Podcasts about grampian

Jim Tracy, known as the Grampion, shares his journey from a family man to a successful businessman and philanthropist. Jim discusses the origin of his nickname, his passion for flying, and how he built his company from the ground up. He emphasizes the importance of giving back through nonprofit work, living an audacious life, and fostering a positive workplace culture. Jim also highlights the significance of character, mentorship, and embracing uncertainty in business, while sharing insights on overcoming fears and the value of generous listening.https://thegrampion.com/https://www.barnesandnoble.com/noresults/97816369858798TzmjI_oO93OErvqen4Want to be a guest on Stories from Real Life? Send Melvin Edwards a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/storiesfromreallife. www.podcastreallife.comKeywordsJim Tracy, Grampian, business, mentorship, flying, nonprofit, character, culture, uncertainty, leadershipChapters00:00 Introduction to Jim Tracy, The Grampian02:58 The Origin of the Grampian Name06:07 Flying High: From Cessna to Jet08:54 Building a Business from the Ground Up11:54 Giving Back: The Importance of Nonprofits15:12 Living an Audacious Life18:08 The Curator of Culture: Building Relationships21:06 Embracing Uncertainty in Business23:53 The Importance of Character and Mentorship26:58 Conquering Fears and Building Men30:07 Management by Cliché32:59 Generous Listening and Workplace Dynamics35:58 Final Thoughts and Advice

#OzWatch: Only the Grampian Fire for now. Barbecue on Christmas Day. Jeremy Zakis, New South Wales. #FriendsofHistoryDebatingSociety https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/bushfire-warnings-scaled-down-after-cool-change-reduces-bushfire-threat-20241227-p5l0sm.html 1933 Queensland

Residents in Bellellen, Bellfield, Black Range, Borough Huts, Fyans Creek, Illawarra, Lake Fyans, Lake Lonsdale, Ledcourt, Mokepilly, Mount Dryden, Pomonal and Roses Gap are urged to leave immediately.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Grampian residents have been told to evacuate as emergency services battle a raging bushfire threatening properties as Victoria braces for extreme temperatures.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week's Stooshie focuses on the political questions for gun control in the wake of the Skye shooting spree, which ended in court last week. We hear from P&J investigations reporter Dale Haslam for the inside story. We also speak to Labour MP Graeme Downie about his hopes to restart talks to bring back the ferry link between Rosyth and Europe. And we look at the budget crisis engulfing NHS services, including troubled Grampian health board.

From Scotland to Georgia, this week's episode covers a lot of ground. We get to grips with Labour's shaky start, Dundee election setbacks and winter fuel payment woes. We discuss our exclusive reporting on the human cost of long waits for breast cancer surgery and reconstruction in Grampian. And we speak to Arbroath and Broughty Ferry MP Stephen Gethins on why political unrest in Georgia, on the border of Russia, matters here.  

Will it be another Egg-cellent quiz for Jessica in Stoke-on-Trent and Suzie in Grampian.

Brexit is three years old. Is this time to celebrate or commiserate? We listened to one Aberdeenshire fishing industry figure who says the 'poster boys' have been let down. And we discuss the latest economic pressures hitting health boards including Grampian and Tayside.

Avah is 12 and looking for a way to make extra money for the Christmas season. Rather than stare into the abyss and wallow in self pity she has decided she would like to bring Christmas excitement to young kids around the area. She is asking $20 per visit ($25 if you would like her to leave behind Grinch dust for your children). She will spend 5-7 minutes creeping around the outside of your home while your kids watch with excitement. She will creep around and peek in windows, from behind trees and bushes and can also pretend to steal your Christmas pantookas, dafflers, and wuzzles (don't worry, they will be placed neatly on the side of your house). She plans to even leave a Grinchy gift behind! For her safety she will not enter any homes. Everything will be done outside. If you would like pictures with the Grinch, that is great. But keep in mind they will need to be taken outside and she will not be able to communicate by voice. Instead she will find other creative ways to interact with your children. If you would like to share pictures of your interaction with the Grinch please use the hashtag #GrinchedbyAvah . She would love to see the pictures you have taken

National Statistician, Sir Ian Diamond, joins Miles in a slightly festive episode of Statistically Speaking, to look back on some of the highlights and challenges for the ONS in 2022 while gazing positively, but objectively, towards 2023.    TRANSCRIPT    MILES FLETCHER  Hello, and as another statistical year draws to an end you join us for a slightly festive episode of Statistically Speaking.   I'm Miles Fletcher and with me this time is the national statistician himself, Sir Ian Diamond. We're going to pick out some of the key stats from another momentous year. Talk about some of its highlights and the challenges faced by the Office for National Statistics. We'll gaze positively, but objectively, into 2023 and Sir Ian will be answering some of the questions that you our listeners wanted us to ask.   Ian, welcome once again to statistically speaking.    IAN DIAMOND  First, thanks very much for that introduction. And can I offer festive greetings to all of your listeners?    MILES  Yes, it's come around again quickly, hasn't it? So much to talk about from the past year, but let's kick off with a very big number in every sense, and that's 59,597,542    IAN  ...is the population of England and Wales according to the census, and one, which I have to say is one of the greatest censuses that has ever been undertaken. And it's just an absolute thrill to commend my colleagues who have worked so hard to deliver it but also to every citizen of England and Wales who filled in those forms in 2021, and of course, those in Northern Ireland as well.    MILES  Now, you had to press the button, both on the decision to have that field operation go out in March 2021, against the backdrop of the pandemic, and then of course, to sign off on the results. How difficult were those decisions?    IAN  Well, I'm not going to say it was difficult Miles, I mean, it was a difficult decision, but if you surround yourself with all the information, so before we took the decision to go with a 2021 census, we looked at all the upsides, all the downsides. We measured the risks. We looked at the cost of delaying and we looked at the chance that we would get a decent count, and whether people were looking like they were now prepared to fill in forms, which have a whole set of risks. Was there an algorithm that told us what to do? I'm afraid there isn't an algorithm at the end of the day, I had to make a decision. I made that decision in collaboration with my colleagues. It was a decision we took together, and I think in every way it was the right decision. And it was a real privilege for me to work with the team in March and April, as we looked at the numbers, and for the first time, and I think it's a really important milestone, that for the very first time we shared our results with the local authorities. I have always believed that you need to involve the people on the ground to sense check the numbers and so for the first time ever, we invited local authorities to be part of the quality assurance process. So we contacted them under a nondisclosure agreement. You have access to the numbers, let's have a conversation and then we can co-create the numbers so that we all feel comfortable and local authorities to their great credit, really embraced this opportunity to co-create what was a great piece of work. We believe that helped, that the numbers that we were able to produce, we felt we had much more traction. And so it really was a national effort to produce those numbers. And I'm very proud of them.    MILES  In hindsight, and of course, it's easy to look at things in hindsight, but did you think it helped that essentially there was a captive audience?     IAN  Not at all. I completely disagree. I think the reason for the high numbers wasn't a captive audience. Let's remember that a very high proportion of the population were not able to lock down, they had to go out to work. The reason I think that we got high numbers was because of three reasons. Number one, engagement. A massive programme of engagement with different communities, which really, really, really meant that people in different communities of our country understood why we were asking, what the reasons were, in a way that perhaps hadn't happened before, and critically to say to people, if you give us your data we're not going away. We'll be back. And there's now a programme of going back and sharing those data for particular communities with them. So that's the first reason. The second reason was, I've always said that censuses are nine tenths logistics and 1/10 statistics and I felt that the logistics here were absolutely right. And moving to an online first model was incredibly important, it made it very easy for people to respond. You could respond on your way to work on your mobile phone. That's an awful lot easier than having someone knock on your door with a big form. And so I think that worked. And then a final piece was after the day having really good management information, which really enabled us to understand where our coverage was higher and lower, and then to target our field workers in a way that we've never been able to before. Historically when I did censuses, for example the 1981 census, every enumerate had a small area, they walked around, they found people within that area. But we were able to say right, we need more people in a particular area, less people in another area, so we were moving them around, maximising the resources and maximising the count.    MILES  Okay, so what do you think are the biggest takeaways on the data we've released so far?    IAN  I think some of the work around the ageing of our country is really important, but not just the ageing of our country because let's be honest, ageing is associated with demand for services. And what we show very clearly is a changing geography of ageing. Now, that's an ongoing situation. So if you look at the proportion of over 65s, it's a very different proportion of over 85s and so there is clearly a new internal migration which gives in some areas, for example, mid Wales and Cambridgeshire, a new demographic to think about for services over time. So here's a really interesting point about the geography of ageing, while noting that some of it is pretty traditional, the south coast of England remains a place with high levels of older people. Seaton in Devon, with the highest proportion of people over 90 in the country is an area which already knows that it has a high demand for services. Other places will be coming along, and I think that's the first thing to say. The second thing I would note Miles is the changing demographic of where people were born. And certainly we are able to reflect some of that in the work but also again to look at the geography of where different people are living. And that's important. And also, for the first time ever, we have asked questions on veterans, and I think that was a really, really interesting piece of information. I must admit that the age distribution initially looks a little surprising, because for men, almost everybody is a veteran over the age of 80 because of national service, and that goes down, but we now have the ability to identify both the geography and the age distribution of veterans and it was noticeable that the highest proportions of veterans tended to be in places with military bases, Richmond Shire, in Yorkshire, which is near to Catterick or Portsmouth near the Navy areas. That says to us that they are obviously, and I'm not saying it's surprising, but people who have been in the military tend to end up staying around the areas where perhaps they have been based, but actually being able to do that and then following that up with a survey, a survey of veterans to understand their circumstances and the services they need, and also their families, I think is really super important that I have to say that that survey which went out after the results of the census were published, and we were able to launch them on the same day with the Ministry of Veterans Affairs Johnny Mercer has been an incredibly successful survey. Great response. And we're just in the process now of analysing those data. And that's something to look out for in the new year.    MILES  And plenty more census data still to come. Of course,    IAN  Well, yes. And of course, the data will be available now for an analysis by anyone. And that's really exciting,    MILES  Well worth pointing out as well. Okay, here's another big number for you. 11.1%     IAN  Is inflation.     MILES  That was the figure in October, it's recently dropped down to 10.7.    IAN  You don't really understand inflation until you actually get down to what's driving it and what the components are. And so, we spend an enormous amount of time looking at the components to understand them. So this drop to temporary 7% In the most recent data is driven by a reduction in fuel costs, with fuel prices going down, I mean it's still too expensive don't get me wrong but they're going down a bit, and at the same time that has been offset by increases in alcohol prices at hotels, restaurants, and pubs. And so all put together, yes it's a drop, but not an enormous drop, and still a significant rise compared with the same month last year.    MILES  Now there's been a fascinating and very public debate over the cost of living of course, and particularly over the relevance and validity of headline inflation measures, CPI or CPIH. A preferred measure on the one hand, and on the other hand, the actual experience of people seeing the cost of their weekly shopping shooting up much faster than the official rate, which is just an average of course, would suggest.    IAN  I think it's an important point. I had a very good conversation with a number of influencers in this area. And I think it is important to recognise that what one is asked to do, and we are statutorily responsible for producing an inflation statistic that is an average at the end of the day, and it's based on a basket of goods, and that basket gets changed every year to reflect buying patterns. So with a pandemic, we were more relaxed Miles and you would be sitting opposite me just wearing a jumper instead of a three-piece suit, it means that we took men's suits out of the basket this year, but that's an average. The point that people have asked is does that average reflect what's going up for all groups of society? What about those people who are at the poorer end of society and whose budget only allows them to buy the least priced goods and that's why we put together a least price index and one that's based on what might be called the value goods that Supermarkets sell. And if we look at those we found that the average price there was not unlike the overall inflation, but again, an enormous amount of heterogeneity on the various prices. The highest increase in the most recent products was for vegetable oil, of course, driven by the issues associated with Russia and Ukraine and the difficulties of the Ukrainian farms which drive so much of that area. On the other hand, beef mince and orange juice went down relatively. So there was heterogeneity, inflation was high, but let me be very clear, not unlike the overall inflation in the country as a whole on the average.    MILES  The important point here being that everyone's rate of inflation, of course is slightly different and we have a means now of allowing people to find out exactly what their personal rate is don't we.    IAN  For those people who want to have a really close look at their budget, the personal inflation calculator which people can use and that personal inflation calculator has been massively used. We had a very good partnership with the media - BBC, The Guardian - for it to be widely available. And indeed, in the first 24 hours or so of it being available on the BBC website, over a million people used it - over a million people accessing ONS data.    MILES  And you can find that out of course by visiting ons.gov.uk and calculate your own personal rate of inflation there.    Of course, when we think about money, we inevitably think about work and that brings us on to the figures around the labour market. And one rather sombre area of the Labour Force Survey that's been the focus of again, a lot of attention this year, is the increasing number of people deemed to be economically inactive, perhaps very often because of long term sickness. Now, what do you make of that?    IAN  Economically inactive is not just people who are on sick, I mean there has been a steady move initially from those over age 50 to inactivity, and that means that they are reporting that they are not in work, nor are they looking for work. We've called it a bit of a flourish, that flight from the labour force of the over 50s is a real trend and a real worry for the economy, given the skills that those people hold, and we've done two surveys of the over 50s to understand why they have left the labour force and what might tempt them back in. 500,000 over 50s leaving the labour force, though it's only a very rough indicator, if you don't replace them somehow, and with every 100,000 people being around 0.1 of GDP full time equivalents, and that's 0.5 on the GDP. It's as simple as that. The other point I would make that I think is important is another real concern for the labour force. Just in the last few weeks we have started to see just a hint of an increase in inactivity amongst the 16 to 24s. That is important because if it were to continue it is normally an indicator of challenges in the labour force and when 16 to 24s are saying I don't have a job and I'm looking for one it tends to be because there isn't one around. And so I do think that there is an issue again for us to keep a laser focus on these numbers as we go into 2023.    MILES  Okay, so we've mentioned GDP and of course, there's been a lot of focus again on the level of GDP and whether the economy is in so called recession or expanding or whatever. Let's not get into that in any great detail now, but it's worth pointing out that alongside GDP, the ONS has been trying for some time now to broaden its focus on what matters in terms of wellbeing, both socially and economically. And to produce a more comprehensive picture of what's going on, aside from that very raw, basic GDP estimate. Can you tell us a little bit about what's developed on that front this year?    IAN  I think that's a really interesting point. We, as other parts of the world's national statistical institutes have been saying, well, actually, there is much more to our gross domestic product than just what comes strictly from the economy. And so we have been working on the environment and natural capital and building that into our overall estimates. And we're now also working on some things that I have been thinking about for a long time and I'm very excited that we are going to be able to work on that. And that is to look at in many ways at the human capital that we have, and how that is being effectively used. If you are spending six hours a day, shall we say, caring for your elderly parent and perhaps your grandchildren, then are you being productive or not? And of course, the answer is you're being incredibly productive. Or if you are, as a neighbour of mine is, working a couple of evenings or a couple of afternoons a week at a homeless shelter in Somerset, then are you being productive in that volunteering? 100% yes. And so I think it is important that we build these extra pieces in now. Is this point about human capital, is this new? Well, the great, famous Nobel Prize winner Richard Stone wrote in his Nobel lecture about this, I made some suggestions, but at that time I would submit that it was actually quite hard to build the models in the way that one would want to. One could do the algebra, but it would kind of drop out after a while. Whereas now with numerical estimation, we can really move forward in an effective way and I'm looking forward to 2023 being a year when we really push forward with those models, and really build the human capital. And most importantly, alongside that, the wellbeing. Wellbeing is a much more complex indicator, and we have a consultation out at the moment which I see coming into fruition in 2023 around the measurement of our wellbeing. We talk about the increasing proportion of elderly and I think it is also important to think about that in the context of how are people ageing. Now, let me just give you a statistic, Miles. If I looked in 1951 at the age at which 1% of men had a probability of dying, that'd be about 50. If I looked at it now, it's 65. So 65 is the new 50. And you can look at things in all kinds of ways like that, but that original idea is that of the great demographer James Vaupel. And this 65 is the new 50 is absolutely brilliant, but, and this is the nub of this, it needs to be healthy ageing. It comes back to that point about inactivity, what are we doing to enable people to feel that they can age healthily and therefore be productive whether that is through traditional paid employment or through other issues such as volunteering, that's something we will be spending a lot of time over the next little while estimating.    MILES  You mentioned ageing and on the topic of health in 2022, the introduction of what some may view as the GDP of health and that is the Health Index for England. Another important piece of work that's been going on here.    IAN  What the Health Index allows us to do is to get down to the local levels and we've got a pilot with colleagues in Northumberland, Director of Public Health up there to go down to sub local areas. And I think the important thing to recognise is the geographical difference here in levels of health. It's interesting to look at the national level, we need to look at the geography, expectations of life at birth for men in Glasgow City are 14 or 15 is less than expectations of life for men in places like Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea, you know, that's a real issue. When I worked in Scotland, the Director of Public Health for Grampian region put out some statistics which showed within Aberdeen the difference between the two wards, probably seven or eight miles apart was 16, a full 16 years. Those are the kinds of differentials that I think we need to understand more, we would all agree it is a priority to reduce those inequalities in health. And it seems to me there is a challenge for us to understand that and to reduce those inequalities.    MILES  Okay, so we've talked about health, personal wellbeing, economic wellbeing as well. Now there's an additional element of attention for the ONS now, and that's been the environment and particularly monitoring progress towards net zero emissions by 2050 and to help with that ONS has contributed to the official climate change portal, which you can view at climate-change.data.gov.uk. Here's a statistic from that, in 2021 84% of our energy still came from non-renewable sources.    IAN  And that's what we need to continue to measure. And clearly the focus on energy and energy supply has increased this year as a result of the conflict in Ukraine. And we over the next while need to make sure that we have very accurate data on sources of energy. And our job is to monitor that in an effective and efficient way. And we will do that.    MILES  Now, we mentioned to some of our podcast listeners, we'd be speaking to you today and asked them to come up with their own questions on topics they'd like to put to you.   So let's kick off with this one from Professor Athina Vlachantoni, from the University of Southampton no less, who asks: What's the most intriguing number or statistic you've come across during your time as national statistician?    IAN  One of the most interesting I would have to say, was the very first number that we got from the COVID infection survey, because we had to look at it very, very, very carefully, to make sure going back to an individual level, to look at the amount of virus in each positive case, so that we were sure that we did not have a high number of false positives. And what that showed, and when we linked it in with our questions about symptoms, was the number of asymptomatic cases. And I found that really, really interesting. On a lighter note, the data that we get from credit card and debit card sales. On July 21, I think it was in 2021, “Freedom Day” as it was called, when people were able to go to the pub we saw a spike in sales in pubs but we were also able to identify whether those sales were in person or online. We've been monitoring online sales during the pandemic very carefully. And I was really surprised to see a spike in sales in pubs with the person not present. I was wondering whether there were people down the street, you know, with very long straws. Of course, what I hadn't realised is that in some pubs now, you can get an app for your beer and it arrives as if by magic at your table. And so it was a learning experience for me that it was possible for large numbers of people to enjoy a drink, while apparently not being at the pub.    MILES  Well, that's a lovely example of fast digital data contributing towards incredible insight, which the ONS is now able to access. But actually it leads nicely on to our next question which comes from Sam Smith, from Cambridge, who asks: Hhat are the longer-term opportunities and threats to the public from the use of safe settings and the Integrated Data Service? Now that's a question that's essentially about security and the ethical use of data for the public good.    IAN  Sam, that's a really super question and something that we're absolutely passionate about. Firstly, using data positively on the lives of our fellow citizens is what we're here for, and therefore we recognise at all times that we use data with the implicit permission of the public. So the first answer I would say to Sam is that we are absolutely committed to public engagement, transparency to make sure people know what we're doing, how we're doing it. And we don't just talk about data, but what are we going to use it for, and how is it going to be used and can you find out how it has been used. These are really, really important questions and public engagement and involving the public in our decision making is important. Secondly, when we build something like the Integrated Data Service, we are very, very careful about the security and we work very closely with the top security people across government to make sure that we have the highest levels of security so that all the data doesn't need to be in one place. We are able to bring the data we need from different places so that we're not, if you like, moving large amounts of data around and forming data lakes, that is not what we do. Thirdly, we are very, very careful about how people can use the data and how they can access the results. So we work very carefully to make sure that those results have no way for people to impact on the privacy and our data can only be used by approved people and the projects on which they work on have to go through an ethical committee and have to go through a research approvals panel. We call this process “the 5 safes” and we believe that that does enable us to be able to look any member of the public in the eye and say that we are taking every precaution with your data, but at the same time, the proof of the pudding has to be in the eating and the public have to be able to see, I would argue, how those data have been used and how there are real concrete examples of how the lives of them or their fellow citizens have been improved by the use of linked administrative data.    MILES  Final question. This comes from Jennifer Boag from Scotland - clue there - and she asks: Do you have confidence that the work being done to retrieve Scotland's census will give us reliable UK wide statistics, so that Scotland's data will be comparable with the rest of the UK?      IAN  Well, thanks, Jennifer, for that. A census is a process and we are seeing that our colleagues in Scotland working on the Census have now got the ability to use the data they collected as well as the coverage survey, and now the administrative data, to be able to bring those three sources together into a reliable estimate of the population. I would just like to thank Professor James Brown and the international steering group for the very hard work that they've been putting in providing very strong steers on what should we do. And my position at the moment is that we can expect, if everything goes well, to see some reliable Scottish data during 2023. And we at the ONS are working extremely hard to make sure that we can roll forward our data in a way that means that we will have the 22 best estimates for the whole of the UK which we can put our hand on heart and say that we trust. We're not there yet. I believe we can get there. And I will do everything in my power to ensure that we do.    MILES  Data from Scotland on the way then, and more data from England and Wales still to come, but also in 2023 a decision on whether the UK Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland perhaps will have censuses in future?    IAN  Well not a decision on all four because undertaking a census isn't independent that Scotland and Northern Ireland will take their own view, as will Wales. Currently we do the census for Wales with our colleagues in Wales, but at the end of the day it is a Welsh Government decision for that to happen. We in the ONS will be making a recommendation to our board and through them a recommendation to Parliament as to whether we believe that we can produce regular population estimates and the multivariate data that comes with them in a way that means that we will not have need to have another census in 2031. I mean, I would say that we're able to do this and there's an enormous amount of work going on. And that's a real major breakthrough because while I'm passionate about censuses and a census is an incredibly beautiful and wonderful thing, I would have to say that it is out of date as soon as you've done it, and therefore being able to have regular estimates would be a breakthrough rather than simply rolling forward and we can't hide from the fact that as you roll forward and you get further rolling forward, it becomes much more difficult at the local area level to make those estimates. And so I am really excited about that decision and will be consulting during 2023 on where we have got to, which of course also brought about a statutory responsibility to see whether we can make local estimates of average income, and we will continue to look at that as well. So I think it's an exciting 2023 with regard to the future of the census.   Miles, it's been a real pleasure. Thank you very much, and I look forward to another opportunity to join this podcast in the future. Thank you.    MILES   Well, that's it for another episode of Statistically Speaking and if you're one of the people who collectively browsed the ONS website 21,809 times on Christmas Day last year, rest assured that this year you'll be able to access every single one of our podcasts from 2022 directly from the homepage now on the ONS website.   And as always, you can subscribe to future episodes on Spotify, Apple podcasts and all the other major podcast platforms. Do also please follow us on the @ONSfocus Twitter feed.   I'm Miles Fletcher and from myself, our producer Steve Milne, and the whole of the Office for National Statistics, have a very Merry Christmas.    ENDS 

Scott is joined by Kenny Boag and Robbie Hanratty from the Anyone's Game podcast to look back on another exciting weekend of Women's Football in Scotland. Rangers booked their place in Round 2 of Champions League qualifying with an impressive 4-0 away win against Greek side PAOK. In SWPL1, Celtic were convincing 4-0 winners at home to Spartans and there was also key victories for Hamilton and Motherwell away from home in tight contests. In SWPL2, St Johnstone are the only team with a 100% winning start as they defeated Stirling Uni 3-1 away from home and there were also victories for Boroughmuir Thistle, Gartcairn and Montrose. The SWF Championship already looks to be a competitive league with no side on maximum points after 2 games as Livingston, Rossvale, Ayr & Hutchison Vale all winning on Sunday. In League One, Stenhousemuir, Falkirk and Weatdyke all picked up their second straight victories and there was also convincing wins for Grampian, FC Edinburgh and Giffnock in Matchday 2. Join us on our exclusive Scottish Women's Football as we speak to some of the biggest names, managers and players in the league on a regular basis as well as reviewing the action in the leagues in the SWPL & SWF. Never miss a moment, podcast or article on SM Media as you can follow us below on all our platforms. Website - https://thesmmediaent.wordpress.com/ YouTube - https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCO40v_nSWgc6WjmzF4IR68g Twitter - https://twitter.com/SMMediaEnt?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SMMediaEnt/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/smmediaent/?hl=en iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/sm-media/id1528862527 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1iPnMJSgUPj4f0U58DHI9J?si=iVlyktAZTlOcDLPBvbLhzQ SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/fD17rkT6o5NNVaPj7

Mark Stephen presents Scotland Outdoors

Our Special Guest this week is Marc Van Grieken MSc FLI, Landscape Architect, Chair of the Landscape Institute's Technical Committee. Decisions of the Week: Decision of Minister for Housing dated 7th June 2022 dismissing a recovered appeal by Island Gas Ltd, in accordance with the inspector's recommendation, for drilling & testing of hydrocarbons at EP1 Well at Ellesmere Port Wellsite, Cheshire raising questions around energy, shale gas & climate change policy, WMSs & NPPF, effects on mental health. Decision of an inspector dated 13 June 2022 allowing an appeal by David Wilson Homes against the refusal of Charnwood Borough Council for 170 dwellings & granting outline permission on open arable land on the southern edge of Sileby, a service centre. No 5 yr HLS, NPPF 11(d) applicable, emerging local plan, loss of BMV, impact on character & appearance. Decision of an inspector dated 14 June 2022 dismissing an appeal by a landowner against the decision of Mansfield District Council to refuse permission for up to 204 dwellings on greenfield land raising issues around ecology & biodiversity in particular nature conservation & support for Priority Habitats & Species and BNG. Decision of an inspector dated 15th June 2022 allowing an appeal against the decision of North Somerset Council for up to 100 dwellings on land adjoining but outside the settlement boundary, occupied by agricultural buildings & one house at Yatton, a service centre near Bristol. Neighbourhood plan, issues around 5 yr HLS, emerging now local plan, location & scale of development, impact on ecology & biodiversity & Grampian conditions.

Will is back, and not a minute too soon as this week sees a bumper episode of Balls & Whistles! We kick off this week's show with a look at the Loch Ness Marathon, which is back for the first time in two years after the pandemic forced its cancellation last year, where over 7500 runners will be taking part in the Festival of Running. For the SPFL teams, it is a similar story to previous episodes. Inverness Caledonian Thistle are still unbeaten at the top of the Championship, and Ross County are still looking for their first win in the Premiership - but are we at the point in the season where Caley Thistle fans can dream of the title and Staggies supporters should be worried? Nairn County certainly are worried after drawing 3-3 with Fort William midweek, keeping them near the bottom of the Highland League. Ronnie Sharp has a job on his hands at Station Park, as does Clachnacuddin with table toppers Fraserburgh heading to Grant Street, while Brora Rangers are putting in their final preparations for the North of Scotland Cup final. It has also been a busy week in women's football. Clach Women are gearing up for their own cup final against Sutherland in the Highlands and Islands Cup, a week after ICT Development took the league crown from them. ICT's senior squad lived up to the hype of making their Caledonian Stadium debut last time out too, beating Grampian 12-2. Kinlochshiel made history last month with their first ever Camanachd Cup victory, but can they complete the set and add a second trophy to their collection in 2021? Caberfeidh will be desperately hoping to stop them to reach the final of the MacTavish Cup themselves if they can shore up their defence. There's also just enough time for a brief rundown of Highland, Ross Sutherland and Inverness Craig Dunain Rugby Club's fixtures this weekend. If you like what you're hearing please rate and review Balls & Whistles to help other people find us, and why not get in touch with questions or feedback on Twitter (@Balls_Whistles) or by emailing ballsandwhistles@hnmedia.co.uk, and thanks as always are due to Forest Fires for our theme song: Scared of the Dark.

Graham was until the end of August 2021, the Managing Director of Glencraft (Aberdeen) Ltd and Glencraft Luxury, having been appointed earlier in 2015. Glencraft were awarded the accolade of the Best Social Enterprise in the UK in 2015 as part of the UK Private Business Awards. A Corporate Banker by profession, he holds a BA (Hons) in Finance and is a Fellow of the CIOBS. He has over 35 years experience in all aspects of company management and business strategy within professional services and financial sectors. He has operated at Board level for a number of companies and is a former MD and founding director of an HR company. He is an avid story-teller and has a natural ability to deliver a message via his on-stage presentations. Key strengths are business development, change management and leadership skills. He was nominated for EY Entrepreneur of The Year in 2018 as recognition for the innovative changes brought to Glencraft. Graham is also Regional Director of the Year 2019 and 2020 for Aberdeen and Grampian, recognised by the Institute of Directors in consecutive years. He was a finalist for Director of the Year – International, again via the IoD for 2020. Glencraft have recently been awarded The Queen's Award for Enterprise in the 2021 award lists. www.glencraft.luxury Graham on Linked In

Welcome to Episode 3 of the Gobble De-Clutch Podcast, with Sion Ellis and Tom Magnay.Sion and Tom chew the fat on all things automotive, with a massive dose of motorsport.In the third episode, Tom visits Sion's Dolgellau garage, to take a look at his current collection of cars, including customer project cars belonging to the singers John Newman and Sigala. Also in discussion today: Caffeine and Machine, a Dalmatian riding a bike, the guys chat about the Grampian and Ypres Rallies and a man called Fast Freddy.You can follow our sponsors:Allycat WheelsWeb: https://allycatwheels.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/allycatwheels/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6HoYjkSBdYpxxW97-EOYCwBlendLine ApparelWeb: https://blendline.co.ukInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/blend_line/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9RiTzzveCoc79wGbtdcLww#gobbledeclutch #podcast #blendlineapparel #allycatwheels Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Graham is the Managing Director of Glencraft (Aberdeen) Ltd and Glencraft Luxury, a social enterprise, providing dignity through work to their disadvantaged staff.Glencraft were awarded the highest of the ‘Best Social Enterprise in the UK' in 2015 as part of the UK Private Business Awards. Glencraft is also the proud recipient of the Queen's Award for Enterprise – Promoting Opportunity, 2021. They also hold an impressive Royal Warrant.Graham's plan is to have ‘Glencraft' around for another 170 years and employ more people. He'd love to be able to employ 10 more disadvantaged people next year.A Corporate Banker by profession, Graham has over 35years experience in company management & business strategy within professional services & financial sectors.  He has operated at Board level for several companies and is involved in several charitable organisations.  He was nominated for EY Entrepreneur of The Year in 2018 as recognition for the innovative changes brought to Glencraft.  Graham is also Regional Director of the Year 2019 and 2020 for Aberdeen and Grampian, recognised by the Institute of Directors in consecutive years.  graham.mcwilliam@glencraft.co.uk – business Twitter handle is @Glencraft1843 https://www.linkedin.com/company/glencraft-luxury-mattresses/mycompany/01224 873366 – business 0777 5905857 – mobi   Sylvia Baldock has been transforming lives from the tender age of 13 when she ran a youth group for deprived teenagers in Glasgow, Scotland.Throughout her varied career from Theatre Sister in Open heart Surgery to a Masterclass Facilitator, Speaker, Business Mentor/Coach and Author, Sylvia has inspired and motivated thousands of people to recognise the unique value they bring to the workplace and to live a life of purpose and impact by Becoming More Significant.Sylvia works with Leaders, Aspiring Leaders, Teams and Individuals who want to increase visibility, credibility, confidence, clarity, communication, collaboration, motivation, productivity and growth.If you would like to know how you can Become More Significant right now, book a 20 minute free coaching call on https://calendly.com/sylviabaldock/1-2-1-discovery-call or by emailing  sylvia@sylviabaldock.comSylvia Baldock    07909 914815  sylvia@sylviabaldock.com   http://www.sylviabaldock.comhttp://www.facebook.com/sylvia.baldock http://twitter.com/Sylviabaldockhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/sylviabaldockhttps://instagram.com/sylvia.baldockhttp://www.youtube.com/user/sylviabaldock

Karyn chats us through the deteriorating patient, what to look for and how to treat these patients and the PEWS score system and function    Top Tips     1) Remember that you are assessing a point in time   2) Be very aware of where they have been and where you think they are going when carrying out the examination  2) If you think the child is ok to return home, coach the family so that they know what to look for and how to access the necessary healthcare if things change    Resources and links:  Paediatric Early Warning Score (PEWS)  https://www.clinicalguidelines.scot.nhs.uk/nhsggc-paediatric-clinical-guidelines/nhsggc-guidelines/surgery/paediatric-early-warning-score-pews/  ScotSTAR paediatric Retrieval Service  https://www.snprs.scot.nhs.uk/    Dr Karyn Webster is a GP primarily; she works in Forth Valley Emergency Department as a Senior Specialist and is the current Forth Valley GP Out of Hours clinical lead. She also teaches regularly with Basics Scotland and has developed the Adult and Paediatric Tele-education program.  In addition to this she is the current Chair for the Pre-hospital Paediatric Life Support Group run by ALSG and is a course director for both PHPLS and APLS. Passionate about education and support for our Pre-hospital providers.   Her career started off in Grampian and quickly evolved into a mix of general practice and emergency medicine with an interest in remote and emergency care. Heavily involved in tele-medicine delivering healthcare to the remote areas of Grampian without the need for travel and later supporting Oil Rig platforms and Ship to Shore work.   Her twitter handle is @kittyabdn  

Chapters00:00 - Introduction00:27 - A Background in Chemistry03:26 - Setting Up A Repair Service 04:55 - Specialising In Ribbon Microphones07:58 - Dispelling Ribbon Microphone Myths 10:48 - The Extinct Audio BM911:52 - Launching The Business14:34 - A General Purpose Microphone 15:57 - Stories Behind The Scenes17:05 - Future Plans19:21 - EndingStewart Tavener BiogStewart Tavener first became interested in audio equipment in his teens, recording with a four track tape recorder and a couple of borrowed microphones, which included an old Reslo PR and a Shure dynamic. It wasn't long before he broke the Reslo but he held on to it with the aim of repairing it one day. As the internet grew in popularity in the mid 90s, a few groups dedicated to old audio equipment appeared and Stewart received good advice from a number of fellow enthusiasts, including Dave Royer and Mark ‘Marik' of Samar audio.On learning the basics, Stewart started to look for other microphones to fix. Up until the 1970s the UK had some excellent audio manufacturers including Reslo, Grampian, Film Industries, STC and Lustraphone, but these companies had not been able to compete with new products from AKG and Shure. With no spare parts available these old ribbon mics were available for little cost and Stewart purchased as many as he could. This hobby eventually became a full time job in 2007, when he set up Xaudia to repair microphones for other owners. Over the next few years, he repaired and upgraded ribbon mics every day and estimates having worked on 400 to 500 microphones each year for ten years.In 2017, Adam Watson came on board and together they launched their own range of microphones under the Extinct Audio brand. These new microphones would be redesigned from scratch and manufactured locally. Most of the parts are made in the workshop in York, or by an engineering partner in Manchester, while the packaging is created by another UK company. All of the assembly for Extinct Audio microphones is carried out in-house.https://www.extinctaudio.co.uk/http://xaudia.com/Drew Stephenson BiogDrew Stephenson is a singer-songwriter, home recording enthusiast and occasional SOS contributor. He also looks after digital communications for one of the largest UK building societies, specialising in corporate podcasts, animations and video content.http://www.drewstephenson.com/

Karyn talks us through what constitutes child abuse and what we can do to assess and manage the situation.     Top Tips:  1)  If you think there is something wrong, think why   2)  communicate these concerns early  3)  Know your local procedures and pathways     Resources:  National Guidance for child protection in Scotland  https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-guidance-child-protection-scotland/pages/3/  Getting it right for every child  https://www.gov.scot/policies/girfec/    Biography Dr Karyn Webster is a GP primarily; she works in Forth Valley Emergency Department as a Senior Specialist and is the current Forth Valley GP Out of Hours clinical lead. She also teaches regularly with Basics Scotland and has developed the Adult and Paediatric Tele-education program.  In addition to this she is the current Chair for the Pre-hospital Paediatric Life Support Group run by ALSG and is a course director for both PHPLS and APLS. Passionate about education and support for our Pre-hospital providers.   Her career started off in Grampian and quickly evolved into a mix of general practice and emergency medicine with an interest in remote and emergency care. Heavily involved in tele-medicine delivering healthcare to the remote areas of Grampian without the need for travel and later supporting Oil Rig platforms and Ship to Shore work.   Her twitter handle is @kittyabdn  

This is an introduction to Sylvia and Christine - who we are, how we got here and where we want to take you. Lots of love! ❤ (Please note I misspoke in this episode discussing the number of deaths in Grampian... I meant Aberdeenshire.)

Welcome To The Gin Ignite PodcastWhether you want to party or have a quiet night in gin will ignite NewsHello and Welcome to Episode 17. Today we are talking to Clare Ryan from the Edge Gin. Talk about her and Mikes magical brand. Where it came from. Merlin the Wizard London Dry, L'Orange and Pear gins Small Gin September - third week. Please support this event. We have had Anfield Gin, The Wandering bartender and now we have Lava Spirits. I interviewed Laura in episode 11 for her launch day. It was amazing fun being involved in a launch. Looking forward to see how progresses during the week. Looking good so far. So a scoop from Vanessa. Would not tell me the distilleries but she has revealed there are not one but two more gin brands The City of Aberdeen Distillery Signature Gin Vote Enjoyed my chat with Mark @the_wanderingbartender Got me chatting with https://cityofaberdeendistillery.co.uk (City of Aberdeen distillery) Deciding on their signature gin but not doing it alone No they are doing it in style and getting the people of Aberdeen and friends of the distillery. Plus it has the added accolade of becoming Aberdeen's gin You order a box of 4 gins for £19.99 and you taste them neat and you taste them with your preferred tonic and you get a chance to vote. If you need more help you can tune in to their live tasting on Saturday at 15:00 at the Taste of Grampian event. If you are in Aberdeen it is in the Have a tipple tent. What a great name. Not around it is being recorded and will be available to watch. The gins are made from organic alcohol which costs twice as much but worth it for the taste The packs are sold for another week after this weeks event and you have to till the end of the month to vote. Such a great way to decide your signature gin Please support them https://cityofaberdeendistillery.co.uk/products/taste-and-vote (https://cityofaberdeendistillery.co.uk/products/taste-and-vote) Weekly Gin RecommendationWeekly Gin Recommendation - https://www.instagram.com/strangerandsons/ (Stranger and Sons Gin) From the https://www.instagram.com/strangerandsons/ (third eye distillery) in Goa in India comes this gin based on a mythical beast with 3 eyes and 2 tails who came upon juniper berries hidden in a sari My hats off to co-founders Vidur, Sakshi and Rahul The nose is of a London dry but there is something fresh about it probably the lemons and something spicy I think perhaps the bergamot Taste very smooth. Initially sweet taste then the lemon and bergamot in the middle followed by juniper and a corriander bit at the end. The whole flavour I think is heightened with the black pepper. I was worried that all of these ingredients together would create a very spicy gin. They are all held to together in a beautiful flavour profile. I tried initially with Mediterranean tonic and this creates a very pleasant G&T. Due to its robustness I think there are not many tonics you could not throw at this gin but my favourite is not my beloved Mediterranean but Elderflower. This gin is certainly smooth enough for a dry martini although I think on balance I would prefer to us it in a whole host of other cocktails. It was my first gin from the https://www.instagram.com/craftginclub/ (Craft Gin club) and I have to be honest if someone offered it to me I would probably pass. More fool me. Clare Ryan from The Edge Gin Meeting Mike and Cruise Ships Clare was the princess and Mike was the front end of the cow in an amateur dramatics production, which is how they met Clare plays violin and Mike plays guitar. They both sing. They were dating for a year and then Mike's Dad organised their first gig in working mans club that he worked in Did two years of working mens clubs Then some theatre work with Hinge & Bracket / Ken Dodd Did showcase for Bookers for Cruise ships. Took them on and started on Fred Olsen Line Set sail for eighteen years at sea with various cruise companies...

There's still time to reserve a table at the Bilger's Rocks flea market, yard sale, and craft show this Saturday. The show runs from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. this Saturday, Aug. 8 at 1921 Bilger's Rocks Road, Grampian. Tables are $10 per space, or $15 for limited spots with electricity. Call 814-236-3597 to reserve your spot! Proceeds from the table reservations will benefit maintenance and upkeep of the park. Bilger's Rocks Association relies on donations and fundraisers to pay their bills, taxes, and maintenance fees. There is no charge to visit Bilger's Rocks. Listen to the full interview with Barb McCracken, the sitting president of the Bilger's Rocks Association.

Listen to the radio interview with Meri Collins, the director of our local Clearfield County Habitat for Humanity. A week from now, a local family will get to move in to a beautiful new home in Grampian through Habitat for Humanity. The house was built over the course of about a year by volunteers and the new homeowners themselves on a donated piece of property along First Street in Grampian that used to have a dilapidated house. The Spencer family (a family of four with a young boy and girl, 7 and 9 years old) will be moving from their current apartment in Curwensville to the new home with three bedrooms and one bath.

Headphones on for an amazing dawn chorus in Australia. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Mark and Euan are at Grampian Transport Museum in Alford for an electric vehicle event.

This week I chat to Maya Linnell, another fabulous debut Aussie author. Her book "Wildflower Ridge" (Allen & Unwin) was a delightful read that had me yearning to travel in the protagonist's footsteps through country Victoria and into the Grampian ranges. A heartwarming family saga that will leave you breathless and wanting more. Loved it!

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 39 – Call me Crozelda   In this episode, I cover: Inclusivity in the fibre community; Old Dog New Tricks; CAL Updates; Final Destination; En Route; Feeding the habit; Quick News Beats and J’adore?   This podcast is sponsored by my online crafting company, Provenance Craft Co.  Thanks to everyone who tunes into the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement are really appreciated and makes running a podcast very special and worthwhile.    If you would like to support the podcast, you can do that through Patreon:   1 – Inclusivity in the fibre community and beyond Given the importance of this topic, I felt that it needed to be the first thing I covered.  I don’t usually script exactly what I say, but because of the importance of inclusivity within the fibre community, I don’t want to ramble or use the wrong wording because of the pressure of recording and trying to get my thoughts across.   I am fairly sure that everyone listening and watching this podcast is aware of the conversations that have been ongoing for much of January.  The discussions are on inclusivity and diversity in the fibre community and beyond.  These are conversations that are long overdue and conversations that need to become actions.    This podcast at its very heart is about welcoming everyone with one exception.  If you are watching or listening to this and have even a hint of an eye roll or a “uh, this again, just talk about crochet”, then this is not the podcast for you.    Now, if you are the kind of human that likes to support your fellow humans, to build them up, rather than knock them down, to offer them the handshake of crafting kindness, and to take that handshake beyond the crafting community to every aspect of your life, then come on in, stay awhile.  I hope you feel the welcome embrace and love of the Crochet Clan.   I would like to specify what I mean by inclusivity.  For me and this podcast, that means creating an inclusive space for Black and Indigenous and/or People of Colour (BI/PoC), for people with differing abilities, for people within the LGBTQ community (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer) for people of all sizes for people that identify as binary or non-binary.  An inclusive space where racism and discrimination of your fellow humans cannot and will not be tolerated.    I spoke about the need for actions as well as conversations.  So, what I would like to do is take you through the changes that I am making to the podcast to make it an even more inclusive space: Logos – I am in going to change the logo for the podcast and have one created for the Global Hook Ups.  It struck me that the current logo does absolutely nothing to say “everyone is welcome here”.  So, in true Crochet Clan spirit, I looked within to see who was part of our community that I could ask to take on logo commissions.  I am really chuffed to say that Claudia from the Crochet Lune podcast is going to work up the new logos.  If she comes up with different design options. Then my plan is to throw it out to you to see which logos speak most clearly to you of inclusivity.   Recognition of makers/dyers – my plan is to seek permission from makers and dyers to show a picture of them within the video podcast and show notes.  Websites and Instagram handles don’t necessarily show the diversity within our community.  I also know that when I have seen somebody’s face, it creates more of a connection with that dyer/maker and somehow cements them in my mind.  I am also keen to do this from a business perspective because to me, seeing the face behind a small indie business is a very good way for me to support them over big multi-national companies.  Let me be clear, that this is not about tokenism.  No matter who you are, if I am showing your product or yarn on the podcast and you’re are a small indie maker or dyer, I will be asking to show a photo of you in the video podcast and show notes.  You have every right to decline and a photo will only appear if I have your permission.   Increasing diversity in my Instagram feed – I thought that my feed was already pretty diverse.  I have a general policy of following people back unless their account is set to private.  So, I am not an account that has thousands of followers (I don’t anyway) and only follows a handful back.  That means that my account is full of lots of lovely diverse folk.  However, it wasn’t until I started following #blackcrocheter #blackcrocheters #blackcraftersofinstagram #diversknitty #spooniecrafts #lgbtqcrafts #lgbtcrafts #that my feed really became diverse.  I encourage you all to do that same.  Following hashtags is a great way of finding new people on Instagram, introducing yourself and making new connections.  If you have suggestions for any other hashtags to follow, please let me know.   Highlighting under-represented groups – Back in November 2018 , Jeanette Sloan was asking the fibre community to point her towards BIPoC designers.  She has done a lot of time consuming work to pull together a list from the details she was given.  A similar piece of work is being done by Marceline from the Hey BrownBerry Podcast and she has highlighted BIPoC dyers and yarn makers.   Claudia from Crochet Luna podcast has been beavering away pulling together a list of BIPoC crochet designers.   She is going through the painstaking work of communicating with the designers to ask whether they are happy to be featured.  I am hoping to help Claudia to pull this list together in whatever way I can.  The list of BIPoC crochet designers is going to be on my blog over at KNIT IT – HOOK IT – CRAFT IT – because Claudia has asked me to host it there.    My hope is that in time, this will also feature dyers and makers from other under-represented groups.  However, this needs to be looked at in a sensitive manner and only undertaken with the backing and permission of the people within these underrepresented groups.    If you would like to be added to the work that Claudia and I are doing, then I would be really interested in having a discussion with you about what the parameters should be.   Creating a more accessible podcast and Instagram accounts – I have had some very helpful and interesting Instagram discussions with Sarah from @SarahDawnDesigns.  She has been brilliant at pointing me towards ways that I can make changes to the podcast to make it more accessible for people with hearing or visual impairments.    If you have a hearing impairment, I always try to face the camera and not show things in front of my face, in the hope that people are able to read my lips.  I always create show notes and link to them from the dropdown box on YouTube.  If you are watching the video, the section place markers correlate to the different sections in the show notes which can always be found at www.thecrochetcircle.podbean.com  and I believe are in a suitable format as a text transcript.    If you have a visual impairment, I try to be very descriptive with textures and colours.  Again, I believe that the show notes are in a format that is suitable for assistive technology.  In addition to the written part of the show notes, I will start adding descriptions to each photo and the caption will start with Photo:   I have also started using ALT text within my Instagram feed.  I have gone back through the posts from the last month and added ALT text to those posts, but from now on, anything I post on @crochet_circle_podcast, @knitithookit or @faydhdesigns, will have ALT text attached to each of the images.   The final thing I would like to add is that twice a month there is the Global Hook up.  I run it on a Saturday night and then again on the Sunday morning (both GMT/BST) so that the crafting session is available to different time zones.  Everyone is welcome in the Global Hook Ups.    If you just want to check out what happens, you can join the crafting session and put something over your camera.  You also have the option to mute your microphone.  It’s really up to you how much you join in, which hopefully makes it a great crafting space for people that may be nervous about joining in.  For some people, they started out by just sitting and listening and moved onto joining the conversations in the next session.  It’s free to join, you just need a decent wifi connection.       2 – Old Dog New Tricks It feels like many people are working on crocheted garments, or plan to in 2019.  One of the factors that you may come across is wording like “increase/decrease by 12 stitches evenly across round/row”.  In my opinion, this is a little unfair of a designer to leave it at that.  It isn’t hard to work out how you increase or decrease stitches, but if you haven’t done it before, then you should be getting more guidance within the pattern.   I am going to use one of my en route projects as an example.  I have deliberately stopped this project where it is so that I can show you how I am going to tackle the bust decreases that I want to add in.  This isn’t a feature of this pattern, it is one that I am adding in to give some shaping to the finished piece.  That said when the pattern did call for increases it didn’t give the calculations required…   I would like to think that if I ever design a garment for crochet or knitting, this is the kind of detail that I would add.    If you want to see this in video form, take a look at this video from Very Pink Knits – she is one of my favourites for giving simple hint and tips video tutorials.    Rather than using Very Pink Knits numbers, I want to use my jumper as the example piece.  I have crocheted down to just below the bust area and now I want to decrease the overall number of stitches to pull the jumper inn and give some definition.    I have 269 stitches which gives me a circumference of 116cm.  I want to get down to a circumference of 104cm for under the bust so need to do an initial calculation:  269 stitches/116cm means that I have approximately 2.32 stitches per cm.  I want the circumference to be 105cm, so I need 244 stitches (105cm x 2.32 stitches).  My pattern requires an odd number of stitches, so I am actually going to decrease down to 243 stitches (because I rounded up to 244 in the first place). Overall, I need to reduce my number of round stitches by 26 from 269 to 243.  So, my next calculation is to work out how I can decrease 26 stitches evenly across my round.      I start with my existing total stitch count (269) and divide it by the number that I need to decrease by (26): 269/26 = 10.35  Again, I am going to round that number down so that I will use 10 as my answer.  Had the answer been 10.5, I would have rounded up to 11. So, next I need to multiply the number of stitches to be decreased (26) by the number of decreases (10): 26 x 10 = 260 which leaves a remainder of 9 stitches Because I would be decreasing two stitches together, those two stitches have to be factored in as part of the two stitch decrease every 10 stitches.  This means that I will crochet 8 stitches and decrease over the last 2 stitches – giving one decrease over every 10 stitches.  The remaining 9 stitches are simply crocheted at the end.  You may find it easier to attach a stitch marker at the beginning of every decrease section.  This can help to make sure that you got your maths right and keep you on the straight and narrow when you are counting and decreasing.     PHOTO: Esja Jumper (crocheted) in pale blue (main colour) and pale blue variegarted with rust and teal as a contrast.  Around the bottom of the jumper, each decrease section has been marked with a black bulb pin.   Now, life isn’t that easy for me because my Esja sweater is in linen stitch which is a two stitch pattern repeat of 1dc and 1ch.  That makes the calculation a little more difficult.    But here is how I have done it: 269 stitches need to be reduced by 26 down to 243 stitches. To create an even decrease across the fabric without getting holes in the decrease area, I want to decrease in the following way:  Hook through first ch-sp, yrh, pull up a loop, hook through next ch-sp, yrh, pull up a loop, yrh, pull through all three loops.  This action adds a bit more yarn bulk to the area and makes the decrease look less obvious.  In doing so, you are using three stitches to decrease down to one.   So, I started looking for the number of stitches required per decrease section, remembering that each decrease will reduce the round by two stitches, not one.       So, here is where I started: 269 stitches / by 18 stitches gives 15 decrease sections and when you multiply that by the actual number of stitches per decrease section after the decrease has been made, 16, then you would be left with approximately 240 stitches with a remainder of 3 stitches which would simply be worked at the end of the round.  You are basically looking for the division that will give you the least number of remainder stitches.  Here is how a linen stitch decrease will work for me over 18 sts: Ch1,  hook through first ch-sp, yrh, pull up a loop, hook through next ch-sp, yrh, pull up a loop, yrh, pull through all three loops, *ch1, skip 1 st, 1dc in next ch-sp; rep from * six (6) more times. (16 sts) I would repeat the sequence 14 more times and finish off with ch1, skip 1 st, 1dc in next ch-sp ch1 as the stitch sequence for the remaining three stitches.   Clear as mud? After the podcast, I will attempt to add some progress photos so that you can see how I have marked the shawl out every 18 stitches and worked the first decrease section.    3 – CAL Updates  The #ChristmasEveCAL is done and dusted! Once again, I had very little time to respond to the hashtags on IG.  I want to be able to, but life is crammed.  I am making some huge steps with the businesses this year and a lot of my time energy has to be on that.   So, I’m going to take a little break from running CALs – mainly because I know I won’t have the time and I won’t be doing you the justice you deserve.  Things may shift by the end of the year, but for now I will try to concentrate on promoting the CALs that my fellow crafters and podcasters are running.    4 – Final Destination I only have one proper finished object, because I don’t think I can legitimately show 1.5 socks as an FO! Last year I started a bag and my intention was to add to every January with my ‘Word of the Year’.  When I have previously seen people talk about their word of the year, I have dismissed it as a load of old tosh!  Having lived with ‘Clarity’ as my 2018 word, I can now say that it definitely gave me grounding point throughout the year and gave me a flag to keep on coming back to.    Clarity was meant as a word for me to stick to my core goals and not stray.  To keep on the path that I had set for the year.  Given that it was so helpful for 2018, I have now added ‘STRUCTURE’ to me bag as my word for 2019.   This is the year when I hope to move KNIT IT – HOOK IT - CRAFT IT and Fay Dashper-Hughes Designs up a few notches and to do that I need to put more structure in place.   So now, I think about clarity and how I can structure my work flow to achieve what I want to achieve in 2019 and beyond.  Here’s what my bag looks like now.  Every year I will add to it in a Scrabble format.   PHOTO: Ecru coloured linen bag with dark grey ribbon tie lying on a dark grey surface.The word CLARITY has been embroidered across the bag horizontally and STRUCTURE, embroidered vertically as if a game os Scrabble has just been started.  Three bows of linen are at the base of the bag, in a dark grey, light fawn/grey and dark mustard . The bag was made from Scottish linen that I use in some of my products.  I thin just draw around a wooden Scrabble tile to get the right size for each letter.  Using a 3 ply linen thread from Namolio https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/237661664/linen-yarn-thread-25-grams-3-ply?ref=shop_home_active_1   5 – En Route I have finished one of my Fallen Leaves socks and am ready to turn the heel on the other.  I will show them off properly in the next podcast… Pattern: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fallen-leaves-socks My Esja jumper (to be made with yarn dyed by my friend Bec of Black Horse Yarns and Socks Yeah! in the colour 'Chryso'.  This has been really quick to crochet up so far and I only stopped to be able to use the jumper as an example in this month’s Old Dog New Tricks. Pattern: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/esja-sweater   Main Colour Yarn: https://coopknits.bigcartel.com/product/coop-knits-socks-yeah-yarn Contrast Yarn: https://www.instagram.com/blackhorseyarn/     PHOTO: Esja jumper (crocheted) as a close up to show the slight distinction in colours made between the main colour (light blue) and contrast colour (light blue with rust and teal).  The contrast between the two yarns in the brioche section is very subtle.   I am also working on another Doppio Colosseum shawl.  Originally, I used a yarn that Helen from The Wool Kitchen no longer dyes and she kindly gave me two skeins of yarn to make a new sample with.  The yarn is 4ply (light fingering weight), 50% Merino and 50% silk and it is beautiful to work with.  The sheen and drape are just incredible.    By the time I podcast again, I hope to have this finished so that Helen can use it on her stand at her next two festivals (Unravel and Edinburgh Yarn Festival).  It’s great to see another yarn dyer that wants to fly the crochet flag.   Pattern: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/doppio-colosseum Yarn: https://www.thewoolkitchen.com/collections/4ply-merino-silk/products/worn-denim-merino-silk-4ply   PHOTO: Dark back background, flat lay of a started crocheted shawl in linen stitch.  To the left is a skein of Worn Denim by The Wool Kitchen (light blue/grey with blotches of dark denim blue), to the right is a cake of the same yarn and below is the curled beginnings of a Doppio Colosseum shawl.   6 – Feeding the habit I truly believed that I was going to severely restrict the amount of yarn that I was going to buy in 2019.  The difficulty comes when I enter yarn shops.  I want to be able to support Bricks and Mortar shops by purchasing from them and highlighting them on the podcast.    So, this month I have been a bit naughty.  I went over to visit the Laxton’s spinning mill in West Yorkshire and on the way back, I ‘popped’ in to see the good folk at Black Sheep Wools.  It’s probably my most local yarn shop (about 45 minutes away) and I always like having a good natter with Sara and the others.    When I was there, I picked up some of the ‘Pip Colourworks’ from Baa Ram Ewe.  I had a little mini skein of this given to me as a test skein and couldn’t really do it justice with 10g.  I have since knitted another Curlew hat with it and plan on hooking something up with it too, so that I can do a proper yarn review on it for the podcast.   PHOTO: Dark background with a blurred foreground of a dark dusky rose ball of yarn.  At the back from left to right is the same Pip Colourwork yarn from Baa Ram Ewe, but in a light green, dark forest green, grey sky blue and mustard.  Just fo camera to the right is the brim of a knitted Curlew hat in the same colours. PHOTO: Dark grey background with a close up of Reggia Nautic Color sock yarn.  Self striping in a white and mid blue.  The ball band is yellow and shows a white sock with thin blue stripes.   I also came across and had to buy the latest Regia sock yarn called Nautic Colour, which creates sailor striped socks.  I am an absolute sucker for sailor striped anything!    Local Yarn Shop: https://www.blacksheepwools.com/knitting-yarn/baa-ram-ewe-pip-colourwork.html Yarn – Pip Colourwork: https://baaramewe.co.uk/products/pipcolourwork?variant=1440591249416 Yarn – Regia: https://www.blacksheepwools.com/knitting-yarn/regia-nautic-color.html    Later that week, I snuck up to Lancaster to see Kate from Northern Yarn in her new shop location in the city centre.  It’s a really beautiful shop that is easy to get to.  Kate works really hard at developing both the shop and her relationships with local shepherds and shepherdesses.  She only sells British yarns and many of them are local.  That is definitely something worth supporting in my opinion.   PHOTO: Five balls of wool all in a horizontal row on a dark background and each with a cream "Jamiesons Shetland Spindrift" ball band.  The colours from left to right are:  a vibrant mid green, rusty red, rusty orange, bright rusty mustard and a bright mid blue.   Whilst there, I picked up some Jamiesons Sheltand Spindrift 2 ply to make into a hat from this book that I also got.    Local Yarn Shop: https://www.northernyarn.co.uk/jamiesons-of-shetland Yarn: https://www.jamiesonsofshetland.co.uk/spindrift-1-c.asp Book: https://www.shopkdd.com/books/milarrochy-heids   Hmm, it doesn’t stop there.  Last week, I hopped on the train a went to Llandudno on the North Wales Coast.  Nikki runs Ewe Felty Thing, a yarn shop just a few minutes away from the train station.  It has the most impressive wall of indie dyed yarn from 16 different dyers.    PHOTO: Dark grey background showing top right, a skein of yarn from Abercairn.  It's a skinny single plyed yarn in a blend of merino and silk and has a beautiful sheen.  The variegated skein has pinks, purples, teals, greens and blues in it - just like the Grampian mountains. Underneath the skein are two mini skeins, one in a deep dusky pink and one in a bright aubergine purple.  In the bottom corner, there is a bit of a purple/pink mohair skein.   Of course, I came home with yarn.  Of course one of them was mohair!  I bought a new to me indie dyer called Abercairn Yarns.    Local Yarn Shop: https://ewefeltything.co.uk/ Yarns:  https://ewefeltything.co.uk/product-category/handdyedyarns/yarns-by-dyer/abercairn-yarns/4ply-fingering/page/2/     https://www.instagram.com/abercairn_yarns/?hl=en   I was also vending at Waltham Abbey Wool Show this month, and it was a great show!  My bestie, Jenny turned up as a surprise in the afternoon and helped on the stand.  As a thank you, she got to pick which yarn she liked best from Dragon Hill Studios.  Andrew and Sharon run the company and I really love the way they cake up their yarn.  I have been meaning to buy some of their yarn for a while and Waltham Abbey was the ideal time.  I have a deal going with Jenny that if I am making socks with a yarn she likes, she can have a pair too.  I can get two pairs of knitted socks out of a 100g skein of 4 ply (light fingering weight) yarn with contrast toes, heels and cuffs.    PHOTO: Dark background with a cake of yarn and a white circular tag from Dragon Hill Studios with a paired back green curled up a dragon for a logo.  The yarn is dark grey with bright pink stripes and they cleverly cake up the yarn, wrapping the last few lengths over the top and bottom of the cake to show off the ratio of self-striping colours which is more dark grey and a pop of pink.     Yarn show: http://www.walthamabbeywoolshow.co.uk/ Yarn: https://www.dragonhillstudio.co.uk/   7 - Quick News Beats  1 - Global Hook Ups – I have had to change the date of the February hook up: February – 16th Saturday (night) and 17th (morning) GMT The other dates for the first half of 2019 are in the Ravelry thread.     2 – I am now heading to Edinburgh for all four days of the festival.  I will be in the show on Thursday working on a stand (more on that to come), and back at the show for the Saturday and Sunday.  This wasn’t what was planned, but it’s now happening! Edinburgh Yarn Festival: http://www.edinyarnfest.com/   3 – I have also booked to go to Woolinn Festival, just outside of Dublin in June.  I am landing at the airport on the Saturday morning and leave on the Sunday night.  So, if you are coming over and fancy a meetup either at the festival or on the Saturday night in Dublin city centre – let me know!   Woolinn Festival: http://woollinn.com/   4 – Sean, you can never have too many shawls!   8 - J’adore  I am loving that January has really felt like a new start.  I have reset the button, good changes have been made and 2019 is looking like a good one.     I am also off to Barcelona shortly with Matthewkins.  We really need some time out and I am looking forward to soaking up some Spanish atmosphere and being inspired by the gothic architecture.       I will be back on Friday the 1st March!   Fay x   Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast  Instagram: provenance.craft.co   Instagram: FayDHDesigns YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Crochet Clan on Mighty Network: Invite    

Christchurch City Council has announced that minor remedial works are being carried out on 23 above ground well heads, at seven pump stations, to enable these well heads to be signed off as a secure.The council expects the works to be completed and inspections undertaken by the end of this month. An isolation procedure has been agreed for the remaining below ground well heads which will allow chlorination to cease, early in August, at these pump stations:Burnside, Grampian, Thompsons and Farrington in the North West supply zone.Hills and Lake Terrace in the Central zone.Woolston in the Ferrymead zone.Richard Green spoke to Helen Beaumont, Christchurch City Council Programme Manager of Water Supply Improvement, about this. 

In which Mr Whippy speaks to Flo and Kevin of Grampian Hunt Sabs. There's all sorts of talk about the Scottish sab camp, regional differences in sabbing, and why almost everyone can contribute to the joyous burden of hunt sabotage. - Grampian Hunt Sabs Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/GrampianHuntSabs - Watch the recent Unilad documentary featuring Grampian Hunt Sabs here: https://youtu.be/VSvD09AaAXY - SabFest 2018 music festival here: https://www.facebook.com/events/585053715226983 Closing song is "The Saboteur's Song" by Jez Lowe.

Continuing Back To Goa's journey through the artists and DJs of psychedelic Scotland we present a lively and creative mix from Aramaiti.  Aramaiti is Stephen Fraser, a passionate music promoter and DJ who continues to energise the music scene in his beloved Stonehaven and the north east of Scotland.  Stephen has bravely experimented and networked to bring some unique festival and club experiences to this part of the world, as well as supporting others in their own creative endevours.  His mix has an old world Goa and Euro atmosphere, escewing the established doctrine of beat matched progression and instead concentrating on building atmosphere and melodic intensity.  Enjoy.   1 Resurrect - TDR 2 Triptonite - Ethnica ( Plieadian's live mix ) 3 Limbo - 3D Ghost 4 Spiritualisation - TDR 5 Yamantaka - PharaOhm 6 Arcadia Magik - Prometheus  7 Apostles of the Universe - TDR 8 Delphic Haze - Anakoluth 9 Stream of Life - Ethereal   https://soundcloud.com/merlins-rattle   Artist's Bio: Stephen Fraser (Aramaiti)I am 32, I was born in Glasgow and moved to Stonehaven at the age of 11 where I lived up until 2012 when I moved to the village of Auchenblae in the foothills of the Grampian mountains. I have been blessed with a 3 year son called Elijah. I became part of Stonehaven's underground and alternative music scene when I was 18 playing instrumental music  and Djing. The musical movement in Stonehaven and the north east of of Scotland is starting to come into it's own currently and I am very privileged to be a part of it's flowering. I play downtempo, progressive psytrance and goa trance and love the culture and it's heritage in the far and middle east. So at the moment I am playing for friends and recently getting involved in the Scottish psytrance scene thanks to some of it's great promoters. My heart lives in the natural world and playing music to the trees, plants and animal's is also a great privilege. Namaste friends and blessings for the journey.

28:29 no podcast,and,video,movie,in,north,tv,actors,do,scotland,east,am,launch,smith,filmmaker,centre,studio,moon,productions,i,directors,kim,stage,aberdeen,reel,pad,templeton,moray,angus,aberdeenshire,grampian,iadf,calan,donsdee,quids Kim Temepleton discusses acting and networking at the Aberdeen Actors and Directors Networking event in June sam@rufusrunsfast.com

04:25 no podcast,the,film,video,movie,north,cinema,happy,do,stephen,student,college,scotland,belmont,east,am,filmmaker,forbes,i,peter,showcase,aberdeen,screenwriter,licence,moray,angus,downing,horne,aberdeenshire,grampian,iadf Peter Forbes and Stephen Horne from Aberdeen College chat about student filmmaking sam@rufusrunsfast.com (Sam Tho

34:22 no podcast,film,video,boat,movie,films,north,producer,do,finance,scotland,east,am,filmmaker,i,blue,edinburgh,funding,katie,aberdeen,iris,moray,indiegogo,crook,aberdeenshire,grampian,iadf Edinburgh-based filmmaker Katie Crook discusses the role of the producer. sam@rufusrunsfast.com (Sam Tho

09:18 no camera,film,black,gear,diy,movie,north,media,morgan,do,scotland,east,am,filmmaker,i,aberdeen,moray,angus,rigs,aberdeenshire,grampian,iadf,breached Filmmaker Morgan Black says you can save money and be creative by making your own DIY camera rigs. sam@rufusrunsfast.com (Sam Thom

47:37 no podcast,news,video,movie,edit,michael,north,tv,sony,do,broadcast,al,scotland,shoot,east,am,filmmaker,bbc,i,colin,cnn,aberdeen,reporting,journalist,moray,angus,vj,wight,jazeera,stv,rosenblum,aberdeenshire,grampian,iadf Senior broadcast journalist at BBC Scotland Colin Wight discusses the high-pressure work of the solo shoot edit sam@rufusrunsfast.com (Sam Th

09:54 no podcast,and,the,of,james,film,video,movie,north,western,cinema,us,actors,wild,do,scotland,belmont,east,west,am,filmmaker,i,glen,canon,directors,stewart,extra,aberdeen,moray,angus,monarch,peacemaker,aberlour,aberdeenshire,grampian,iadf,xl1 Aberlour property developer James Stewart requires actors for his myster-western revenge movie, 'The Peacemaker' sam@rufusrunsfast.com

They live in the heart of the Shire, they're the team behind TOWIG (The Only Way Is Garioch), but filmmakers Alstair Stewart and Andrew Forbes are saving hard to buy the gear that will take their projects to the next level. That's in today's IADF podcast. If you have a great script then that's half the battle," says filmmaker Alistair Stewart, from Inverurie, who runs Reel Moon Productions with friend Andrew Forbes. The pair are working and saving to make money to buy equipment that will help them improve the production quality of their films.They've bought the Canon EOS 550D, one of the Canon DSLRs that are proving so popular among indie filmmakers around the world. That improves their video footage.Next on their shopping list is an audio recorder. Anyone who uses a DSLR knows that you have to record sound on a separate device to get the best audio results.Along with that there are the cables and boom pole to support the mic.And then there's the tripod."When you are doing a [tripod] pan you can hear a nice..creakkkkkkk!" laughs Alistair, making a mental note to add a tripod to their shopping list.However most pressing for the two filmmakers is to find someone with skills to operate and work behind the camera while Alistair's in front.They need volunteer(s) to help with all sorts of production work. You'll get a sandwich for your time (they reassured me!).They're jumping through hoops to make their productions work as best they can: TOWIG, Dream Girl and Tagged.Wouldn't it be great if a big-hearted local business offered a couple of hundred quid to pay for an audio recorder or a tripod to help Alistair and Andrew out.So, lads, start knocking on doors and see what help is out there.'If you don't ask, you don't get,' my ex-wife used to say to me.Find Reel Moon Productions here:FacebookYou Tube