Month: February 2013

Moving boxes again!?!

Pat Brittenden5 Comments

006This is just a quick note to let you know what is happening in my life and the life of my family this year which may be a shock to some of you especially if you know us personally.

It all started in November last year when a group my business was contracting to decided to not renew my contract. This has left me without a serious percentage of our income for 2013. Now I have already explained that this is how radio works, I don’t have a problem with the decision but the downstream effects on my family are financially severe to say the least.

We went from losing perhaps 80% of our company income to spending a lot of money finishing and launching our new venture elephantTV in the space of just a few weeks. This has left us with a fantastic product (which you can download from here), but scarce reserves.

So as of last Sunday we have decided, or maybe I should say it has been decided for us, that we need to leave Auckland as we cannot service our mortgage currently. Luckily we have access to a family bach down country (with no phone or internet!!!!!) and friends who live locally who need a place for 3 or 4 months while their house gets renovated.

I had a friend say to me today that I appear to be taking this very lightly, well there is a silver lining with most clouds and with this one the upside would appear to be Idoya has come to the realisation that this will be a perfect time to finish her first novel, and given the minimum time frame we will be away, in a place with no distractions, we have decided to reverse roles somewhat where I become a bit of a house husband and her new job of ‘X’ hours per day will be writing.

So that’s us, for those of you who know me personally I have no idea what my contact details come next Monday, what and how we will be contactable…but I’ll let you know. And for those of you who don’t know me personally but have been a part of my life through Facebook, radio, this blog or ‘other’ I’ll be around from time-to-time, and am sure I’ll be able to use my phone to access twitter and facebook if nothing else.

So we are off on a bit of a forced adventure, we may look back at the upcoming few months and realise that it was the best thing for us, we may not, but as I said this morning when a certainty is thrust upon you there is no real reason to fight it, or get angry…it’s called life and you roll with the punches.

If not before I hope to see you all in June…for my 40th ;o)

Paul Holmes R.I.P

Pat Brittenden3 Comments

I had the great pleasure of working the shift before Paul Holmes started for 4 years, he was a gracious, encouraging, funny and genuinely interested in what other were about.

I’d be leaving, he’d be heading down the elevator for a cigarette, and the question would be “So Pat, what are they talking about?”

He was the best, the yardstick, the measure by which all other broadcasters have been, and will be compared to for some time yet.

There are stories in the TRN building of Sir Paul offering time and hospitality to younger broadcasters from all the stations, even some stories about him having some local ZM announcers around to his house for a knees up. I haven’t personally heard of too many negative interactions with Paul…that seemed to be the kind of guy he was.

Occasionally he stepped over a mark,  the famous ‘Cheeky Darkie’ comment comes to mind, but it was never malicious, never intended to hurt or harm. In fact the ‘Cheeky Darkie’ comment whilst we would all agree was not appropriate, was actually Sir Paul trying to be funny, sarcastic, ‘cheeky’ if you will and it missed the mark.

So in saying that this is my tribute to Sir Paul, I made this in the days after the infamous event, and I play it to remember an amazing man, a man who pushed boundaries that many of us who followed got the benefits of. He meant it as an acerbic joke…I look at the following audio as that, as the conclusion to the joke…that went a bit too far.

R.I.P Paul Holmes