Wednesday, July 29, 2009

You can choose your friends, but...

you can't choose your family, so they say.

And more importantly, you can't choose the occupations that your family members take up.

I love my family, and this is really good because my Mum was one of 6 children and my Dad was one of 4. This means that I have a good helping of aunts and uncles and scores of cousins littered all over the place (Actually, they don't quite make a single score - but 19 is lots still, right?).

And while a couple of these cousins I might not recognise if I bumped into them up the street one day, most of them I have a reasonable amount of contact with from time to time. And even those I might not recognise I still keep up with the big events of their lives via the family telegraph.

But it was a bit of a shock to get a phone call from one of my cousins this morning. He's a producer for our regional ABC radio station. I had the privilege of being the only town planner that he knew (or at least had the phone number to get a hold of at 8am) when he was seeking a short interview about the Southeast Queensland Regional Plan (the new version of which was released last night) and how it might impact on the local area.

And I hadn't read any of it at all.

In fact, I hadn't even watched the news to get the dodgy media version of what changes had been made.

But that's okay, because he only wanted to do an interview at 8.30, so I had plenty of time to educate myself.

Fortunately it was a hospital morning, so I wasn't available to be on the air at that time.

Unfortunately he had the technology to pre-record it.

Fortunately he also had the technology to edit out my waffle as necessary (you might have noticed that I can tend to get a tad verbose at times? Particularly when I have lost my point, or am not exactly certain of my facts).

I know that I had an audience of at least my Beloved and my parents, so what is the chance that I've launched a new career in the media?

... Approximately None!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I particularly liked the dig at said cousin about some people still needing a larger block of land for the growing of roses. Unfortunately most people wouldn't know that said cousin is a rose fanatic so therefore needs a larger block of land.
Mum

Jodie said...

Hehe...what are the chances of you being interviewed again? I'd say significantly higher than 'none'! You were - as we say in radio land - very good talent. And I think rather a few people might have picked up the roses reference :)

Hippomanic Jen said...

Jodie, I'm glad you think I have talent. I did actually catch it in the car while I was finding a park at the hospital and was terribly disturbed by my Queensland habit of ending sentences on the up tone. I hadn't realised that I did it quite that much.

At least it wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be - thanks to Peter for editing it.

And I wasn't late to the hospital - although my shirt didn't get ironed!

Swift Jan said...

WOW!! I have a semi famous friend ;) hehe

Givinya De Elba said...

Not ten minutes ago I was at my sink idly wondering what my new friends Peter and Jodie did for a living. Now I know! That is weird.

I missed your interview! Not surprising really, since I'm missing most of the outside world these days.

By the end of September, there will be 19 cousins on Mr de Elba's side of the family (our kids' generation) - I can vouch for the fact that this is a very big number and makes Christmas Day a huge circus.

Peter said...

Jen, you sounded great. And the rose comment didn't go unnoticed ;)

Although 'horsies' would have sounded cooler.

Allegro ma non troppo said...

Wow! Any chance you could transcribe it on your blog?

Anonymous said...

Oh, a famous bloggy friend! I am impressed!