New Pleasureland Southport

Friday night was of course The 31st October "Halloween", and I had the pleasure of being invited to New Pleasureland in Southport for their Spooktacular Bonfire and Firework Event.

New Pleasurelands owner Norman Wallis has done an amazing job trying to keep a fairground in Southport and securing it as a true family holiday destination.

Representing Dune 107.9 along with Breakfast Co-Presenter Karen Johnson, our task for the evening was to judge the fantastic fancy dress costumes being worn by children attending the Spooktacular event.



The atmosphere on the night was great. Well done to everyone who made a great effort on the night. I loved every minute.

Good luck for the future Norman, Here's to the true revival of Plesureland "Southport"

Angel Child A song For Rhys

Many people know the name Rhys Jones. Rhys was an innocent 11 year old boy who was shot and killed on his way home from football practice in 2007.

Joining me on my show today were the talent behind a brand new Charity Single Angel Child (as pictured above)Jules Burgess-Kennedy and Mike Bradley. Mike's son played football in the same team as Rhys and had watched him play all that season. ANGEL CHILD is fully supported by Rhys Jones parents Steven and Melanie.

The song came about as Mikes way of dealing with Rhys tragic and shocking death. Mike enlisted the help of friends Tony Taylor, David Hyland, and Jules. The Result was Angel Child (Song for Rhys)

All proceeds from the single sales will go to charity which is aiming to build a Community centre in Rhys name. Plus provide funding for various other sporting events and projects nationwide that will benifit children all over the UK.

The Centre will be built close to where Rhys lived and hopes to encourage children to get involved in sport rather than gang culture. "Join a Team not a Gang"

Look out for the CD in TESCO's Woolies HMV or download online. for a preview of the song click on the link or go to www.angelchild.co.uk

Its a great song by a really nice group of people who its been an honour to meet.

Back in again

That makes it two weeks in a row I have made our local paper.

Finding the picture is easy, just turn to page 41 of Friday’s edition of The Southport Visiter.

Last year The Mere Brow Giant Pumpkin Competition was forced to change to a larger venue as the popularity grows.

The new home is Homestead Farm's Shop
Wiggins Lane, Holmeswood,
Lancashire, L40 1UJ

Me and Carol are pictured with (organizer) Trevor Wilson, Gerrard (last years winner) Margaret (from the shop) and Jackie from the Northwest Air Ambulance doing the official cheque handing over ceremony. The total money raised was £1311.50.

This year’s competition will be held at 2pm Saturday 18th October at the farm, and we would love you to be there.

Sothport Visiter

Have you ever opened a newspaper to see your own face smiling back at you? Well that is exactly what happened to me this week.

Sat back having a minute at work thumbing through this week’s edition of The Southport Visiter.

To my surprise it was a picture of me. And I was sharing page 40 with 1986 legends Simon Groom, Peter Duncan and Janet (mum of Sophie Ellis Bexter) Ellis "the team from Blue Peter" and Southport Icon and best mate of Sooty "Connie Creighton".

Click on the Southport Visiter title, to go direct to the article which can be found in the LookBack section.

The section is created by Robert Alcock who is looking for your favorite children’s TV show, holders of the coveted Blue Peter Badge and local people who have been on the show. Robert can be contacted on 01704 398276 or e-mail robert alcock@southportvisiter.co.uk.

Thanks for putting me in Robert

JJB Health and Fitness

What a shame for the team at JJB in Southport. Will and the team have been really good fun on my new Lunchtime quiz "War of the Workforce" on 107.9 Dune FM.

They have managed to fend off the competition for the last three weeks but have been tamed by the new kids on the block from Wayfarers Arcade shopping center in Southport.

This week we have new "sporting" contenders to take on the mighty Wayfarers team.

By the way, what about Ant and Dec copying the music from my quiz (B****rds)

Aimee visits Dune FM

What a treat we had at work on Friday, as local Singer Aimee Kearsley came in to the Dune FM studios to see us, and to tell us about Eurovision 2008.

Aimee and her best friend Emma Beard (both former members of the group "CLEA") now form singing duo ‘LoveShy’. They are making a bid to win the Eurovision song contest in Belgrade 2008 with their new song 'Mr Gorgeous'.


Emma and Aimee "LoveShy" will be joining Eurovision veteran Terry Wogan and Claudia Winkleman on a two-part contest - Eurovision Your Decision, on BBC1 in March. The competition will see six acts split into three categories going head-to-head to decide who will represent the UK at the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest -


It would be great to see them win so lets give them our support.

Pointing

A little while ago I managed to get around to fixing my garage roof. However, since then a little water has managed to find its way inside.

One possible cause could be a slight defect in the new roof OR water seeping through the rear brickwork.

On seeking advice I have purchased some stuff to spray on to the brickwork to give it a water tight seal. Reading the instructions (as you do) it said check your pointing, (the bit between the bricks)

It didn't take long to find a few dodgy bits that needed attention, a great excuse to whip out my tool kit.

Not being used to using a trowel I found myself using my finger to smooth the mortar, and as it happens I did tend to use my pointing finger. Wonder if that’s where it got its name??

Guess who's been to the gym ???

I knew you wouldn't believe me. To be honest I have actually been to the gym twice this week. And, true to form I managed to pick up an injury on my first visit..... well nearly. After my visit on Thursday and managing to do ten minutes on the chocolate machine in the reception area, I woke on Friday morning with ded bad cramp, and it hurt all day.

The true reason for going was actually work related. As mentioned earlier I have a new feature on my Radio Show called War of the Workforce, and we thought it would be a good idea to go and meet the teams in person and put a photo on the stations web site.

Not all of the team at JJB Health and Fitness were available on thursday so i had to make a return visit. They are a great bunch of people and they were made up to be the victors of week one.

The team who came in second place (sounds better than losers) were from Queenscourt Hospice.



I also made a visit th the hospice and had a tour of their fantastic facility and met some truly amazing people.

No Sunday Lunch

Don’t you just hate it when an hour long job turns into a marathon?

For the past few days, Carol has been telling me that she can't cook, Nothing new there I thought to myself, and just replied with "Yer I know" just like Little Britain.

As it turned out, our oven had packed in and..... She couldn't cook... even if she could.
Saturday was spent out and about trying to bag a bargain. Eventually we purchased a separate oven and matching hob (because our old oven and hob were matching green)

Up bright an early Sunday morning and ready for action, within five minutes I struck a problem and needed to pop to B&Q for some bits and bobs. Being a Sunday and as yet no chance of Sunday Lunch, I stopped off and purchased all of the ingredients needed.

Lately things haven’t been going my way, and today was no exception. SIX HOURS-THREE TRIPS TO THE SHOPS AND NO SUNDAY DINNER.

But I got the job done. What do you think??

HELP !!!!!

For a little while now, I have been known on Dune FM as a master quiz master, for my twice daily ABC quiz (The hardest quiz on the radio)

Well from this Monday, it’s just got a little harder for me, and I need your help.
Each day two teams will be trying to answer as many questions as they can in 60 seconds with my War of the Workforce feature.

What I need is good quality quick fire questions. I know that the internet can be a great source of questions, but a lot of the time the questions are out of date or a little too obscure.

I found one the other day that was asking for the name of the British Prime Minister, It gave the answer as Margret Thatcher, (that must be over a year old)

Therefore, I really do need your help. After a few dry runs, I may need between 20 and 30 questions per day, 7300 to 10950 per year.

If you get a minute, please let me have some questions (with correct answers) preferably on a word document, with a font big enough to read by a blogger. (If you do, I will give you a mention on the radio (honest)

Email to dave@daveturley.co.uk

National Lemon Meringue Day

One of the many alleged "Perks of the Job" working in radio, is one I shouldn't really share with you.

Almost every day, some poor listener will find themselves being enlightened, entertained or sometimes learning something they never knew before from a very knowledgeable Radio Superstar.

I learnt very early in my radio career that interesting and fascinating things don’t necessarily happen every day, or to be very honest, every week. It is therefore at times (purely for entertainment value or occasionally personal gain) obligatory to tell the odd little white lie.

One of my favourites is to announce fictitious National Days like national Kit Kat Day or National Lemon Meringue Day my favourite.

After Six years at the same station, my listeners have twigged, and what a pleasant surprise today when Stuart ( A Master Baker) of Grayson’s of Ainsdale rang to tell me it was National Lemon Meringue Day and made one especially for me with my initials on it. He even brought my Mum a massive Cream Cake to cheer her up.

How cool is that.!!!!!

It Never Ends

Again with one thing or another. I have had very little time for my Blog.

For the past few months my Mum has not been in very good health. And to cut a long story short she has been taking more tablets than were good for her and ended up collapsed in a heap with some very nasty bruising.

To get her back on her feet (literally) she was sent for a little restbite while all her drugs were re-assesed.

She was taken to a lovely place that reminded me of a travel lodge (apart from the stink of p*ss)which seemed to disapear within ten minutes or if you stop breathing.

Today I get a call from my Brother. My mum has been robbed, she had all her money taken from her bedside table whilst she slept.

A male member of staff was busy looking in on her every half hour on the night the money dissapeared, asking if she was still having trouble getting to sleep and if she wanted a cup of tea (she never got one)

The last check mum remembers was at five in the morning. A girlie member of staff did bring a cup of tea at Seven O'Clock.

If only the the Male would have spotted who was sneaking around between Five and Seven.

What a shame... Bas**rds

First Day Back

It was my first day back in work after a Christmas and New Year break (aren't I lucky)

I don't know whether it was over excitement at the thought of going back to work or just first day nerves (I bet I have forget what all the buttons and faders do). But I found it really hard to get to sleep on Sunday night.

For the last few years "Big Brother" has kept me up till late (not this year.... its s**t)Plus my bed always feels like its got lumps in (until my alarm clock goes off then its the best bed in the world)

Being woke up at about 5AM with a bad case of wind (outside) made me want to roll over and stay put.

However I made the effort and set off to work with my packed lunch and all my show prep (pre done just in case)

As it turned out, I loved it... plus for the first time in all my time at Dune FM The staff had a whip-round and got me a few Birthday Presents (NO CARD)They said I would have nothing to moan about if they got that too.


Pictured with me is our latest competition winner Sue, she is about to start "The Inch-loss Challenge" with gymophobics (A Girly only Gym)

With a bit of luck i will be going there on Wednesday (for research) honest. Good Luck Sue

At It Again

It would seem that every single time I have a break from work, I get drawn in to a little bit of DIY. (I cant help it... It may be a bad influence from the TV).

During the summer we started on the mammoth task of putting up a new fence in the back garden. After a lot of hard work and a lot of money, the job had to stop. The plan was to wait until This Summer and Finnish it all off then.

This week, for some strange reason we found ourselves counting up how many fence panels it would take to finish off around the back garden. And before we knew it we were on the road to get the stuff in CHEAP in the sales.

(We soon found out that you cant actually buy stuff in the sales that you need or actually want)

To add to this we even had trouble buying the fence panels anyway.

The first thing we tried was to go on-line and buy them (we could have them delivered) BUT NO "not available to order online"

The next day, armed with our List, off we went to B&Q. We made our way to the customer service desk to place our order (we knew exactly what we wanted so knew it Wouldn't take long)

SHOCK HORROR... The customer service desk had been removed (as a cost cutting measure) However, all was not lost because they had installed a button on the wall to press for assistance.

Only trouble being didn't get any assistance. We went to see the Three members of staff who were busy rearranging things in the garden department (well having a meeting about it)but no luck

After a whole hour of button pressing and having "Assistance calls put on the Tanoy" we decided to leave B&Q unable to buy stock they had on display because they had cut staff to save money.

Thanks to the guys at Jewsons for sorting us out.