Thinking of the days: December 2020

I've been feeling slightly discombobulated for the past few weeks.

I'm on annual leave, yet I'm not on holiday. I'm not relaxing in the sun or even having a few days away here in the UK.

Also, when I finish my annual leave, I won't be going back to work. I will officially leave the BBC on 2nd January, but I've already had my last day in the newsroom.

After twenty years of working at the BBC as a journalist, it seems strange but exciting.

I joined BBC Radio Leicester as a freelancer for two weeks initially but never left. Before then, I had worked on a cruise ship sailing around the world for a year, been to university, worked in PR, and worked at the BBC in Bristol as a reference librarian.

I've loved it all, but being a journalist in the newsroom in a busy local radio station has been great. I’ve always been nosy you see, which drove my mother mad when I was a child. I was always asking questions. I've never stopped, and being able to find great stories and contacts and being paid for it has been amazing.

It’s been a memorable twenty years in many ways. Although I’ve been based in Leicestershire, I’ve also travelled to Belgium, Ukraine and the Gambia working on stories I will never forget.

I've also made features for Radio 4, for 'Word of Mouth' and 'You and Yours', and occasionally for 6 Music back in the day, and my work has been featured on Pick of the Week quite a few times over the years.

Being a journalist in local radio is so rewarding, because you meet people at extraordinary times in their lives, as they share a special achievement, a harrowing story that needs to be told, or a wrong which needs to be righted. It's a privilege to help them tell their story, even though I've sobbed my socks off at times.

I've loved finding stories that no one else had, and I always say that everyone has a story, and it's often not a story you expect.

Of course, as a journalist, you also get to do things that you wouldn't necessarily expect to do. Such as driving a World War II tank,

Do have a listen... I nearly lost control of the tank at one stage.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtdf-7Bkvg0

I've also flown in an air ambulance helicopter and interviewed some of my favourite celebrities. Each day has been different and surprising, one day being sent to interview a team of Olympic sportsmen, the next going into a prison to interview people who've been locked up for a long time, or another day being spattered with paint whilst reporting live at the Hindu festival of Holi...

I've also enjoyed presenting gardening and history programmes on numerous occasions. One of my favourites has been BBC Radio Leicester's Down to Earth, very much like Gardeners' Question Time on Radio 4. I loved careering around Leicestershire and Rutland chairing recordings with a much-loved panel of gardening experts.

I was also lucky enough to be a part of the biggest historical story of this century. Obviously, I didn't dig up Richard III personally, but I got to know the team who did, very well! The memories of reporting on and having a grandstand view of the finding of The King in a Leicester car park and his subsequent burial in Leicester Cathedral will always stay with me.

I've enjoyed working with so many talented people at BBC Radio Leicester too. The laughs, the larks, the banter with colleagues and friends who I know I will miss, but shall still see socially when we are allowed. I've so many happy, funny and brilliant memories of my mad, marvellous work family.

Still, I'm looking forward to some new adventures as a freelancer. I shall continue giving talks, there's talk of a few lectures and voice-overs, and I'm going to continue to blog, and to write and to travel. Who knows what I'll get up to?

There will be more time for gardening though, both at home and on my allotment. Most of all, there will be lots of time spent having fun with my three gorgeous grandchildren. Jasper, Clementine and Raffy have all been born during the last twenty months.