OK, so the last few posts have been a bit serious; and for many of my colleagues in commercial radio, it’s been a bit of a serious week so far. Redundancies and changes in structure are never fun; and while I’ll doubtless see a bit of that in the next few months, I wish all the best to any and all that are affected by this week’s news.

It’s also been an exceptionally busy couple of weeks for me - the final launch of the new iPlayer, complete with radio, has had many last-minute and hopefully invisible hitches; the Coyopa project to make radio sound better online is just around the corner (with a few last-minute hitches too), and tomorrow morning at some god-awful hour, I’ll be flying to Geneva to talk about DAB digital radio receiver profiles with the rest of the European radio industry. (There and back in the day, no staying in a hotel - your licence fee is safe with me.)

So, I’m all out of sensible points, but rather wish to push the serious blog entries a little further down the page, so instead, here are a few things giving me pleasure right now.

1. Google Reader with Google Gears. Click the sync before you leave home. Read lots of articles on the way into work. Sync it when you get into work. The pleasure of Google Reader, turned into a magic offline reader, which works really very well.
2. The pub quiz in my local. I went for the first time on Sunday, and was greeted by the quiz-master like a long-lost friend, was made the butt of a few soft jokes, was encouraged to take the mick out of others, laughed, scored a miserable 11 out of 30, and had a jolly good time, all for the price of a pint. I’ll be back.
3. BT Openzone access, which for iPhone users is now free. Now I’ve got solid (and fast) wifi from BT Openzone, The Cloud, work and home, I don’t see any particular reason to upgrade to the iPhone 3G quite yet. My iPhone (Edge) will be simply upgraded to the latest firmware on Friday instead, I think.
4. Peering into studios. In the BBC’s television centre there are little viewing galleries where you can peer into the studio to see what’s being filmed, and watch the video coming out of the studio gallery. Those viewing galleries are open to any member of staff; and last week’s treat was watching a bit of Jonathan Ross being recorded. (It’s recorded on Thursday evening). Doubtless I’ll get bored of this, but I’m in TVC so infrequently, it’s quite fun.
5. The new iPlayer. I know, it sounds trite, but I’ve listened to more radio today than I have for a long time - discovering some really rather good programmes tucked away on Radio 1 and Radio 4. And, just to spite me, the copy of Real Player on my BBC laptop is now crashing every time I try and use it. Anyone would think it’s upset at me for some reason.
6. The Phoenix in Cavendish Square, which I wandered into this evening with a friend; at the door was a big collection of umbrellas, and a sign saying “forgotten your umbrella? Take one of ours.”
7. Last.fm. Even though I find the new beta is almost incomprehensible, the classic site works so well for me; I often spend entire weekend afternoons just listening to new music and favourite songs. And it’s British, too. Yay.

What are you liking right now? Let’s see your comments.

Photo: flickr user kolix. Used under licence.

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