Newsroom Blog

Welcome to our newsroom blog. There are two of us covering the Milton Keynes and North Buckinghamshire area - Victoria and Verity. Verity reads the news on Heart Breakfast from 6am, whilst Victoria reads from 4pm. When we’re not on air we are hunting down news stories. You won’t find a lot of journalism in this blog – instead it’s an area for 2 wandering minds – and we’ll try and update it as often as possible. Hope you enjoy it and feel free to drop us an email at mknews@heart.co.uk

Tuesday 1st June - Victoria

I'm sitting in the newsroom looking at rain, grey skies and more rain....I can't believe it! It's June!

What I'm actually more worried about is that I'm going camping in just over a week (we've got tickets to a festival) and I'm just not sure that I can handle too much mud and water. As gross as it sounds, I actually don't have too much of a problem not washing for a few days, but I know the miserable side of me will come straight out if any of my sleeping stuff gets wet. I like to think that I'm a rugged adventurer who can handle any conditions, but really I'm just a slightly delicate girl who likes her creature comforts. Namely a fluffy pillow and warm blanket. Mmmmm. It's making me sleepy just thinking about it.

So please keep your fingers crossed for summer to start soon, because if not I'm going to have to work out whether it's more comfy to sleep in the front or the back of the car.

ps Welcome to Verity! She'll be blogging soon.

Wednesday 12th May - Victoria

Good news! My sunflower has started to grow. It's the one that I put outside straight away. I was about to throw out all of the compost and start again, but then I noticed its little leaves poking through. I don't want to get too excited because it's still early days, but fingers crossed this one's a keeper!

Other than sunflower watch, I have been glued to the TV watching all of the election excitement.

I left work later than normal yesterday so I could see Gordon Brown's resignation and his trip to the Queen, then I got home as quickly as possible to try and catch David Cameron's take over...only to find my boyfriend and his Dad playing Golf on the Wii. So after following every second of the campaign for the last few weeks, we managed to miss the most historic part of the whole thing! Doh!! Thank goodness for replays!

Wednesday 5th May - Victoria

I wanted my next entry in this blog to be about how well my sunflowers are doing. Any readers from last year will know I managed to grow three really tall sunflowers last summer (although one tragically died!) and I was hoping for a repeat performance in 2010.

But so far I haven't had any luck!! I've planted about five seeds so far....all in different tubs and pots, some of which I kept in the airing cupboard, some of which I put straight outside, and some which started off on the window sill. And each one has just been a huge disappointment. Two sprouted, but then died a few days later.

Personally I blame the batch of seeds I bought. They are obviously faulty and it has nothing to do with my green fingers (or lack of them!) So I'm going to invest in some more later this week and give it one more go.

I really need to grow a sunflower....I've spoken to so many people about how talented I am at it (and also planted a number of seeds for friends and family, all of which have died) that I need to prove my point!

Monday 22nd March - Victoria

Well, I did it!

Yesterday I jumped out of an aeroplane from 12,500 feet to raise money for the Have a Heart Appeal, which is donating to the Starlight Children's Foundation.

Am feeling very proud of myself...not just for doing the jump but also for managing to raise a good amount of money for the charity. Our target was £1,000 and we're almost at £1,100 so hopefully that'll help put a smile on a few children's faces in Milton Keynes.

If you haven't sponsored us and want to then you can do it here: www.doitforcharity.com/sarahandvikki

But, as proud as I am of my achievement, I'm starting to think I've become a really boring person, because my skydive is all I want to talk about! I'm really not interested in what anyone else did this weekend, I couldn't care about how people's days are going. All I want to say is "I JUMPED OUT OF A PLANE!!!!!"

I went to a dinner party last night and the poor birthday girl didn't get any attention because I stole it all to talk about my jump. My sister's just moved house, but when I call her tonight, I don't want to know about her new bathroom.....my story is better!!

I'm not sure how long it'll take for the excitement to wear off. Probably until I don't have many friends left.

But for now, I'm still hugely proud of myself and not a good person to be around if you don't have much patience with extreme sports stories!!

Thursday 25th Feb - Sarah

I am exhausted this morning, getting by on just 4 hours sleep!

The reason for my fatigue is because last night I went to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at Milton Keynes Theatre. It was absolutely amazing. In fact it was so good that I couldn’t stop thinking about it as I lay in bed last night! It was magical!

The show has got it all, catchy tunes, amazing sets, 11 real dogs and 20 children from a local stage school performing each night. The local kids seemed to be having the time of their life up there on the stage, despite being stalked by the nasty child catcher, who is very scary!

But the highlight of the show was when the magical car started flying. As soon as it started going up every adult in the audience moved forward in their seat, craning their necks to try and see how it was done. But the lighting is so good that you cannot see a thing. As Victoria Meakin said, who was sitting next to me, “it’s truly magical!”

Wednesday 10th Feb - Sarah

Victoria and I have decided to ‘do our bit for charity’. Heart has a charity, ‘Have a Heart’, and each year we will be raising money to help local organisations. This year we are trying to buy some new entertainment systems - which include DVD players, video games etc - for the kids who are being treated at MK General Hospital.

So Victoria and I decided to get behind this great cause and set about trying to come up with some sponsored event. Rather than a sponsored silence (which quite frankly would have been impossible – I am probably the biggest talker in the building and love nothing more than a good bit of juicy gossip), or even a sponsored walk (unlike Victoria I am not a runner – the thought of a run brings me out in a sweat)  we have decided to do a parachute jump. EEEK!

It’s no secret that I hate theme parks. The only ride I feel reasonably comfortable on is the “Tea Cups”, but even then I like to have my own “cup” so no one can spin me round too fast. Rollercoasters scare me and anything that leaves me dangling in the air makes me feel incredibly sick. So for some crazy reason, in just over a months time I will be harnessed to some poor person and will pop out of the side door of a plane, many many feet above the ground, and will hurtle down. Even thinking about it makes my heartbeat quicken! I am petrified and can’t stop thinking “uh-ooo!”

So we need your support and help. Please help us raise as much money as possible by following this link http://www.doitforcharity.com/sarahandvikki

Monday 8th February - Victoria

I feel like I'm falling apart! As I told you a few weeks ago, I've signed up to do the Milton Keynes Half Marathon, and now the training has really kicked in I can't move without being in pain.

If we start with the obvious, my feet are killing me. All my nail varnish has chipped off and (sorry to be gross) I have blisters the size of the MK Bowl.

Moving up the body, my calves and knees are in serious pain. I finished a run yesterday and had to limp my way through Olney Farmers Market, literally dragging my left leg behind me, because I couldn't bend them at all. I always had a vision of being some fantastic looking sporty type, but with my red face, sweaty hair and glazed over stare, I think I looked more like something from a horror film than a fitness video. I did get some strange looks from the market owners.

Lastly, my whole upper body is covered in plasters because of the amount of chafing that's been going on. I won't go in to details but suffice to say, the sales of plasters in MK are probably through the roof. It doesn't look great but it was the only way I could get to sleep last night without feeling like I'd been through a cheese grater!!

I decided to do the half marathon as a warm up for the full one. But, I'm now happy to say, publically, that March 7th 2010 will signal the end of my running career.

Monday 1st February - Victoria

Last weekend my big sister announced she was getting a kitten, and since then my whole family has gone it to excitement overdrive. My mum is incredibly jealous and my dad's busy trying to work out when they can travel from Cardiff to Cambridge to have a cuddle with him.

Sirius (as he has been named) arrived from the shelter on Friday, so first thing on Saturday we jumped in the car to go and visit. And what a little cutie he is. Ginger and fluffy with massive blue eyes.

It's amazing how a little ball of fluff can reduce even the most 'anti-cat' men to mush. My brother-in-law (who always claimed he was a 'dog-man' and resisted getting a cat for years and years) has spent hours lying on the floor waving some feathers in front of Sirius, and now won't leave the house without checking the heating is at the right temperature for him. Even my own boyfriend (who I have never seen touch a cat in the whole 6 years we've been together) spent a good half hour throwing things for him, and even made a special effort to say 'goodbye' before we left. He's also been getting his phone out for all of our friends since we got back to show the video he took of him playing. I'm thrilled because a cat is top of my 'things I want' list, so I'm hoping soon little Sirius will have a cousin living in Milton Keynes, which everyone can go equally gooey over!

Friday 22nd January - Sarah

It’s been an exciting and busy week in the newsroom this week. On Wednesday Victoria and I were covering the story of Amy Winehouse in court for assaulting a manager at the MK Theatre when she visited the new city just before Christmas to watch the panto Cinderella. Victoria was outside the court in the scrum of paparazzi and tabloid photographers, whilst I got the better deal and was inside court staying nice and warm! Amy Winehouse and her entourage arrived 20 minutes later than we expected and when she did arrived the surge of photographers was quite something. How she made it up the steps of the court in one piece I don’t know! Amy Winehouse was very petite and wore a white blouse and grey skirt, with little pink ballet pumps. She also wore a gold ring on her left hand. There was quite a buzz of excitement around the court…I guess it’s not everyday that an A List celeb comes to MK.

Finally yesterday we spent a lot of time being shown our new website which will be launching very soon. I must say it does look good. Though now Victoria and I have to work out how to use it and update it! I understand the new website’s due to launch at some point next week so keep your eyes peeled!

Tuesday 12th January - Victoria

I've signed up to the Milton Keynes Half Marathon in March. It'll be the furthest I've ever run (up until now I've only done 10k) and I'm really looking forward to the race and to crossing the finishing line. The trouble is, I really can't be bothered with all the training you have to do for it. I've printed off a schedule from the internet and this week I'm meant to be doing about four runs, each of which should be 6 or 7 miles long. Now, because of the snow I'm having to do it all on a treadmill and it's just so dull. I used to be able to entertain myself with an episode of Friends but now I've seen them all about a hundred times, even that doesn't motivate me anymore. As egotistical as this sounds, I actually run faster if I'm looking at myself in the mirror instead of watching Joey and Chandler.

And the second problem is how much time it takes up. My social life has dwindled significantly and my evenings seem to be taken up with packing a gym bag, driving back and fore to the gym, showering and then washing my kit so I can do it all again the next day.

Anyway, only a few more weeks and with any luck I'll pick up an injury so have the perfect excuse never to have to put my trainers on again!!

Monday 11th January - Victoria

Happy New Year!! It's been a while since I updated this blog for which I'm sorry and promise to do better in the future.

During December - like most people - I spent a lot of my time eating and drinking and denying the fact that I have a gym membership. So on January 1st I launched head first in to a seven day detox. I cut out dairy, sugar, caffeine, fat and wheat from my diet (meat and fish were never in there in the first place) and spent a week eating mainly homemade hummus, rice cakes and bland vegetables. By the end of the week it was hard to open a cupboard door in my kitchen without tearing the packaging off all the yummy looking normal food in there.

My detox finished on Friday and to reward myself I made a lovely curry.....rice, saag, daal, rice, chana masala, rice, poppodoms, naan bread and rice. Needless to say we made enough rice to feed most of Milton Keynes and I have been living off it ever since. First there were the left overs on Saturday and Sunday lunch time. Then on Sunday evening we went out for a meal with friends.....to a curry house. And I've just finished eating my way through a chick pea and tomato concoction that I put together yesterday before we were invited out. I am officially curried out.

And the worst thing is there's still a massive tub of basmati in the fridge which looks like it's my dinner.

I need a salad....and quickly!!