Ryan Taylor's Breakfast Blog

Use the Blog to start the new-year

30th December 2011

In blogs all around the world people are looking back over 2011 and point out the highs and lows. Although my year has been like a bare knuckle roller coaster for the last 365 days, I am not someone who likes to dwell on things that have been done… So instead I say look to the future…

As millions prepare themselves for demoralising failures at tasks they have set themselves under the title ‘New year’s resolutions’, I will be planning to enhance my life and set my sights on achieving goals. I have a burning desire to complete any task I set myself so I know that these are not New Year’s resolutions but more of an opportunity for me to reset my little world to think about what I need to do differently in life.

I am sick of saying to people in both my personal and professional life that I am too busy so I think it is time to change this. I have goals I want to achieve at the gym and have invested in taking steps to ensure I achieve these goals… Although most of this will just be self discipline. Whatever you decide to change for 2012, if you fear what the outcome will be then let me put this in your mind… ‘A brave man might not live forever, but a coward doesn’t live at all’… I have that tattooed on the inside of my forearm (in Latin) as a reminder to ensure I never forget that.

Good luck for everything you wish to achieve in 2012… Oh and I am now at the end of my 3 month probation period on the breakfast show so I think it’s time to get a bit more edgy with the breakfast show… Here goes nothing!!!

Happy New year

Ryan

Posted by Ryan at 2:03pm

I'm all blogged up

23rd December 2011

Hey Blog Readers,

Just a quick message to say my life at the moment has been taken over with man flu so I will come up with something a little more interesting for you at the star t of the new year.

What i will say is that I have been doing breakfast for 3 months now and that was my time to 'bed in'... January marks the start of the new STAR breakfast... Watch this space!!!

Thank you all for listening to STAR Radio throughout 2012 I hope you hva e great Christmas and I wish each of you all the best for the new year.

Merry Christmas and Good luck

Ryan

Posted by Ryan at 9:56am

A drink driving ban made me need the blog

12th December 2011

So last Monday I was dropped right in it by the boss of STAR Radio who stormed my breakfast show along with Tony Barrios and Matt Staton from Cambridgeshire road safety team, who decided that it would be clever to simulate what it would be like if I had been caught drink driving and had my driving licence taken off me… Which is all well and good but when you present a breakfast show that starts at 6am (baring in mind I have to be here to prep the show at least an hour before that), then you can hopefully agree that I was not being out of order by losing my sense of humour about the whole scenario!- I was banned from driving from Monday- Friday

You can hear the moment they stormed the show and what happened by clicking here…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXTREtzWqKk&feature=g-upl

I thought rather than bore on about how hard it was for the week , I would just post my 4 twitter messages up here so you could see what I was thinking and saying each day…

No licence day 1: I forgot I wasn't allowed to drive when I woke up this morning, then my heart sank & now #ImACambridgeCyclist

No licence day 2: Wet. This is getting a bit boring now, I think it's time to get my licence back... I had to bail out and call a taxi today

No licence day 3: This morning I'm feeling knackered! Headache and itchy eyes from being so tired- one more day to go though.. I can do this

No licence final day: A quick summary for you... errrr don't drink and drive because losing your licence is a huge pain in the Ar-erm Arm

So in summary, it was a hard week which did a great job to highlight to people what life would be like without the car and I would like to thank every who sent in messages for support and sharing their comments about this, don’t drink and drive it is a head ache that will last a very long time after the day after a big sesh or Christmas party!

Have fun

Ryan

Twitter @RyanMarkTaylor

Posted by Ryan at 11:58am

Rugby Brutal showers and drink driving all on the blog

5th December 2011

To start with I would like to thank all those involved with the Ely Christmas lights a week or so back as they did an outstanding job and the crowds were bigger than ever!

So, I have come in to work today still buzzing from one of the best weekend’s I have had in a long time. I was invited by the Chief Exec of UKRD to join him and a handful of others from UKRD in going to watch the help for hero’s rugby match at Twickenham on Saturday. Not only this but to do it in the most impressive way you can, by watching from an executive box.

We rocked up to a flurry of lovely ladies who were clearly stuck in every doorway to smile and glamorize the whole experience; in fairness for most of the people there it did the job. We were taken upstairs and walked along a corridor of doors containing signs outside for various businesses from BT to Aviva, then we came to out door. What waited on the other side caught me completely off guard…

Our waiter for the afternoon/ evening greeted us and walked us along the glass table which was filled with fine cutlery ready for our 5 course meal. He took us to a glass door at the end of the room and opened the door to a balcony overlooking Twickenham rugby pitch. I then turned back to look into the room and noticed the flat screen TV on the wall showing the Chelsea match and a fully stocked bar next to it.

Throughout the afternoon we had what can be only described as a millionaires experience.

After taking full advantage of the bar, going out to the hallway to the toilet and accidently entering the WRONG box on the way back and staying in the box late until the sprinklers were doing their work all over the pitch; we headed back to the hotel on the executive mini bus… Oh and of course headed for the bar.

I awoke on Sunday morning feeling fragile not wanting to move when after about 10 minutes of laying there in a trance, I suddenly realised that next to me was one big glass window as the wall where I could see one half of hotel and the street below, then realised that they would have clearly been able to see me laying there, which wouldn’t have been so bad had I not been completely naked- I have never jumped up so quickly in all my life.

I then decided to try and freshen up with a shower… This was a whole new experience as the shower was huge, the bathroom was 5 stars and I was really looking forward to it. I wandered in, turned on the lovely hot shower, which was one of these posh ones with the round shower head directly above me just dropping rain on my head like a torrential downpour. What happened next has scared me physically and mentally… I was getting a bit too hot so as I was feeling a little bit delicate, I gently reached forward and turned what I thought was the heating dial, but suddenly I found out that this shower was posher than I first thought and I was ATTACKED by high pressured jets from the walls! I immediately jumped back as the stinging of high pressured jets pounded my eyes body and pretty much anywhere… I was being brutally attacked by them, it was like something out of a comedy sketch when they hammer a nail through a water pipe, I had the wave my hands about in front of me trying to battle forward to switch the jets off, which when I did I stood back dripping wet bent over, out of breath like I had been wrestling Jaws.

Overall Sunday is not going to go down as a particularly good day for me.

This week I have had a bomb shell dropped upon me. Mark Peters stormed into my breakfast show live on air this morning with the Cambridgeshire road safety team where I was told that I am having my driving licence taken off me for a week… Which considering I get to work by around 5am, is going to be very interesting? I’m not happy about it, but listen in every day this week at 8:35 to hear how this is affecting my life.

This is all to simulate what would happen if I had actually been drink driving. Wish me luck as this is going to be a hard week.

Take it easy

Ryan

Posted by Ryan at 1:43pm

Im so nervous that I need the blog!

21st November 2011

This Friday will mark the first major event that I have hosted since taking hold of the breakfast show as I host the Ely Christmas light switch on for 2011 (with Blondie from the mid morning show).

I’m a guy who will show more front than my home town of Southend when it comes to covering my personal thoughts and feelings about my life, but I am quite open to say that the reality of what I need to achieve on Friday is enormous.

A question that I get asked on a very regular basis is ‘if you do a breakfast show to tens of thousands of people every single morning, why would you get nervous about being on stage in front of 7,000 people’… The answer is simple… Eyes! You can actually see people’s reactions to your bad jokes.

I have hosted this event on at least 2 occasions before but for some reason this feels different, the nerves have really set in early. Maybe it’s the pressure of the event being promoted in the local press as actually being hosted by me and blondie (the mid morning presenter on STAR- Not the singer, although that would be quite cool if she starts belting out ‘Call me’), maybe it’s the fact that I have actually planned what I am going to say and do on stage this year, maybe even it is that I am dusting off a suit to parade around in but overall I think it could be more to do with the knowledge that the Ely Christmas light switch on is where I seem to get most interaction with my listeners and get my most feedback… which is always honest. I keep questioning in my head where the line is between genuinely caring about the product I get up at 4am for every morning and being classed as an ego who just wants people talking about his show- Because I can tell you my heart and head is with the first option. If you are coming to the Ely Christmas light switch on please do come armed with your honest feedback and constructive criticism about the breakfast show so I can build it into the product you want to wake up to!

Here is me and Blondie gearing up for the big switch on with our promo shot. I hope to see on the night!

On a separate note and ‘in other news on random things happening in my life’ I had a nice run in with a Luton supporter when I was a guest at the Cambridge United match as a guest in the Executive suite on Saturday. He was slightly intoxicated I believe and must have started an argument with nearly everyone in the ground but things finally came to a halt for him when he started on me and I politely told him to sit down, shut up and watch the game…. Fair play to the police and stewards of Cambridge United who were very quickly tracking him and it went no further. Other than that it was a fantastic game and a very good opportunity to have a look around the ground as a guest and I was extremely well looked after by Claudine Bone and her team.

On Sunday I was finishing laying wooden flooring in my house when I had an accident involving a saw which has left my hands scared, scratched and generally in pain… so if any of you beautiful people for Addenbrooke’s are reading this and know of a quick fire way to heal all the injuries to my little feelers (my hands) then please do let me know as I am going to look like I have been having a fight with a thorn bush on stage hosting the Ely light switch on if not! Have a great week all and I will have a very special video for you next week showing behind the scenes at the Ely Christmas light switch on with the Overtones.

Also follow me on twitter @RyanMarkTaylor

Take it easy

Ryan

Posted by Ryan at 2:04pm