WELCOME to the one hundredth post on Reporting From The Fox Tower, may I wish you and yours a Happy New Year for 2008.
Last year's logs - Medium Wave logs, December 2007:
Thursday 27 December 2007:
1650 GMT, 1557 kHz, France Info, Nice, France. Website. (This site is in the French language).
1718 GMT, 1575 kHz, Voice of Russia in German language via Berg transmiter, Germany. Website. (English language site).
1743 GMT, 1584 kHz, BBC Radio Nottingham, Clipstone transmitter. Drivetime, Alan Clifford. Website.
1800 GMT, 1584 kHz, Tay AM, Perth, Scotland. Friarton Road transmitter. Six o'clock news. Richard Allen. Website.
1812 GMT, 1602 kHz, Radio Vitoria, Vitoria, E (Spain). Website. (This site is in the Spanish language).
1834 GMT, 1611 kHz, Vatican Radio, Europe 2nd Programme: Lithuanian & Latvian language programmes. Website. (Vatican Radio website in English).
That's all for now, take care!
- Martin
- I was born in the beautiful city of Carlisle, resident of Cumbria. The view from my home includes the Fox Tower, after which I named this blog.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Oops, she did it again - Egremont Amy gets wed
TAKEN from The Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=499490&in_page_id=1770
I've married my Egyptian lover, says girl who ran away at 17
By HELEN WEATHERS and TOM KELLY - Last updated at 22:29pm on 3rd December 2007
A runaway schoolgirl has married an Egyptian internet cafe owner only hours after being reunited with him in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada.
Amy Robson, who has just turned 18, married 30-year-old Mohamed El Sayed - known by the nickname Noby - in an Islamic ceremony that seems to have passed in a rose-tinted blur.
"I don't need to cry another tear or feel depressed," Amy told the Daily Mail.
"I feel so happy now. I wish my parents could understand, they think he is not a good man but he is the best man I've ever met.
"He is the first man in my life. He is so special to me and I could never love another man like I love Noby.
"Do you think I have made the right decision? Because I know I have!"
Noby seemed pleased as well. "I am so happy to have found Amy," he said. "The thought of living without her was terrible. I had vowed I would never stop searching for her."
But for Amy's parents - James, 42, an electrician, and Janet, 33, a teacher - the wedding was anything but a fairytale.
"Jesus Christ. I've got to tell my wife," Mr Robson said on hearing the news. He refused to comment further.
For the Robsons, the marriage must be a bitter blow after nearly a year of turmoil.
It all began in a blaze of publicity last April when Amy first ran away from her home in the Cumbrian village of Beaumont.
She fled to Hurghada to be with married boathand Tamer Hossny, with whom she'd become infatuated on a family holiday the year before.
He left her high and dry when she arrived but within 12 hours Amy had fallen in love with Noby, a former policeman, who proposed the day they met.
A chaotic few days followed when Amy and Noby went to stay with his parents near Cairo as the international search for the sixth-former gathered pace.
The couple even started planning their children's names - Yusuf for a boy and Diana for a girl, after the late Princess of Wales - but a wedding was put on hold when Amy fell ill.
Amy's frantic parents, who also have two younger children aged 11 and ten, had flown to Hurghada and when the couple returned to the resort it gave them a chance.
They lured Amy to the airport by claiming she was going sightseeing and took her back to the UK. All contact with Noby was banned.
Noby decamped to his parents' home to set up a new cafe.
In October, Amy used money saved from her £30 a month education maintenance allowance to fund the £800 air fare to Egypt.
She spent more than two months taking part-time jobs in budget hotels as she searched for Noby in the sprawling resort.
Hours after they were reunited on Saturday they wed, although they will not become officially married until after a second ceremony later this week at a government building in Cairo.
The Robsons are understood to have contacted Amy by e-mail but have not spoken to her. They are not invited to the Cairo ceremony.
When speaking to the Mail, Amy was breathless with excitement, giggling so much she could barely get the words out as she clutched the hand of her new husband.
Talking about her parents, she said: "They will be shocked. They've never met Noby and I don't think they will ever want to, but I hope they are happy that I'm happy.
"I am sure this is something I won't regret. From the minute I met Noby all I ever wanted was to be his wife and to have his children.
"I feel safe with him. I really did try to forget him when I came home, but no one I met after returning to Britain could compare with him."
And so Amy married a man she has spent a grand total of 11 days with and who, she admits, speaks little English.
What next? It is clear that Amy hasn't really thought this bit through very seriously.
"We are going to stay in Egypt and live with his parents because there's no way we could go back to England and live with mine," she said.
"I don't think they'd be happy with that."
Amy admitted that when they brought her home the first time her parents were upset but had forgiven her.
When she fled for a second time, she refused to leave Egypt despite the absence of Noby and the desperate e-mails from her parents who were powerless to do anything to make her return because she was 18.
"It was horrible being here without Noby," she said.
"Every time I went out, Egyptian men kept bothering me, asking me to marry them.
"I just ignored them or told them to 'go away' in Arabic.
"I wasn't interested in anyone else but Noby. I just hoped that one day he'd come back for me."
The Robsons must have hoped that before long Amy - an unworldly, shy girl whose pretty head is filled with romantic ideas of true love - would tire of her adventure. But then Noby made contact.
"I was so happy," said Amy. "It was fantastic to see him again.
"He hugged me and told me he'd missed me so much. The minute I saw him I knew I was still in love with him and he told me he still loves me.
"He says he hasn't had any girlfriends since he met me."
So whose idea was it to get married that very evening?
"I don't know, I think it was both of us," said Amy,
"I didn't want to wait, so that evening we went off to an office, I think. We had to sign a lot of papers."
What a way to repay her parents. The Robsons have left the door open for her to return, without recrimination, but Amy is still living out her dream.
Of her wedding ceremony, she said she didn't know where exactly they went, who officiated, or whether it was a civil ceremony or a religious one.
All she can tell you is that she wore a pair of jeans and two of Noby's friends were witnesses.
No-one took pictures. They spent their first night as man and wife in a room adjoining an internet cafe. It must have been everything Amy dreamed of, because it is the cue for another bout of giggling.
So what next? Is she going to start a family? Is she going to convert to Islam? Will she have to abandon her Western clothes?
How will she talk to her in-laws who speak no English? "Erm, I don't really know," is Amy's standard response.
What will she do if, heaven forbid, it all goes wrong and she wants out of the marriage?
Amy's bewildered silence says it all. Isn't this supposed to be a fairytale?
Perhaps, if worst comes to worst, she could simply run away again.
[ Background reading: http://foxtower-reporter.blogspot.com/2007/05/egypt-or-egremont-choice-is-yours.html ]
I've married my Egyptian lover, says girl who ran away at 17
By HELEN WEATHERS and TOM KELLY - Last updated at 22:29pm on 3rd December 2007
A runaway schoolgirl has married an Egyptian internet cafe owner only hours after being reunited with him in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada.
Amy Robson, who has just turned 18, married 30-year-old Mohamed El Sayed - known by the nickname Noby - in an Islamic ceremony that seems to have passed in a rose-tinted blur.
"I don't need to cry another tear or feel depressed," Amy told the Daily Mail.
"I feel so happy now. I wish my parents could understand, they think he is not a good man but he is the best man I've ever met.
"He is the first man in my life. He is so special to me and I could never love another man like I love Noby.
"Do you think I have made the right decision? Because I know I have!"
Noby seemed pleased as well. "I am so happy to have found Amy," he said. "The thought of living without her was terrible. I had vowed I would never stop searching for her."
But for Amy's parents - James, 42, an electrician, and Janet, 33, a teacher - the wedding was anything but a fairytale.
"Jesus Christ. I've got to tell my wife," Mr Robson said on hearing the news. He refused to comment further.
For the Robsons, the marriage must be a bitter blow after nearly a year of turmoil.
It all began in a blaze of publicity last April when Amy first ran away from her home in the Cumbrian village of Beaumont.
She fled to Hurghada to be with married boathand Tamer Hossny, with whom she'd become infatuated on a family holiday the year before.
He left her high and dry when she arrived but within 12 hours Amy had fallen in love with Noby, a former policeman, who proposed the day they met.
A chaotic few days followed when Amy and Noby went to stay with his parents near Cairo as the international search for the sixth-former gathered pace.
The couple even started planning their children's names - Yusuf for a boy and Diana for a girl, after the late Princess of Wales - but a wedding was put on hold when Amy fell ill.
Amy's frantic parents, who also have two younger children aged 11 and ten, had flown to Hurghada and when the couple returned to the resort it gave them a chance.
They lured Amy to the airport by claiming she was going sightseeing and took her back to the UK. All contact with Noby was banned.
Noby decamped to his parents' home to set up a new cafe.
In October, Amy used money saved from her £30 a month education maintenance allowance to fund the £800 air fare to Egypt.
She spent more than two months taking part-time jobs in budget hotels as she searched for Noby in the sprawling resort.
Hours after they were reunited on Saturday they wed, although they will not become officially married until after a second ceremony later this week at a government building in Cairo.
The Robsons are understood to have contacted Amy by e-mail but have not spoken to her. They are not invited to the Cairo ceremony.
When speaking to the Mail, Amy was breathless with excitement, giggling so much she could barely get the words out as she clutched the hand of her new husband.
Talking about her parents, she said: "They will be shocked. They've never met Noby and I don't think they will ever want to, but I hope they are happy that I'm happy.
"I am sure this is something I won't regret. From the minute I met Noby all I ever wanted was to be his wife and to have his children.
"I feel safe with him. I really did try to forget him when I came home, but no one I met after returning to Britain could compare with him."
And so Amy married a man she has spent a grand total of 11 days with and who, she admits, speaks little English.
What next? It is clear that Amy hasn't really thought this bit through very seriously.
"We are going to stay in Egypt and live with his parents because there's no way we could go back to England and live with mine," she said.
"I don't think they'd be happy with that."
Amy admitted that when they brought her home the first time her parents were upset but had forgiven her.
When she fled for a second time, she refused to leave Egypt despite the absence of Noby and the desperate e-mails from her parents who were powerless to do anything to make her return because she was 18.
"It was horrible being here without Noby," she said.
"Every time I went out, Egyptian men kept bothering me, asking me to marry them.
"I just ignored them or told them to 'go away' in Arabic.
"I wasn't interested in anyone else but Noby. I just hoped that one day he'd come back for me."
The Robsons must have hoped that before long Amy - an unworldly, shy girl whose pretty head is filled with romantic ideas of true love - would tire of her adventure. But then Noby made contact.
"I was so happy," said Amy. "It was fantastic to see him again.
"He hugged me and told me he'd missed me so much. The minute I saw him I knew I was still in love with him and he told me he still loves me.
"He says he hasn't had any girlfriends since he met me."
So whose idea was it to get married that very evening?
"I don't know, I think it was both of us," said Amy,
"I didn't want to wait, so that evening we went off to an office, I think. We had to sign a lot of papers."
What a way to repay her parents. The Robsons have left the door open for her to return, without recrimination, but Amy is still living out her dream.
Of her wedding ceremony, she said she didn't know where exactly they went, who officiated, or whether it was a civil ceremony or a religious one.
All she can tell you is that she wore a pair of jeans and two of Noby's friends were witnesses.
No-one took pictures. They spent their first night as man and wife in a room adjoining an internet cafe. It must have been everything Amy dreamed of, because it is the cue for another bout of giggling.
So what next? Is she going to start a family? Is she going to convert to Islam? Will she have to abandon her Western clothes?
How will she talk to her in-laws who speak no English? "Erm, I don't really know," is Amy's standard response.
What will she do if, heaven forbid, it all goes wrong and she wants out of the marriage?
Amy's bewildered silence says it all. Isn't this supposed to be a fairytale?
Perhaps, if worst comes to worst, she could simply run away again.
[ Background reading: http://foxtower-reporter.blogspot.com/2007/05/egypt-or-egremont-choice-is-yours.html ]
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Winter wireless update
A FEW radio stations I heard on the Short Wave band recently:
WWV, Boulder, Colorado, USA - 5000 kHz - Time Signal Station (similar to 'speaking clock' with 'pips') transmitted from Colorado, USA.
Radio Sweden - 6065 kHz - Swedish language programme to Europe / Africa / Middle East via Horby transmitter, Sweden.
Radio PMR - 7370 kHz - English language programme to Europe broadcast from Pridnestrovye Moldova Republic.
Radio Sweden - 7420 kHz - Arabic language programme to Middle East broadcast from Sweden.
Radio Tirana - 7465 kHz - English language programme to Europe...
BBC World Service - 9410 kHz - English language programme to Europe & North Africa broadcast from Cyprus.
All India Radio - 9445 kHz - General Overseas Service (English).
That's all for now, take care folks!
WWV, Boulder, Colorado, USA - 5000 kHz - Time Signal Station (similar to 'speaking clock' with 'pips') transmitted from Colorado, USA.
Radio Sweden - 6065 kHz - Swedish language programme to Europe / Africa / Middle East via Horby transmitter, Sweden.
Radio PMR - 7370 kHz - English language programme to Europe broadcast from Pridnestrovye Moldova Republic.
Radio Sweden - 7420 kHz - Arabic language programme to Middle East broadcast from Sweden.
Radio Tirana - 7465 kHz - English language programme to Europe...
BBC World Service - 9410 kHz - English language programme to Europe & North Africa broadcast from Cyprus.
All India Radio - 9445 kHz - General Overseas Service (English).
That's all for now, take care folks!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)