject apologies from the erstwhile trustworthy ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ management.
All the best of season’s greetings
not too much of a big wish there then Bill!
Thank you, Eddie, and Lissa and team, too. And all my fellow froggers. The frog is now a much-valued part of my life (maybe I should *get* one).
madmary (13) - you should know better than think I would rely on my memory.
Gillian (14) - not a recycled round robin but pieced together from trawling through my diary before it gets filed amongst all those things that I mustn't lose.
Ohh, I've just discovered that a tax return reminder is in that drawer...I know how I'm going to spend next week. And I must find an accountant in 2007.
I wonder if there are any marbles in here.
Well I did wonder Jason!
Mary
Happy New Year all!!
Fully aware that I am repeating the thoughts of others but i too want to say thanks to everyone for making this place what it is with their thoughts and comments, with thanks too to everyone who has to upload, write, moderate, argue budgets for, work late on, read, apologise for newsletters on, learn about in their "spare time" in order for it to work....
without you.... etc etc
In 2006 a blog became a frog within days... in 2007 what will it spawn..?
Wisht (26) no doubt a book if anyone starts kissing. That is all it took in the fairy tale to turn from frog into prints.
Inspired by Jason, I've just re-read my own blog from the beginning of the year. Interesting (if only for me) as I had little flashbacks of my time travelling.
In November 2005 I 'left work', sat on me bottom and travelled a bit. By the end of the first quarter of 2006 I'd made it to Spain and Guatamala (as anyone who peeked at my pics will know). Not massive travels I grant you, but still. Nice memories. And interesting to be able to access them for the first time after writing them down all those months ago!!!
Randomly clicking through the blog "Archives" I realise that my ramblings mainly concern:
a) Women (and lack thereof)
b) Not being able to speak Spanish
c) Arsenal
d) hangovers
actually d) is ironically rarer as I tend to blog at night when [ahem] drink has been taken, but before its morning awfulness has wreaked its merry way through my tummy and head. And alcohol (as any good Doctor here will attest) is not cool, or likely to help getting thoughts down coherently. I have not come to praise Beer, but to bury it....
Oddly enough (or perhaps not), as soon as I started work again, I kinda let the blogging slip.
So, after the somewhat pleasant diary-like reminders of what-i-did-on-my-holidays, I think I may start blogging again this year. Not a "resolution", but I'm getting more into the habit of typing my thoughts (even though I'm still sooooo slow) and inspired by my posting on this 'ere PM blog.
[short version of blog is: Seville is beautiful; if you can't speak the language you'll eat odd combinations of food; I'm rubbish with women; I worry too much about Arsenal; I get fascinated by stuff]
One of my highlights during 2006 was discovering PM in the evenings (I lead a lonely life). Eddie always asks the right questions.
Being in my twenties I cannot admit to anyone that I listen to Radio 4, it's just not "yoof". I will try and convert some of these infidels to the PM cause in 2007.
Eddie and the team - great broadcasting. It makes my hour travelling 2 miles on the M25 bearable.
Happy new year.
p.s I cannot remember anything I did this year either. I'm sure it was exciting and intelligent though.
p.p.s oh, I forgot. I got married this year (sorry wife)
Jason (27)
ba-duMm tCheeee!
:¬)
Jason
a "blog-and-tell" book??
Happy New Year to one and all, and many thanks again to Eddie and the PM team for just 'being'.
....and so say all of us, Eddie! Happy New Year when it comes, to yin an' a'!
Wisht (29): indupitably.
Hello Eddie, hello all,
The usual frantic NYE day for me, late to every venue I had to go to, finally back home.
Much of what I would write has already been written, so I'll just hold up this mirror...
I too discovered this blog, and indeed started my own. Not that I blog every day, it's been kind of busy lately.
Anyway, (and to be left on the beach as well)...
Happy New Year
to the PM team and all froggers.
A very happy 2007 to all froggers... I have decided to pay more attention to you all from tomorrow, as I feel I have let work get in the way of everything and it just isn't good enough.
Eddie and team, please carry on being as hilarious and thought-provoking as ever - you're all just fabulous.
Hugs and kisses to all you lovely folk, maybe see you at midnight!
xx
Happy 2007 to all!
Will keep it short as I'm being all whizzy reading/updating PM blog via RSS and mobile phone. Oooo...errr!! Get me!!
young-ish Phil, you're likely to have a forgettable divorce next year if you carry on like that! but let's hope not.
whisht you are a man of taste and discernment - Seville is indeed beautiful, in fact it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.
Well, I've got to get up for work tomorrow so I'll bid you all a good night. See you in 2007.
Happy New Year!
Mary
young-ish Phil, since Big Sis and Fifi aren't around to do the traditional welcome to newlurkers, let me say, welcome and lang may yer lum reek (it's ok it's quite polite it's a traditional Scottish greeting).
Can you tell, our plans have been sent askew by the weather....too awful to venture out, so it's log fire, sparkly (not Helen) and tv for 2. Well after 33 years we've spent many a different type of Hogmanay. Jason Happy Anniversary to you and your SO, may you be as happy in 24 years (if my arithmetic's right).
Happy New Year, froggers!
Let's hope it's a good one (oh, there I go quoting Lennon).
I'm glad to see the last of 2006, so a fresh start is just what I need.
Fances O - You have something to tell us today, don't you?
Just a quickie to wish you all a very Happy New Year.
Big thanks to Eddie for the Frog and hoping that all our wishes come true.
I'll chink a glass for all of you,
Jonnie x
Happy New Year, Eddie, Lissa and all the PM team and all the wonderful froggers here.
Thanks for all you do. You're the best.
xxxxxxxxxxxx to all.
Happy New Year from me.
xx
Ladypen
And the best of all to all of the best!
Trust in Allah (but tether your camel)
xx
ed
Two weeks of straplines,
No breaks for Christmas / New Year.
Fine end to great year.
When I had a nap this morning, I awoke to Nick Clark's audio diary, it was a sad moment as I realised he wasn't as alive as he had been when it was first aired. Feeling sad now for Barbara, & all his children at this time of year & anyone who lost someone. I even feel sad for for me losing my very difficult grandmother, who I loved anyway, & who was mostly difficult because she was unhappy which is sad too.
I shall always remember Nigella Lawson saying that she he could understand why people would think marrying Charles Saatchi was too soon after the death of John Diamond, because she would feel the same, but that human beings are complex so happiness & sadness could be experienced simultaneously. No great revelation really, but it struck me, & I hope there was some joy in Christmas for those who were otherwise sad.
I shall now pop over the the beach for tea & crumpets now I think, to see if they can be cheering.
When did you last see a Water vole?
Eddie,
Thank you for such a delightful EOY message. Your blog has indeed been a highlight of 2006, and will continue to be for years to come, I'm sure.
Only problem is, it gets so much posted here that it is a blog up with which I cannot keep.
Best wishes to all froggers for 2007.
Where's my beach photograph? Have I missed that as well?
And a quick PS from me. Happy New Year to Eddie and the Gang, and to all the froggers.
Sorry not to have been here as the year turned.
Sara: I'm not actually mad about Wales, I may be mad, but not about Wales. I LIKE Wales, and have reasons to visit regularly. But, to be honest, I'd much rather have spent the New Year at home. And I mean no disrespect to Wales or the Welsh. Honest.