Radio Ga Ga, Football Crazy

It has certainly been a while since I 'blogged'! Back in late 2007 when I last posted, the recession was a mere blip on the horizon, not yet having thrown the world's economy into turmoil. Though a few months on in January 2008, I felt the pinch and a sign of things to come when I lost my job in a call centre, creating leads to sell onto mortgage advisors. The housing market was one of the first areas of a fragile economy to implode and we've all been crunched.

Alas, I digress. Now here we are already hurtling through 2009 at light speed and many find themselves struggling to find any form of employment, let alone something in a field that that they are interested in. Having graduated in 2007 and a few months later packed my bags for Bournemouth, I thought it was difficult enough when contacting media companies to get a foot in the door. A new wave of graduates this summer are no doubt going to find things even tougher. It might sound simplistic to say so but those graduating now really do need to assess their options in advance of leaving university if they hope to find suitable employment. Those lucky souls who will leave with 'vocational' degrees (i.e-those that are generally essential and valued in society, such as engineering, teaching etc) will probably be lucky enough to ride the storm and discover that there are an abundance of employers who need their specialised skills. For the rest of them, those like me who studied English for example, they need to hone their CVs, have completed some form of volunteering or work experience already or have something that they can claim as their niche to wave in front of employers to enable them to stand out from the rest of the crowd.

Having presented a few radio shows for the university station in Bangor, I now want to take that experience further. Last July I got involved with Hospital Radio Bedside, a community station for those staying in the Royal Bournemouth, Poole, Poole Maternity, Christchurch and Wimborne hospitals. It's a fantastic opportunity to help those in the local community, gain new skills and give a little something back. I'd recommend Hospital Radio to anyone, there is so many rewarding and fulfilling tasks to carry out that don't just involve being on-air.

This time of year is also a crucial one in domestic and European football. The team I support, Wycombe Wanderers might not be gracing the finest footballing cathedrals of Europe this spring but there is the extremely important matter of a promotion race in England's League 2 (the fourth tier in the national pyramid). For those who take a keen interest in matters further down the ladder, they will know that Wycombe have an unenviable recent history of failing at the last hurdle to clinch promotion. This season has been another rollercoaster, having been 9 points clear at the top at one point, now clawing desperately to the last automatic promotion spot with around 7/8 teams in the mix. This blogger wishes all at WWFC the best of luck and hopefully this will finally be our year. I'm hoping that there will be cause for celebration come the final whistle against Notts County on the last day of the season.