SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND

I'm on BBC Radio Leicester with Tony Wadsworth this morning, doing Something for the Weekend. This is a feature where local people are invited into the studio for a live interview about what they usually do on the weekend, what they're doing this weekend and to pick a song that sums up the weekend for them.

I've been on Radio Leicester many times, but always in connection with my post at Leicester Council of Faiths. Tony asks me about my work today and I get to speak about it at some length (especially as I'm doing two things later today related to it: the Building Shared Heritages open day at the University of Leicester and An Indian Summer in the city's Cultural Quarter). But I also get to talk about shared parenting, about being an older dad (and about my kids), about how I became a Bahá'í in 1979 (and why I've stuck with it for 33 years since) - and how bus drivers and cake shop assistants still don't seem to understand my accent, despite the fact I've lived in Leicester half my life! I also give a shoutout to the people who loom largest in my life.

And I get to choose a song to be played on air, something that sums up the weekend for me. There was never any other candidate but XTC's Life Begins at the Hop (1979). Watch one of the worst pop videos ever made for one of the best three-minute pop songs ever made on YouTube. I never met any women like those in the video, in 1979 or since. I can't imagine XTC did either!