You have me both Alastair and myself for company this evening after last night's football stole our programme from us. I'm sure a lot of Man United fans will agree they would have been happy to miss some of that match for more of us but, move on they must, as shall I to something which may hinder our movement more than just a little.
If the strike on the Victoria line didn't make your journey into work a pain last week - then this next one certainly will. Tube staff are threatening to close down the whole network for 48 hours. I can't remember when that last happened - hold on, let me google. Googled...couldn't find it. Asked Ken..made him swear about plans for another strike. He said he remembered having to walk from Fenchurch Street last time. I reckoned it must be a year ago at least. He deposited money in the swear box and found the story we did last time there was a full tube strike. September 2007. So - that's while ago then, nearly two years, yes? Now we could have another one. They're trying to sort out the row - over pay deals and job losses - but we're bracing ourselves and sending Phil Bayles out to hear what you think and to track down Bozza.
To another mode of transport now - and the one in question is a little black BMW. Very cute and very useful when it was needed to ferry one of my girlfriends to hospital after a meningitis looking rash appeared on her chest. So said car was parked, she was admitted and kept overnight, so car was as well. When it came to driving her home the next evening we found quite a big bill on the car parking ticket. Now, I figured there wouldn't be a charge as it was an emergency and all, thinking the nice security person would take pity on the silly blondes with no cash. But, we found a machine which took cards - handy - and paid up. If we'd been in Basildon the nice lady who looked after their hospital car park - until very recently - may well have let us off. Not that I'm trying to get out of paying - but it just seems like the wrong place to be worrying about cash when you're worried about yours or someone else's health.
The people around the desk here agrees - Al's done a swear about it all, recalling having to rush his Dad into hospital and having to think about change for the machine. But Emma - who's been to get all the facts on this - says the hospital in question had just forked out millions for a brand new car park and had to pay for it somehow. There is debate. You will get all the details later - and find out why the lady in charge of the charges decided to take charge - and resign.
We've got the third part of The Afghan Trail tonight - the last few nights you've seen the lengths people are going to to get here - now Lewis is going to tell us what happens to the ones who do make it to the place they call 'paradise'.
There's also a whole lot of rubbish on the show. Well, in Trafalgar Square. If we collected all the stuff we chuck away on our lunch breaks around town - where there are no recycling bins - we'd be able to fill up the square. We haven't really done it - some techie wizardry's been employed and Glen has been deployed to see what's being chucked away and what the non-recycling lunch-hour answer could be.
Christine Ohurugu's got an OBE and Neil's got me practising how to say her name - I should be fine coming from the world of sports news, which she has featured in quite a lot. But he's insisting on me saying it three times so I shall practice for you. If he makes me mess it up I shall put a curse on the FA Cup final on Saturday which he is over-excited about. I'm excited about the promised sun this weekend and getting ready to barbie like we're all down under.
But before I get the shrimps (which I've never barbied - bangers and burgers mainly but I might try the prawns...) we've got Sandra Bernhard. She was in Roseanne - which I spotted as a box set on Robyn's desk. She's been trawling through to find a clip of Sandra in the show - but hasn't had any luck. Lucy, though, was the lucky one who got to meet her and will introduce you and us to her later.
Then, more baby animals!!
Damien Steward's going to introduce us to a baby gorilla.
What more could you want? I will want to take it home.
See you before then, at 6, for the full 27 minutes with the Al. Do join.
Alex & Alastair.
