Episode 214 - Festive Frivolity

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HostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake

Roving reporterTony O'Connell

Show notes

From the Facebook post

Happy International Ugly Christmas Singlet or Shirt Day EVE adventurers! And DOUBLE excitement, Episode 214 is here!

Mel Ellis and Olly Spake co-host this week with Olly getting ready for the return of parkrun in NSW and Mel popping across to Tassie for a parkrun fix. Plus Channel 5 News Crew legend TOC catches up with a bunch of adventurers when he visits Mt Ainslie parkrun in the ACT.

From the podcast feed

The parkrun adventurers are getting into the festive mood ahead of International Ugly Christmas Singlet or Shirt Day. Mel Ellis and Olly Spake host the pod this week with Olly getting ready for the return of parkrun in NSW and Mel popping across to Tassie for a parkrun fix. Plus Channel 5 News Crew legend TOC catches up with a bunch of adventurers when he visits Mt Ainslie parkrun in the ACT.

Roving reports

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:20

  Melissa Ellis and Oliver Spake, now handed the pod by Mel Erbacher (with thanks to Danny and Nicola for the welcome), sending love to UK listeners back in lockdown. Mel did her first real-life parkrun in months at Kate Reed parkrun (event six) in Launceston on a trip with her mum for her 75th birthday, where RD Ruth recognised her singlet and the volunteers sang happy birthday; their Airbnb backed onto Windsor Precinct parkrun, and her planned uni graduation (a dementia care degree) was cancelled. New South Wales parkruns including Olly's Shellharbour are cleared to return from this weekend, and Olly has just been campervanning up the NSW coast as far as Port Macquarie.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 17:39

  TOC's roving report from Mount Ainslie parkrun in the ACT (event 101, 152 finishers), his first real parkrun in nine months, and audibly emotional about it. Runs as a self-contained pre-recorded block: a start-line scene-setter, then three field interviews, Brett and Lee, a Shellharbour couple on their first parkrun back who know Ollie and "Em" from Shellharbour; the two Barcode Scanners (Danielle and Wendy) on volunteering and the return of crowds; and Rebecca, the Run Director, on the course's "undulations", the missing kangaroos, and the summer 2019-20 smoke cancellations. Ollie and Mel debrief it afterwards, noting TOC has bought his first Ugly Christmas Singlet.

• International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day starts at 27:28

  Build-up to International Ugly Christmas Singlet or Shirt Day on 19 December, the episode's framing theme. Mel runs through singlet sightings from across the community: Pippa White and Christine in the UK (Christine attempting the Haldon Forest parkrun route) posting from the streak group; Instagram posts from My Glory Box and Crazy Scottish Running Girl; and Facebook posts from Michael Lyttle at the Brisbane Road Runners' Dash and Splash and Gabrielle Nair, whose photo of singlet-clad runners with emus in Kimberley, Nottinghamshire prompts a running gag about Fluffy's "Northern Hemisphere cousins". TOC is noted as a first-time singlet buyer.

• Poem Zone starts at 31:36

  Mel reads out a listener's Christmas parkrun poem, written by Jennifer alongside a photo of two Lego men in ugly Christmas sweaters, four stanzas on matching shirts, mud and puddles, gratitude to volunteers, and earning the Christmas feast. Ollie responds "It's almost like a throwback to the poem zone."

• Sign-off starts at 37:47

  Ollie encouraged everyone to keep in touch over Christmas - enjoy and share the love if you are getting a Christmas Day parkrun, reach out and be there virtually if you are missing out - then asked whether Mel would be Christmas Dayparkrunning; she was unsure, though she might dress Daryl up for what could be the final Ellis Palace parkrun, and Ollie said his would probably be a casual one. They then wrapped up, handed the reins back to Mel for the following week to report on how International Ugly Christmas Singlet and Shirt Day went, wished each other a Merry Christmas and wished listeners a safe and merry Christmas and hoped to hear from them in the new year.