Last week it was such a refreshing surprise to hear a woman’s voice on Radio 2. Jeremy Vine was off on his hols and Vanessa Feltz was sitting in for him. It had dawned on me a few days earlier that Radio 2 has male presenters on the whole day through; Chris Evans, Ken Bruce, Jeremy Vine, Steve Wright and Simon Mayo. Poor old Vanessa gets the up-at-dawn-slot of 5-7.30am and then the only other female voices heard from then on are giving the traffic news or occasionally reading the news. Janice Long gets midnight. The only female I can think of at peak times is Elaine Paige on Sundays. I’ve even noticed that the male contestants on Ken Bruce’s quiz outnumber females by at least 4 or 5 to one!
Now, I know some of you will be reading this and shaking your heads and muttering “She’s having another rant!” but I’m not. It’s just an observation. And in making such an observation, I’m in very good company.
Writing for Telegraph Wonder Women last week, here’s what Jane Garvey, who has worked in radio for 25 years, said: “Too often, women on radio are parked right up Sidekick Alley: a stooge, an obliging giggler, someone to facilitate the Wildean wit of the Big Man at the controls.”
And she’s right! Why is Radio 2 such a male-dominated station? Why are the women relegated to such roles? I understand that BBC Radio is actively scouting for women in local radio at the moment, which is a start, I suppose. I’d love to have my own radio show. Getting paid for talking – my dream job!!
And while I’m on the subject of presenters, a sideways slide to commentators. Last week I had the most fabulous time at the O2 watching the ATP Finals. It was a wonderful afternoon watching doubles (Paes and Stepanek V Payek and Soares) partly because I’d never realised what a dish Leander Paes is in the flesh, and then, of course, THE MAN – Rafa Nadal V David Ferrer. Now, not only was it great being so near to Rafa, but one of the most enjoyable parts of the afternoon was, I realised as I listened to Andrew Castle’s inane, banal commentary during yesterday afternoon’s semi-final, that when you watch tennis live there’s no commentary!
Why doesn’t the BBC (and other stations, they’re all guilty of it) realise that just because you once played a sport reasonably well, it does NOT make you a commentator? And why is it that only the men are allowed to commentate on men’s matches? Sue Barker – someone who has made the transition from court to studio really successfully – is always relegated to being just the anchor, while throughout the match we listen to the men spouting absolute rubbish. In the end I watched with the sound turned off.
Lovely to see Rafa through, though, whupping Federer in the process and setting up tonight’s final with Djokovic.
Today I also have two Retailer’s Raspberries to award.
The first is to the Co-operative Bank, Southend Branch, where I ordered some foreign currency on Friday and was told it would be ready this morning after 11am. I went in at almost 1pm to be told it wasn’t there. I was not happy. So I said I’d have to cancel it as I couldn’t get back to the bank today. A sour-faced clerk, who was sitting on the cupboards behind the only two cashiers who were seen to be working and twirling a pen (not quite sure what her role was and the queue was almost to the door at this point) sighed and said to the clerk who was serving me that nothing could be done. The clerk then turned back to me with the news. I said that something had to be done and – your wish is my command – at that moment a man in helmet and visor, carrying a security case, entered the bank. Relief all round. And I have to point out that I’m usually served by a very pleasant clerk called Christine who’s always smiling and helpful, not like the two today. But a Raspberry for the Co-op Bank. At busy times, why is a clerk sitting on the cupboards doing nothing? Why have four windows if only two are ever open? Why tell people to come after eleven if the money’s not going to be there? Answers on a postcard, please!
And my second Raspberry goes to APUA (Antigua Public Utilities) for the continual mess up with my account.
You see APUA supplies phone, internet, water and electricity to Avocado Cottage. Almost two years ago the electricity meter stopped working. The window went blank so it was impossible to read it. So for a long time the bill was estimated with the assurance that it would all be sorted out in the long run! As the property became empty in April I informed them and so it was agreed that I would just pay the standing charge of $25 EC for the months the property was empty. I have always dealt with Ms A Goodwin, who has been extremely helpful, efficient and apologetic for the situation. I set up my online banking with ABI and have been transferring money onto my phone, internet, water and electricity accounts every month. Now, I have to say that APUA can, for reasons best know only to themselves, only provide electronic bills for the phone at the moment not for the water or electricity supplies, so the water bill I have to guess at! Last month I had an email from Ms Goodwin saying that the billing department were asking how come if the property was empty that water was being used. I emailed back and said that my neighbour S looks after my garden while I’m away and she waters it every day that it doesn’t rain as to encourage the new plants and trees that we’ve put in during the rainy season.
Then, two weeks ago S informed me that there was a leak, which she immediately sorted out, and so I sent a further email to Ms Goodwin explaining that this also added to the water consumption. She informed the billing department of this, but the bright spark in charge didn’t seem to believe it and so issued an estimated bill for September and October. Please remember that I cannot see these bills as the company can’t produce them online, so I’m supposed to guess that instead of $25 a month for electricity I’m now being billed for $200 a month and that’s only a guess because they can’t read the meter as it’s broken! Given that I’m not a clairvoyant, I didn’t pay enough and so S contacted me on Friday to say that the electricity had been cut off!
Yes – cut off because I haven’t paid a bill that’s been increased without my knowing and without a meter being read because the billing department couldn’t understand how water was being used but not electricity!!! Added to which, the person who disconnected the supply left a large red ‘disconnected’ sticker on the front gate so that the whole neighbourhood – who know that the house is empty – could see the power was off and therefore the alarm system wasn’t working. I don’t know why they didn’t just put an advert in the Antigua Daily Observer!
The wonderful Ms Goodwin has now sorted it out for me and by now (hopefully) the power’s back on. But a whole punnet of Raspberries to APUA!
