CONSIDER sleeping next to your partner naked and not doing anything at all… Except maybe a hug or just enjoying the skin to skin contact.

This advice from sexpert Emily Power Smith stopped some of my KCLR Live listeners in their tracks.

If sex feels like another chore that we have to get to, then we need to slow down and “not force ourselves through another chore”, she said.

Texter of the week

Michael from Ballyraggett got a good laugh from the sexologist. In popped his Whatsapp message as quick as a flash: “I’m married 31 years and if my wife suggested we sleep naked and do nothing all night, I’d be wrecked the next day as I wouldn’t sleep a wink”.

GAA

On Wednesday’s show, we talked to Kilkenny native and daughter of the great Mattie Power, Cathy, on the show about the controversy over the GAA season tickets. It turns out a sneaky clause was inserted in the Ts and Cs sometime in March, stating that no refunds would be given on season tickets during a pandemic.

“I’m a bit pissed off,” Cathy said candidly, admitting she was having a conversation in her head all night, she was “so cross”.

Dermot Jewell of the Consumer Association of Ireland then joined our call saying “we were a little surprised” that this was done at all. “It’s the principle of the thing… there are thousands of people involved, it’s a lot of upset and out of pocket expenses to individuals who are great supporters of an organisation”.

The very next day, on Thursday, we found out the GAA had back tracked on this move and had emailed season ticket holders saying they would, in fact, now be offered a partial refund if the season was cancelled due to Covid-19. The refund decision we were told will be “dependent on how the remainder of the 2020 season can be completed”.

Not all heroes wear capes

One of the stand-out star contributors of KCLR Live since the pandemic has been Kilkenny GP Dr Tadhg Crowley. Dr Tadhg has been dividing his time between the community assessment hub and his busy practice at Ayrfield on the Granges Road in Kilkenny. He has also made himself available to answer all our listeners’ health questions on the show.

Dr Tadhg always offers an insight into how we are managing the coronavirus outbreak while using his sunny disposition to look on the bright side of a difficult situation.

When asked about how St Luke’s hospital was seeing higher numbers of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in recent days, he said: “We are not dealing with thousands of peoples, it’s just an extra six or seven so it can skew statistics… I wouldn’t judge it yet… but it’s still a sign up there that this thing is still in the community and it hasn’t gone away.”

Competitions and fun

We’ve really been enjoying all your entries to the Great KCLR Bake Off as your photographs of buns, cakes and bread are flooding our inboxes. Stephen Byrne has been busy posting to our Facebook and social media pages so keep an eye out as your buns could be on show soon 😉 Valerie, Martin and the team from Newhaven Kitchens have been busy posting out prizes to our wonderful winners and you may have noticed things have heated up on Fridays with our live on-air quiz.

We’ve also teamed up with our friends Bernard and Vicky Horohan in Tile N Style to offer a lucky listener a state-of-the-art Bluetooth mirror in exchange for the best DIY haircut video. We’ve got some side splitting entries so far… so keep those coming in folks!

Don’t forget Sean Swan from Swan’s Expert Electrical has also been giving our listeners a Chromecast every Monday for the best isolation video and our creativity has been amazing.

KCLR Garden Olympics

Now we’re facing into another bank holiday and I want to thank all our listeners for tuning in every morning and especially to all of you who text to keep me company throughout the show… There’s never a dull moment.

Next week, we kick off our KCLR Garden Olympics for the Good Shepherd in Kilkenny. Homelessness and housing are issues close to my heart so I’ll be doing everything I can to help Noel Sherry, the manager there, and his team smash our €15,000 fundraising target. We are encouraging you, at home, to get involved by holding a fun event in your garden with your own family and making a small donation, whatever you can afford to the Good Shepherd.

We’re thinking of the old fashioned sports day fun, like the egg and spoon race, or balloon races. I managed to convince the Carlow weatherman, Alan O’Reilly, and our little helper, Róise, to take part. You might notice the wonderful “Nurse Jelly Belly” pops her head over my wall in our online video to cheer us all on. You can catch this video on the KCLR Facebook page on Monday and lots more besides… And don’t forget the finale of Rockin’ the Lockin’ is all happening this Monday on KCLR with Shane O’Keeffe from 3pm.