Posts By: Nicky Marr

Jubilee? It passed us by.

The bunting is down Well, it didn’t take long to get that red, white, and blue bunting down, did it? That might be because we didn’t put any up. Did you? If you did, I didn’t see it. The only house I saw that was displaying any patriotic bunting belongs to the (Conservative) councillor who… Read more »

Positive, and positively furious

There’s nothing like following politics to make me feel depressed. No – scratch depressed, I’m furious. We all did it – we stuck to the rules to protect the NHS and save lives, and at great sacrifice. But there was one rule for us, and another for them. They were laughing at us, joking about… Read more »

Scotland’s *real* central belt

Where’s the centre of Scotland? I was ‘one of those kids’ when I was wee; always curious, always asking questions. My Mum tells me my hunger for knowledge could be exhausting. And as the mother of two who inherited my ‘tell me everything’ gene, I can fully sympathise. Where I could turn to Google to… Read more »

Offensive speaker? The role of the event host.

You’ll have heard the one about the journalist who walked out of an awards dinner because she didn’t like the jokes? There’s not a punchline here, because there is no joke. A female sports reporter walked out of an event that left her feeling unwelcome in her own industry, generating a national conversation about what… Read more »

Pity post alert, and apologies.

The freelance life suits me… I make no secret of it, I like being in control. It’s one of the reasons I find a freelance career suits me so well – I get to choose the type of work I do, choose the clients I work with (and those who my gut tells me I… Read more »

Brilliant and beautiful.

Beauty, just for the hell of it. Don’t you just love it when things are more beautiful than they need to be? When I remember to, I look up, especially in our towns and cities. That’s where you see all the ‘twiddly bits’ that architects and designers have added. Sometimes there’s a practical purpose to… Read more »

End of an era for MFR, plus bike rage and ballet

All change at MFR Have you heard the news from MFR? From next month it will be all-change for the ‘North’s Number One’ as Breakfast’s Dan and Grace bow out to make way for Jodie McCluskie. I am thrilled for Jodie – she’s a wonderful woman, a passionate and dedicated broadcaster, and has an ease… Read more »

Vinyl memories, and menopausal hens

Memories in Vinyl We finally did it – the turntable and a couple of hundred-weight of vinyl finally made it down from the loft last weekend, and after a false start with the wrong stylus, Easter Sunday saw us sitting on the floor, raking back through memories as the decades peeled away. Whoever said that… Read more »

Whisky, divorce and the Bridgerton effect

Bickering about best jobs when we’re all winners. It’s rare that I start a broadcast with an argument, but that’s exactly what happened in Speyside last Thursday evening. Picture the scene; me in one chair, two gentlemen to my right. In front of us, a table with six glasses, three containing whiskies. Behind us, a… Read more »

Covid madness, and holiday capers

Cases are up – scrap the masks and tests! We’re just back from a week south of the border, and it was an eye-opener. Because apart from in supermarkets, where compliance was at about 25%, mask-wearing was non-existent. Aside from a dog-eared QR code stuck to a café table, or the occasional grubby-looking sanitisation station… Read more »