I Love My Job

Nigel - guitar maker

Today I’m talking to Nigel Forster, who builds guitars for a living. He did his apprenticeship with Stefan Sobell, who is considered one of the best in the world at his craft. After working under Stefan, Nigel set up his own guitar-making workshop in Newcastle back in 2004. If you ordered a guitar from him today, you would need to wait at least a year before you got it. When I look at the photos on Nigel’s Facebook page of some of the guitars he's been building, I can see why people are willing to wait. I don’t play the guitar, but these instruments are a thing of beauty. https://www.nkforsterguitars.com/ [https://www.nkforsterguitars.com/]

Angie - yoga teacher

Today I’m talking to Angie, who’s been a yoga teacher for the past 10 years. About a year ago, Angie set up her own yoga studio in Edinburgh with two good friends and I’ve been taking her classes there for the last few months. I liked Angie straight away ... it would be hard not to … she’s one of those people who doesn’t put up any barriers, right from the beginning. She’s warm and friendly and she definitely doesn’t take herself too seriously. It's a moving story of how she found her way to yoga. https://www.lilayogaedinburgh.com/ [https://www.lilayogaedinburgh.com/]

Chef Jean-Pierre

Today I'm talking to Chef Jean-Pierre, who I found out about when a friend put me on to his YouTube channel. He demonstrates how to cook anything from classic French onion soup to the perfect steak, and strawberry tart. At last count he had 1.6 million followers. You quickly understand why when you take a look at what he does, or more to the point how he does it. He has a great sense of humour, a zest for life, and above all the desire to explain the "why" behind fundamental cooking techniques. This is a man who has been cooking for more than 50 years, since he started his apprenticeship in a 3-star Michelin restaurant in France. So imagine how happy I was when he answered an email out of the blue, asking if I could interview him. I hope you enjoy the episode.

Tim - mountain guide

Today I'm talking to Tim, who after working his way through different jobs in the travel industry, took a leap of faith 10 years ago to become a freelance mountain guide.  Tim leads groups of either adults or school children in places as diverse as the Scottish Highlands, Nepal and East Africa. He not only guides people around the mountains, he also tries to teach his guests something about the area’s wildlife, history and culture.  One of the places that Tim works for is Wilderness Scotland. In his bio on their website, Tim is asked what some of his biggest personal travel adventures have been. His answer includes trekking the 21-day Annapurna circuit in Nepal, ski touring inside the Arctic Circle in Norway, canoeing down the Zambezi River, and a 10-day sea kayak expedition in Greenland. This is clearly someone who loves to explore the world and I started my chat with Tim by asking him how far back we would have to go to find when the travel bug began.

Zoë - oil industry helicopter pilot

Today I’m talking to Zoë, who flies helicopters to transport people from Aberdeen in Scotland to offshore oil and gas platforms in the North Sea. Before moving over to commercial flying, Zoë was in the military, having trained at the highly-regarded Sandhurst academy. Even before I spoke to Zoë, I got the impression that she was a high achiever and when I listen back to the recording of our interview I can hear in my voice that I was a bit intimidated by the image I had of her in my mind. But you’ll hear Zoë talk about moments early on in her career when she didn’t yet have the confidence she has today, and about how she dealt with setbacks when things didn’t go to plan. Those are the moments I’m always hoping to hear about when I interview someone - a glimpse into what that person went through (good and bad) to get to where they are today.