The extreme heat, a trip to a Manchester hotel bar and gratitude for key workers all feature in the Tameside Radio presenter's latest unique take on life...

This might not be universally popular, but it’s been far too hot for me this week. Before you roll your eyes, at least hear me out. 

Autumn is a season full of beautiful colours in the trees in Tameside’s many green spaces. 

It’s the time for hot chocolate with marshmallows, fireworks and trick or treat fun for the kids (as long as the virus definitely got the memo that it had to pack its bags for good this time). 

It’s still warm enough for a walk without a jacket when the sun’s shining, but your clothes don’t end up sticking to you in a most unattractive fashion.

I just don’t think UK homes are equipped for temperatures exceeding 28 Celsius, which we’ve experienced for much of the last week in Tameside.

Trying to sleep has been a fruitless task, and even our bedroom fan seems to just recirculate the same warm air. Roll on crisp autumnal nights, I say!

Now I’ve wished the extreme heat event away (Public Health England assure me this will happen on Friday anyway when it comes to an end), I wanted to mention how strange it was to go into a hotel bar in Manchester city centre on Monday evening. 

Along with Martin Emery and Andy Hoyle, my Tameside Radio colleagues, we headed to Hotel Brooklyn for a Radio Academy event, launching their ‘30 Under 30’ search for the brightest young talent. 

Alas, I’m a little over the maximum age bracket, but we thought we’d show our faces for radio anyway!

It was quite a sobering moment when I realised some of the attendees were born way after the Spice Girls launched their career, will always have known mobile phones being ubiquitous, and most crucially were still at nursery when I started back in radio in 2002 (not counting my spell from 1992-1994 whilst I was still at school!). 

Where on earth does time go? And time has become a concept as bendy as a banana in the last 16 months, which doesn’t help things.

Being inside Hotel Brooklyn having a beer with fellow radio professionals (and us at the naughty table at the back of the room!) was really nice, but a little surreal. 

It was my first time inside a venue that sells alcohol since March 2020, if we’re not counting the supermarket and a lovely beer shop I found recently in Penistone. 

Social distancing and ventilation were good, and there was tons of hand sanitiser on the way in and out, so I never felt unsafe. Cheers to that!

As for the thorny issue of nightclubs and the recent announcement that clubbers will need to be double jabbed, I don’t see the big fuss. 

I’m certain the alcopops and end of night kebabs I imbibed in my clubbing days contained far worse than anything scientists could put into a vaccine. 

It’s easy to go down the rabbit hole of social media and get really angry about every new Government policy, but the reality is whatever your political persuasion, getting double jabbed offers far greater protection than posting conspiracy theories in your pants on Twitter.

If you’re not familiar with Twitter, I’d perhaps advise you to steer clear if you value your blood pressure. The risk of being cancelled is omnipresent.

Finally, a mention for every single person who’s worked all through the pandemic, and not seen a penny of furlough cash. 

Whether you’re a delivery driver, a shop worker, a carer, a nurse, police officer, fire fighter, or any number of other professions I could name, I’m truly grateful for what you’ve done. 

Most people do want to do the right thing, and if we exclude those who were protesting against lockdown in London on the day it ended, I’ve not seen any big changes this week in behaviour. Perhaps we let go of the Government’s hand long before they thought we did.

Take care, stay safe, and here’s to some cooler nights, along with hopefully falling Covid case numbers. 

If you’re out for a walk this weekend, make sure you take your camera and capture some of our wonderful green spaces. 

Your picture could feature in the Quest Media Network calendar! Find out more details about our competition by clicking here. 

You can listen to Alex every weekday from 7am to 11am and on the 'Super Scoreboard' show on Saturdays from 3pm to 7pm, on Tameside Radio 103.6FM. 

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