Normal service is being resumed as the QWightLike A Podcast team return from an elongated and unscheduled break following illness, family visits, operations and holidays, to return with our usual conversational interventions to ease you into your weekend and beyond.

A lot has happened and so we slightly run over our allotted studio time to bring you our highlights from the last month or so of enforced pod downtime.  What has happened whilst we were looking the other way?

The aurora, The UK Pink Floyd Experience, surgical waiting list reduction, holiday trips and new eatery experiences here on the island all appear in our canter through our calendars.

We quite like an election, so given our recent lack of productivity we bring you our opinions on the opening salvos fired in the UK General Election campaign announced in late May and remain in active consideration of our “Rest Is …” franchise extension equivalent, with the working title of “QWightLike An Election”.  By the time we make our minds up it is entirely probable that we’ll be well aware of the result and will have a whole new slew of political interviews to line up as the characters move around the chess board.  Where is Bob?

So settle down, on your own, with a brew, something cold and sparkling, with loved one(s), with friends and enjoy the return of our something for the weekend offering.

Thanks for listening

Rory and Tim

Fashion dictates following a crowd, but your heroic dadcasters struggle to present a contemporary image to the outside world relying on personal brand and witty repartee to create any sort of impression.

This episode takes a gentle stroll through island eateries and refreshment stops, discussing ferries and the Anglo-Saxon barbarians who disrupted England’s last pagan kingdom (yes, the Isle of Wight) before an attack of the mangoes brings us back to the modern day and our best recommendations for chilling with a Netflix binge watch.

Visitors, colleagues and political shenanigans all rear their head in this meander through popular news and modern-day existence.  Still we QWightLike chatting about our lives and influences and we QWightLike the Isle of Wight.

Thanks for listening.

Tim and Rory

Welcome to another chat-filled digital space competing for space and time in your eardrums as we continue our gentle lollop towards the heady bright days of Spring and Summer.  The island slowly comes alive at this time of year with plenty for us to experience and share with you.

This episode is largely given over to another scoop interview with one of the many generations of Blakes that have shaped much of the Ventnor experience for visitors and residents alike.  Tim spends time with Ed Blake of the fishing dynasty that continue to ply their trade at sea, from Ventnor Haven and as a new generation, online.  Tim gets the inside track on what’s involved in fishing for crab and the rest of the catch in what is a remarkably large fishing ground.  Remarkable insight is shared into the current status of fishing boats on the island. In the second part of this 2-part chat, Ed explains how he was persuaded to get involved in local politics, his motivations and how, as a business owner, he hopes to help influence the changes he thinks are needed to help the local community.

For the rest of the podcast, Rory and Tim, riff around the edge of subjects as diverse as the recent North American total eclipse of the sun, vehicle number plates, transport, and first cars which leads to a promotion of the Rest is History podcast episode with Tom Hanks as their special guest.  Not to be missed.

Another gentle ramble around the workings of our minds ends with tributes to our favourite tribute musical acts and a birthday tribute to Ella, Tim’s other half.  Happy Birthday, Ella.

Thanks for listening

Tim and Rory

Another fortnight crammed full of travel is tipped out onto the podcast recording console to inform and, hopefully educate.  Rory’s return to Scotland with fanfares at border crossings.  Tim’s rather more sombre trip to Kraków taking in Auschwitz-Birkenau as well as the pleasure of experiencing the city’s cultural, architectural and culinary delights … all after jetting off easily to get there.

Football (soccer) shirt emblems, excessive language dependencies are covered alongside explanations of European nations’ mastery of the English language rendering our preparations for overseas travels to be limited to checking our passport validity and packing.

Back on the island we are steeling ourselves for the invasions of very-welcome tourism as our roads will fill up, our cafes will have less tables free and our ferries will struggle to stay operational.  Easter weekend will bring trade and traffic marking the start of our busy season as spring stretches the days into long summer beach stays started with balmy breakfast brunches and finished with boozy rosé sunset dinners.

Whatever you’re doing this Easter, QWightLike is here to ease you into your break with our chit and chat and musings on all manner of transport, tipples and touring tales.  From fixed links to flexible ferries, we cover the conversation points on the tongues of travelling townies tearing over to temptation on our diamond isle.

Thanks for listening.

Tim and Rory

A torrent of topical tales tumble into your shell like, as Tim and Rory wax the surfboard of chat and get to grips with stories from across the island and mainland, mixed with serious reflection on mother nature sliding into our mentions with interventions re-shaping the world around us.

Who else weaves the Tufty Club into Darth Vadar and the Green Cross Code man whilst promoting music festivals and chinese chip shops alongside the delights of island favourites such as The Garlic Farm for brunch and the Spyglass Inn for celebration meals.

As the general election looms larger then smaller again in the rear view mirror of the news cycle, and podcasts are recorded too early to capture the news from the day after the night before we tee up our plans to document the next electoral exercise right here on the podcast.  Our plan is to radicalise our listeners to see them agitate for the rights of all to enjoy a full cooked breakfast, English or otherwise.

Join us as we generate renewable energy in the form of an hour of chat on subjects medically reported to induce relaxation and/or angst in equal measure.  As the podcast bursts into meteorological spring we hear of opportunities to plan days out, get out of the house and into the shops, pubs, restaurants and visitor attractions all over the land.  We qwightlike that.

Thanks for listening.

Tim and Rory

Join Tim and Rory, for a jaunt around the island and many vaguely related subjects linked together by our shared ability to wax lyrical on almost anything and everything. We've been out, visiting beaches and "beverage opportunities", getting rained on and can be found in this podcast riffing, in the best tradition of the latest online influencer ... the Dadcaster, on all manner of subjects, educational and otherwise.

From smashed avocado breakfasts and millennial lattes to retired radio contributors (retiring just as demand for radio presenters on the island is set to increase), there's something in here for at least a few of you. We revisit a favourite haunt for traditional cooked breakfasts, for the Dadcasters, complemented by fruit-based offerings for their female companions and Tim introduces us to one of the latest exciting coffee stops overlooking Freshwater Bay, the Bike Box Cafe. Worth a visit whilst cruising the Military Road, whilst its still open to us.

Wrapping up with our periodic homage to the NHS and with a much more serious note, we acknowledge the role the medical profession continues to offer when we find ourselves in urgent need of intervention and support, despite the media's attempts to paint the NHS as in crisis. True or not, they always seem to be there when they need them.

News of New Year resolution progress allows us to bow out with a successful set of statistics and progress reports, albeit a horrendously exaggerated claim of rowing distance achieved. When Rory says kilometres, think metres. A tall tale in the making.

Thanks for listening.

Tim and Rory

A Valentine’s Day massacre (of Rory’s new roving microphone and headset) was narrowly averted by Tim’s free wheeling interview with the long-time Green party candidate for the Isle of Wight, VIx Lowthion.  As we continue our conversations with island politicians in the run up to the General Election, Tim manages to host a chat with Vix that ranges from her vision for the island as an active politician and councillor right through to her thespian activities with the Apollo Theatre in Newport and her geology walks.

Tim and Rory bookend this fascinating insight into the motives and activities of yet another candidate, this time for the new East Wight with chat explaining why we both abandoned our wives on Valentines Day evening to discuss politics and proportional representation.

Plenty to enjoy in this episode and a unique set of insights from an experienced local and nationally active politician, so sit back and enjoy another hour of topical chat in the company of Tim and Rory.

Thanks for listening.

Rory and Tim.

A wintry week with colds galore led us not down the garden path but rather along our much loved international tourist magnet here on the island being the Military Road.  This oft deified drivers’ paradise is facing its own challenges from the onward march of the sea and the elements as the tarmacadam sits perilously waiting to be consumed by nature.  If we don’t save it what damage will be down to our landscape, to our tourism, to our very identity as islanders? What will we leave Alan Titchmarsh to wax lyrically about as high definition drones dive bomb unsuspecting motorists to grab more stock footage of this national landscape?

The MP and a variety of citizen led social media campaigns have sprung into action to do what they can.  Spurred on by this show of community dedication we discuss whip rounds for post offices, village halls and once much-loved newspapers.Off-island adventures introduce one half of the presenter team to the delights of air fryers.  There’s much talk of triple fried chips and Sodastream powered Betamax video recorders and other flash in the pans.  Stay to the end to find out whose bed the Milk Tray man’s calling card may have made an appearance in much to the surprise of the other host.Covering all the bases, another episode packed to the rafters with topical chat.

Thanks for listening

Rory and Tim

As we career through the early weeks of 2024, evaluating early 20th century London postal delivery frequencies compared with the capital’s 21st century refuse collection cadence (yes really), sit with us as we review the early progress of  our New Year resolutions.  Listeners … we’re on it.  There’s no rowing back from us on these commitments and when they make the movie of this podcast they’ll see we had a plan, and we saw it through.

We consider the great philosophical questions of our time including whether printed books are preferential to digital copies, whilsht teaching you how to shpeak like Sean Connery.

In our second half we replace wide-ranging discussions on matters of existential significance (!) to compile a shortlist of our favourite island coffee spots, pubs and visitor attractions.  The very best of the Isle of Wight, places we QWightLike.  Listen to find out our personal favourites.  Lets us know if you agree.  If you don’t know the island, come and visit us, try our recommendations and let us know if you agree.

Thanks for listening.  Stay warm.

Tim and Rory

Happy New Year to all our listeners as we all welcome 2024 into our lives along with a new series of QWightLike A Podcast. In this new episode 1, Rory and Tim review their Christmas and New Year celebrations telling tales of their family gatherings and reviewing favourite festive flicks. Who had the most embarrassing gift unwrapping moment? Who received the gift of a terrible viral load to be laid low for the second part of the holiday period? Listen to find out.

With travel being such an important part of our island lifestyle, we were delighted when Tim was able to come alongside Bronwyn Hamilton-Brown, for a chat about the Wightlink User Group (https://www.wug.org.uk/) she founded in November 2022 and which now boasts over 5,000 members. If you need to get on and off our island this is a must-listen.

We round off our first foray of 2024, with a discussion on our New Year resolutions, leading to one or two interesting revelations, that you won't want to miss out on. You'll have to subscribe to the podcast to follow our progress throughout the year to find out if we miss out on our resolutions, despite them all being SMART goals. Google that if its a new term for you.

Thanks for sticking with us throughout 2023 and we hope we can encourage you to remain ahered to our output in 2024, both here and on Vectis Radio.

Thanks for listening.

Tim and Rory