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Tonight is the night that the Christmas FM crew finally get a chance to have a get-together and enjoy themselves after “bringing the magic of Christmas” to Dublin and Cork for a month. I’ll be there, as I featured on the station, reading Christmas Stories on Keith Shanley’s Breakfast Show (along with my college classmate and friend Suzanne Scollard) and presenting a show on Christmas morning itself.

The station, which broadcast from the D4 Hotel in Ballsbridge, managed to raise a whopping €70,000 for their most Christmassy of chosen charities, the Simon Communities of Dublin and Cork – an incredible achievement – while helping bring a bit of Christmas spirit and joy to it’s many listeners.

Here’s a brief documentary video (by Jen) about the station, that even features me…

So Christmas is upon us!

In the spirit of the recession, I’m going to recycle this image from a previous post from last year (but the feeling is still there in full!)…

By the way, as you may know if you know me (or if you follow me on twitter!), I’ve been on Christmas FM presenting “Christmas Stories” as part of the Breakfast Show for the past few weeks. Tomorrow, Christmas Day itself, I’m on for a very special show – which I’m presenting myself – from 9 to 10am. I may even go in dressed as Santa Claus! (- like I did in work… see pic below!)

So, if you’re in Dublin or Cork – unwrap your presents with me on your radio! The station is on 100.3FM in Dublin and 106.7FM in Cork. If you’re anywhere else in the world, you can tune in via the web site. You can also read the news team blog there and check out some of the stories we’ve been reading out in the mornings!

A very happy and safe Christmas to you all!

Since my trip to Zakynthos last month (which was originally supposed to be as a summer of work but just ended up as a pretty awesome 2 week holiday), I’ve been meaning to upload a few of the nice photos I took … but just haven’t gotten around to it,.. until now.

I would have taken a lot more photos (and videos) but I felt that a lot of the whole experience was quite private & personal and was best kept in my head as a memory. I was never going to put all of the photos online anyway

… so… eh… yeah! – here’s a few to check out:

So, I’ve… er… decided to go for it!!

After having the idea of flying away on a sun holiday and not coming back – finding a job over there and staying for the summer… I’ve actually gone ahead and booked flights and will be heading out on Saturday June 6th (just over a week away) with a return flight booked two weeks later.

Unfortunately, there were no full packages left for the dates I wanted (I wanted to go as early as possible) and therefore I have flights only – no accommodation sorted out … yet!… although – from what I’m told – that won’t be difficult to find, once I land.

My destination is the Greek island of Zakynthos (or “Zanté”). I chose it because I’ve been there before and it’ll be somewhat familiar to me – and because there’s plenty of bars there (including a good few Irish bars) so finding a job over there might not actually be all that hard.

I’ve been chatting with some people who are over there already (including a girl working in the local radio station) and it’s all been very encouraging so far – with the possibilities of jobs looking like being either a a barman, or – preferably! – a resident DJ in one of the hundreds of bars there (… oh, or both, of course!)

So … yeah! Here I go on an adventure… whether I get to “accidentally on purpose” miss my flight home and it lasts the whole summer has yet to be seen. I already know that if it does, I won’t have a job to come back to – so staying there will have to be worth it, and I’ll have to be able to save a few quid…

Hell, I COULD just spend the two weeks purely a holiday – hop from resort to resort, staying somewhere different every couple of nights, make the usual day-trips (I definitely want to take the boat trip from Porto Vromi to Smugglers Cove beach, and a trip to Zante would be wasted without seeing Kefalonia again)… but doing it PURELY as a holiday… that’s kinda boring! Been there, done that… If the opportunity comes up to stay and work there for the whole summer (and you know I will be looking!)… I’m gonna grab it.

You only live once, and – for once – I’ve nothing to hold me back!

Here’s an idea… now it might be a little bonkers, but bear with me, ok? Thanks… Right! Ok, so I haven’t had a holiday since December of 2007… and that was only a drive down to Westport and back with my then fiancèe who dumped me two short months later.

Since then, I’ve been working hard and studying hard. I could really do with a break away – hell I deserve one!… but I’ve nobody to go with… not that I’m going to get all “boo hoo” about that – it doesn’t matter… I’ll go alone.. but that’s not the bonkers bit… hang on a sec.

My original idea back a few months ago was to go off to Canada or America on a working student Visa (the ould J1) but, for various reasons – including the fact that I’d left it all a bit too late – what with the paperwork and red tape and all, it doesn’t look like that’s a runner.