Breakfast without Grimmy
Scott and Chris covered the Radio 1 Breakfast Show because Nick Grimshaw was away in the mountains. They were unsure whether he was in Austria or Switzerland and suspected he was enjoying après-ski without doing much actual skiing.
The conversation eventually reached Channel 4’s forthcoming celebrity series The Jump. Scott wondered whether Grimmy had been taken there under false pretences and would suddenly appear as a contestant. In the meantime, the stand-ins attempted Breakfast features including waking listeners for work and revision, although Chris’s motivational shouting was less polished without the usual music.
Scott’s mother empties the hotel
Scott had spent the weekend with his mother at Vienna’s Christmas markets. After he settled the hotel bill, she returned to the room and filled her case with miniature spirits, peanuts, crisps, two large towels and a shower curtain. She believed taking everything after checkout meant the hotel could no longer charge for it.
Scott pointed out that the hotel still held his card details and expected the missing items to appear on a substantial bill. Chris recognised where Scott’s own contradictory attitude to money came from: he could be extravagant on a trip while remaining immensely proud of saving a few pence on chargers and pound-shop decorations.
Sam Bailey wakes up an X Factor winner
Scott initially tried to avoid spoiling the X Factor result, even though Chris had already posted it and the news was everywhere. Sam Bailey then joined them after winning the final the previous night.
Sam said she had wanted to sit quietly and absorb the result, but was immediately pulled into interviews. She had been awake from about 5.30am, packed her belongings out of the X Factor house and moved into a hotel room with a television in the bath. Her winner’s single was a cover of Demi Lovato’s “Skyscraper”, and the victory also brought the extraordinary prospect of supporting Beyoncé.
Scott jokingly worried that “Sam Bailey HQ” had already taken control because she had not answered his congratulatory direct message. Sam remained recognisably enthusiastic, requested an Innuendo Bingo rematch and spoke warmly about her former prison colleagues. She intended to visit them and insisted that time with her children would remain central despite the sudden change in her life.
Hunting for the right office party
One of Chris’s single friends had developed a strategic use for the office-party season. He rang clubs to ask which companies had booked events that night, then chose where to go according to the professions attending.
His current aim was to meet a nurse, so a venue hosting healthcare staff offered better odds than one filled with bankers. Scott was surprised that clubs disclosed their booking lists, but the system appeared to work and could be repeated every night during the December rush.
The mothers’ presents move forward
Scott and Chris confirmed that the secret present exchange for their mothers was still happening. Chris planned to order Scott’s mother’s gift online, while Scott asked about French interests, wine, books, DVDs and, suspiciously, clothing sizes.
Neither man would see the other’s choice before Christmas Day. They would wrap the parcels, place them under the relevant trees and claim each gift as their own, trusting that their friendship would prevent another Mr McGregor-style surprise.
COMMENTS