I met Frances McCafferty when playing clarinet in an amateur musical. Frances had come from an international career in opera and had generously agreed to be part of the production, coming out of retirement to join the cast on stage. So I couldn’t resist the temptation of dropping past her dressing room one evening and asking if I could interview her about life in opera and what it took to get started.

It was a precious opportunity to get a first-hand account - it’s not every day you meet an opera singer, let alone get the chance to ask them about their story.

I met Markus Stitz just over a year ago, when I started cycling the Edinburgh version of Dawn Patrol that he set up. Dawn Patrol rides leave from the centre of the city at 5:40am a few times a week, for either a road or a gravel ride of about 30km, which ends at Cairngorm Coffee. All in time to fit in before starting work.

Markus has managed to put his love of cycling at the heart of how he makes a living and I could have very easily spent an hour asking him about that, but I decided instead to ask him to look back on the round-the-world solo bike trip that he finished almost 10 years ago. Because I’ve always been curious about the behind-the-scenes and the ups & downs of what cycling around the world is really like.

Markus added his own twist to the trip by deciding to take a single-speed bike, which as the name suggests means one gear, all the way.

https://markusstitz.com/

This is a love letter to my cycling group Dawn Patrol, which meets three times a week at 05:40 (yep, in the morning) to cycle the same 18 miles / 30 km or so each time and then have coffee together, before heading off and tackling the day.

This group has become very special to a lot of us and I wanted to give everyone the opportunity to explain why and how.

At the heart of the story is the value and joy of spending time together in person, no screens involved. Turning the pedals along the same route through all four seasons. In Scotland! No day is the same. The constant is that we love to do it together.

Today I’m talking to Nigel Forster, who builds guitars for a living. He did his apprenticeship with Stefan Sobell, who is considered one of the best in the world at his craft. After working under Stefan, Nigel set up his own guitar-making workshop in Newcastle back in 2004. If you ordered a guitar from him today, you would need to wait at least a year before you got it. When I look at the photos on Nigel’s Facebook page of some of the guitars he's been building, I can see why people are willing to wait. I don’t play the guitar, but these instruments are a thing of beauty.

https://www.nkforsterguitars.com/

Today I’m talking to Angie, who’s been a yoga teacher for the past 10 years. About a year ago, Angie set up her own yoga studio in Edinburgh with two good friends and I’ve been taking her classes there for the last few months. I liked Angie straight away ... it would be hard not to … she’s one of those people who doesn’t put up any barriers, right from the beginning. She’s warm and friendly and she definitely doesn’t take herself too seriously. It's a moving story of how she found her way to yoga.

https://www.lilayogaedinburgh.com/

Today I'm talking to Chef Jean-Pierre, who I found out about when a friend put me on to his YouTube channel. He demonstrates how to cook anything from classic French onion soup to the perfect steak, and strawberry tart.
At last count he had 1.6 million followers. You quickly understand why when you take a look at what he does, or more to the point how he does it. He has a great sense of humour, a zest for life, and above all the desire to explain the "why" behind fundamental cooking techniques.
This is a man who has been cooking for more than 50 years, since he started his apprenticeship in a 3-star Michelin restaurant in France. So imagine how happy I was when he answered an email out of the blue, asking if I could interview him. I hope you enjoy the episode.

Today I'm talking to Tim, who after working his way through different jobs in the travel industry, took a leap of faith 10 years ago to become a freelance mountain guide. 

Tim leads groups of either adults or school children in places as diverse as the Scottish Highlands, Nepal and East Africa. He not only guides people around the mountains, he also tries to teach his guests something about the area’s wildlife, history and culture. 

One of the places that Tim works for is Wilderness Scotland. In his bio on their website, Tim is asked what some of his biggest personal travel adventures have been. His answer includes trekking the 21-day Annapurna circuit in Nepal, ski touring inside the Arctic Circle in Norway, canoeing down the Zambezi River, and a 10-day sea kayak expedition in Greenland.

This is clearly someone who loves to explore the world and I started my chat with Tim by asking him how far back we would have to go to find when the travel bug began.

Today I’m talking to Zoë, who flies helicopters to transport people from Aberdeen in Scotland to offshore oil and gas platforms in the North Sea. Before moving over to commercial flying, Zoë was in the military, having trained at the highly-regarded Sandhurst academy.

Even before I spoke to Zoë, I got the impression that she was a high achiever and when I listen back to the recording of our interview I can hear in my voice that I was a bit intimidated by the image I had of her in my mind.

But you’ll hear Zoë talk about moments early on in her career when she didn’t yet have the confidence she has today, and about how she dealt with setbacks when things didn’t go to plan. Those are the moments I’m always hoping to hear about when I interview someone - a glimpse into what that person went through (good and bad) to get to where they are today.

Today I’m talking to Victoria Watson, creative producer at Eyebolls, her own animation company in Scotland. Eyebolls creates things like cinema ads and short films using live action (real people) or animation. It sounds like Victoria was hooked on animation before she even left school.

This is one of those stories where teachers tried to tell Victoria she would never get into art school. She very much proved them wrong. Not only did she get in, she built a career in animation. And she now has her own award-winning studio.

https://www.instagram.com/weareeyebolls

Today I’m talking to Niamh and Mark, who realised a long-held dream when in December 2017 they took over the Pyrenees Cycling Lodge in France, right near the border with Spain.

Tucked away in a picturesque village, the lodge has breathtaking views of the Pyrenees from its bedroom windows. The cyclists who arrive from around the world on holiday only have to concentrate on one thing - cycling up and down the famous Tour de France climbs on their doorstep. Niamh and Mark look after everything else, including cooking breakfast and dinner. That means working seven days a week, up early and going to bed late, for what can be a five-month season.

Theirs is a wonderful success story and it’s tempting to be jealous of the life they have created. But it takes guts to not only pack up and move your life to a foreign country, but also to buy a business there and take on all of the administration in a foreign language.

I hope you enjoy their story.

https://pyreneescyclinglodge.com
www.facebook.com/pyreneescyclinglodge
www.instagram.com/pyreneescyclinglodge