Reconnecting #28: Old friends?

In 2008 my family took our last ‘family holiday together’ before me and my sisters moved out. 10 days after my graduation we flew out to Australia and went to Melbourne, then stayed with our family friends Karen, Rob, Tom and Emma in Sydney and finished in Queenstown, New Zealand. I think it was while in Sydney or New Zealand we started watching a talk show called Rove and on this show were a couple of guys called Hamish and Andy.

                                                    The Harrold sisters in Sydney in 2008

When we got back to the UK, my sister Lisa found out some more about Hamish and Andy and discovered they had their own drive time radio show, and that you could listen to podcasts of it. So back in 2008 we started listening and loved it. It felt like we were listening to a couple of mates having a laugh. It got to the point where we talked about them so often, that my dad had a question about Australia, Lisa and I didn’t know the answer and he asked us to ask Hamish and Andy as he thought they were our friends!

Over the years they've had some really funny moments; getting the bucket to spin on the top of a KFC and discovering and getting Frank Stallone to perform a concert for them were particular highlights. I want to hang out with them at the Melbourne Cup, and forget the Oscars Vanity Fair Party, the only party I want to go to was the Logie Spit Roast Party. And who could forget the brilliant game of random John, where they would phone a random number and hope the person that answered would be called John. It went on for weeks!

Now like some friendships, mine with Hamish and Andy didn’t last. Life got busy and soon I got too behind on the podcasts to catch up. So it was just over a year ago I stopped listening. Yes there have been listeners that would have epic catch up sessions to claw their way back to present day, but I wasn’t one of them. So when my friend Coops who is also a fan (and has even spoken to them) suggested I start listening again, I did just that.

And like catching up with good old friends it was like no time had passed. Yes times have changed. Hamish is now married and has a baby. Andy has a girlfriend after being single since his split with an aussie supermodel. The banter was still there; the phone ins were still funny. The launch party where they relaunched their show was great; they got listeners to launch things and one guy wanted to launch a new grey jacket he bought. And Hamish and Andy’s mum’s interviewed the guys from Magic Mike which was really funny.

So now I’ll be going back to sitting on the train or in the car listening and trying my best to disguise my laughs as coughs once more. It’s good to have Hamish and Andy in my life once more, who knows maybe I’ll call in so I can say long time listener, first time caller!