Wearily onwards we go…

It’s a very weary ‘DJ/presenter’ writing this blog entry.  Less than two hours to go, and all I want to do is get finished and go home to my bed.  Although I didn’t start broadcasting till 8pm on the Friday, I was up an about at lunchtime that day so have actually been awake for closer to 60 hours!

I’ve had my final meal of pork casserole (which looked and tasted very similar to yesterday’s pork goulash (except there was one extra piece of meat today as well as a tasty dumpling!).  I can’t really face another coffee, after the countless cups I’ve had.

There are three tombola prizes left – a box of M&S Belgian chocolate biscuits, a little bottle of lager and a fish supper for two courtesy of a chippie round the corner from the hospital.

I’ve got three dedications for the final hour of the show:

• Any Elvis song for Miriam King (fittingly)
• Simply the Best by Tina Turner for Rose Ditchburn
• Ronan Keating’s “Rollercoaster” for Sandra Sinclair

I’d like one of those to be the final song of the show… am leaning to The Best but if I pick the right Elvis song it could be a fitting end.

Any thoughts gratefully received before 9.45pm lol

I’ll do a catch-up posting later in the week when my head stops spinning, but thanks to everyone who has emailed, texted, phoned and posted on here with their good wishes for the event – I really couldn’t have done it without your support.

Good night and God bless.

Craig

Six and counting

Less than six hours to go until the end of this broadcast, and the hours are going pretty quickly it has to be said.

Still my final dose of hospital food to come, “pork casserole”.  To be fair the Sunday dinner was pretty good, the beef was tasty and plentiful… it’s still not home cooking, however

Hopefully I’ll be able to publish another update of the blog before we close, but it’s been great reading the comments on the blog and those received by email.  I will certainly do a roundup on Tuesday when I wake up again ;-P

It will be worth checking the station website www.hrst.co.uk for some outrageous publicity shots and other fun pictures from across the weekend.

Craig

Home straight in sight…

At ten o’clock this morning, I’ll have just 12 hours remaining on the marathon broadcast.

 Twelve hours – doesn’t sound too bad, but it’s the 40-plus hours beforehand that make it difficult.  As I said in an earlier post, through the night was really difficult, but now with the end in sight I am getting a second wind.

Breakfast helped – cornflakes, a pint of milk (!), brown bread bun and raspberry jam, plus a couple of coffees.  Speaking on the catering front, I ‘ve still got Sunday lunch and supper to come

I’ve opted for orange juice, with roast beef & yorkshire pud with roast pots, followed by cheese and crackers.  I’ll try to get a webcam shot of lunch when it arrives.

thanks for everyone’s comments on the blogs, keeps me busy through the night and awake, which is the important thing.

Hitting the wall

I knew it would be difficult, but boy oh boy.

Having safely negotiated the change back to GMT from BST and having 1am – 2am twice, it was about 3.30am when I ‘hit the wall’.

Long distance runners often talk of this phenomenon, and now I know what it’s like.  I have been walking up and down the corridors and even popping outside for fresh air (and at 3.30am it is very fresh!) plus the obligatory coffee.

Now I’ve just 16 hours to go, more than two thirds completed and I’m desperate to see it through till 10pm.

Fingers crossed that the breakfast delivery plus the gradual arrival of more people will perk me up to finish what I’ve started.

Deja vue all over again…

The 30th and 31st hours of this broadcast marathon will appear to sound very similar.  Due to the clocks going back to Greenwich Mean Team at 2.00am BST, the only way to accomplish this was to switch over to a CD while I changed the PC clock back to 1am.

Then the system has just replayed the 1-2am hour again.

Normally this sort of thing is done before you go to bed (Bed? what’s that lol) on Saturday night, or if you’re not that organised you go round doing it on Sunday morning when you’ve woken up.

This time I’ve seen it “happen” live!

That in addition to seeing every minute of every hour of Saturday will be some of the memories I’ll take away from this event. (After a week’s catch up sleep, obviously!)
CS, now happily back in GMT

Product placement

27 hours and counting…. how does one do it?

You need  good back-up team, who bring you Lucozade and Red Bull

This next stretch I think will be the toughest of the whole thing – if I can get through to daybreak then I feel it’s in the bag…

(hopefully not famous last words ;-P)

Craig

Reaching out across the airwaves

It was great to receive some emails from hospital radio stations at opposite ends of the country, after word of the 51-hour marathon reached other stations.

Jim Simpson (no relation) wrote from Grampian Hospital Radio in Aberdeen, while Adam Streather sent greetings from the sunny south coast and Hospital Radio Hastings.

Thanks guys, the support means a lot and helps me to keep going.

Thanks, too, for those who have sent messages of support via this blog, or directly to me by text and email.  It’s a lonely job here in the studio, so comforting to know that others are out there worrying too

Just past the 22 hours mark, 8 o’clock will see the 24-hour (1 day) barrier, and 9.30pm will be exactly half way, 25.5 hours.

That’s how I’m approaching it, not 51 hours off the belt, but little spells of 2 or 3 hours at a time.  It’s working so far.

Craig

Hospital food…

Since I’m confined to the hospital for over two days, thanks to the Trust management I have been added to the rounds for the hospital food…

The menu is very complicated to fill in, a tick box with lots of “this or that” and “this and that” choices, three meals a day and three courses to each meal.

Saturday’s lunch, after much debate, is orange juice to start with pork goulash and mash potato for main, with fruit crumble and custard.  Worrying they haven’t identified the fruit in advance…

And now to top it off, David Gray is on the playlist with his song, yes you’ve guessed “Hospital Food”!!!!

Peace and quiet shattered..

There I was, just after 10am, 14 hours in, more than a third of the way to my 51 hours, back-announcing one of the requests when my solitude was wrecked by Messrs Chairman and Secretary…

I had the headphones on so didn’t hear them come in to the studio and as a result nearly had to take time out for wardrobe change (if you know what I mean).

The Abseil for India is now in full swing (if you pardon the expression) and we will be getting interviews with organisers and participants to broadcast later today.

14h 40mins and still going (fairly) strong

Sunrise….

OK, so I’ve cheated a bit and that’s not the ‘actual’ sunrise over South Tyneside District Hospital, but you get the idea.

More than 10 hours into the Marathon Broadcast and I’ll be popping outside at the reception to see the sun coming up very shortly; it’s going to be a rare sight for me, particularly on a Saturday!

There’s a little more sound and movement around the hospital as things spring to life after the relative hibernation that is the nightshift.

Marked the ten-hour mark with Kool & The Gang “Celebration”… now hang on, Il Divo are back on with “My Way”, that shouldn’t repeat so quickly!?!?!

Perhaps I’m just imaging… no, I’ve checked my earlier blog and it’s there.

Ho hum.