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Hi - Welcome to Peacockshock. My house on the internet. I'm Ian Peacock

I live in Hertford - a quaint but cool town just north of London England. I'm a media person. I run a consultancy, present radio programmes, do a bit of television and write too. I'm mad about animals and live with my eccentric but fabulous cat Bollinger. I go to the gym, swim a lot, and listen to music non-stop. My family mostly live up north, but also in Denmark and the USA. And I've lived in Newcastle, Durham, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Cambridge, Oxford and London.

So...don't dither on the doorstep. Come in and have a wander round. You can either just scroll down this page and see what takes your fancy. Or you can mouse around the house and click on the different rooms and areas. And keep coming back for new stuff.

Enjoy your stay.

Ian

Radio 4 Geocaching Programme on BBC iPlayer

Bolly consults her GPS to locate more food

My Radio 4 programme Cache in Pocket is now (finally) available on BBC iPlayer for a few days. And I've written a feature about geocaching enthusiasts for BBC Online (a touch more formal in tone than these witterings, as you can't - sorry can not - use contractions at BBC News, innit?)

Posted by Ian at July 26, 2010 07:52 PM

Balloon over Bluecoats

When I lived in Oxford, I saw hot air balloons most days over the garden in the summer, but you hardly ever see them here. So it was a pleasant surprise to spot this one over Bluecoats the other day.

Posted by Ian at July 26, 2010 07:34 PM

Trip to Mull

Posted by Ian at July 25, 2010 11:17 AM

Duart Castle

Posted by Ian at July 25, 2010 11:15 AM

Posted by Ian at July 25, 2010 11:12 AM

Pin-Up of the Week

This week's pin-up is a dainty damselfly - possibly called Deirdre. Damselflies have made a comeback in England in recent weeks, after flying off to the continent in a huff in 1952. Good to know our damsels are no longer in distress.

Posted by Ian at July 21, 2010 10:57 AM

RATS - Remove Absurdities from Television Scripts

Today's absurdity, on a weatherforecast -

It's going to be warm and sunny. So 'warm and sunny' sums it up quite nicely.

Indeed, it does.

Posted by Ian at July 18, 2010 08:49 PM

Congratulations Mum and Dad !!!

Congratulations to the Senior Peacocks on their Diamond Wedding Anniversary and on attending a garden party at Buckingham Palace, where they met the Queen.

Mum made and iced this cake

Posted by Ian at July 18, 2010 08:26 PM

OK - I admit it ... I did photoshop one bit, but the rest of this pic is genuine

Posted by Ian at July 18, 2010 08:23 PM

BBC Radio 4 Cache in Pocket

People keep moaning I never tell them when I'm on. So here goes ...

BBC Radio 4, Friday 23 August 2010, 11 am Cache in Pocket Producer - Sarah Langan

As you can see, it's a Radio Times Choice, described as 'fascinating' by their reviewer. How kind.

Basically, it's about my quest to become a Geocacher. Geocaching is a trendy-geeky hi-tech sport, which involves marauding round with a GPS receiver in search of hidden stashes.

Along the way, I meet a multi-millionaire who's found 15,000 caches, a hyperactive womble, and the legendary Dave Ulmer who invented it all in Oregon ten years ago.

I also get attacked by nettles, freak myself out in a tunnel and have a nasty brush with Muggles.

If you can't catch it live, you have no excuse. It'll be on BBC iPlayer.

Posted by Ian at July 18, 2010 06:10 PM

looking for an extreme cache, inadvertantly impersonating Holman Hunt's Light of the World

Posted by Ian at July 18, 2010 06:00 PM

Posted by Ian at July 18, 2010 05:57 PM

Totallylookslike

I've just discovered a fab site called Totallylookslike which features some very funny and revealing lookalikes (not just human ones). Definitely worth a visit.

Posted by Ian at July 18, 2010 09:27 AM

I've been to Southampton but I've never been to Scunthorpe

This is possibly the greatest line ever. It comes from Tinie Tempah's Pass Out

I can really relate to it. Because - like Mr Tempah - I've been to Southampton but have never, to the best of my knowledge, visited Scunthorpe.

Has anyone, I wonder, ever been to Scunthorpe but never been to Southampton?

Posted by Ian at July 18, 2010 07:33 AM

Fat Cat to Fit Kitt

Bolly - before and after (slim photo taken on 17 July 2010)

Breaking News. Bolly's no longer plump. In fact, she's verging on slim. For the first time ever.

This is thanks to her new Royal Canin Satiety Support diet.

Well done Boll!

Posted by Ian at July 17, 2010 02:49 PM

The Nigel Lawson Effect

Posted by Ian at July 17, 2010 12:30 PM

I'm delighted with Bolly's new size zero figure, having fretted about the prospect of her looking a bit anorexic. Thankfully it suits her. She looks cute and kittenish.

But it doesn't always work that way for humans. Nigel Lawson looks like an empty crisp packet now he's lost his trademark rotundity and ought to be forcibly re-inflated by the government. Same with that camp astrologer Russell Grant.

Some people just should be larger. Dawn French for instance. Santa Claus, obviously.

And Fern Britton too. I certainly know which Fern I prefer.

Posted by Ian at July 17, 2010 12:20 PM

The same goes for blonde hair. Some people were just born to be blonde, even if they weren't born blonde.

This brings me to the whole blonde-to-black thing, which seriously bugs me. What is it that possesses these people? Look what happened to Fernando Torres. He lost all his powers, like Samson, and he was rubbish in the World Cup. Either that, or none of his mates recognised him (or saw him), so they forgot to pass the ball.

As Abba once memorably said, 'There was something in your hair that night, the stars were bright, Fernando.'

Torres, before and after his tragic deblonding

Now Eminem's gone and done it. It's like some mad epidemic.

Surely it can't be about being 'taken seriously'? You can be blonde and intelligent. I cite Paris Hilton, Boris Johnson and Dolly Parton -

Just because I'm blonde, don't think I'm dumb, cause this dumb blonde ain't nobody's fool

The film Legally Blonde offers further incontrovertible scientific proof.

Posted by Ian at July 17, 2010 12:10 PM

Some people were born to wear glasses too - Alan Bennett, Ronnie Corbett, Nana Mouskouri. Without their glasses they are nothing.

Kate Silverton read the news without her glasses the other day and I had to turn the TV off.

And Woody Allen without glasses - that's just disturbing. And wrong.

Posted by Ian at July 17, 2010 09:53 AM

Whereabouts

Och hello. I'm now back with my wee sleekit beastie after a trip to the Highlands.

Posted by Ian at July 15, 2010 08:59 AM

Pin-Up of the Week

This week's pin-up is a friendly Shih Tzu I met on the ferry to Mull. He only spoke Gaelic, so I have very few details. But I'm going to call him Hamish and assume he lives on a croft with an elderly sheep and a small hen.