The Week We Almost Joined the CIA and Other Misadventures

katietrinder
May 20
3 min read

Updated: May 23

The week we almost joined the CIA and other misadventur well technically it's take two of the episode. Why?

Because Katie forgot to hit record.

Yep. 26 years in radio, and she missed the big, blinking, “Recording in Progress” sign. To be fair, maybe she needs one of those glowing “ON AIR” studio lights. Or maybe we just need to hire someone to press buttons. (Yes, that’s a real job now. Please apply within.)

Look for the big red button Katie!

So, for the second time, here’s our dossier of this week’s adventures. We did record it this time – and we mostly nailed it.

An Evening with Actual Spies

You didn’t mishear that. This week we found ourselves at an “Evening With…” two real-life spies – John Kiriakou (CIA) and Matthew Dunn (MI6).

Lucy, our resident social media truffle pig, spotted it on Facebook (obviously), and off we went to Nottingham’s Albert Hall.

It was fascinating. John spoke about helping capture the third-in-command to Osama bin Laden, blowing the whistle on CIA “enhanced interrogation techniques” (read: waterboarding), and – plot twist – serving time in prison for telling the truth about it.

He’s written all about it in Doing Time Like a Spy – and honestly, we got more insight on strategic thinking from that than Lucy did from Alex Ferguson’s autobiography. Which, despite high hopes, mostly listed footballers he liked and didn’t like- sorry Alex, Lucy doesn’t really know who they are, but shares your love of wine!!

Six Courses, Six Cocktails…

We also signed up for Nottingham’s Restaurant Tour – another gem Lucy found online – and it was one of the best afternoons we’ve ever had (even if we weren’t feeling very “slinky” by the end of it).

For £79, we had six meals, six drinks, and a lot of laughs:

Vi-Va: Warm Indian flavours and even warmer hospitality.
Delilah’s: Cheese and wine pairings that made us feel extremely civilised.
Pete’s Pizzeria: Rustic charm, frozen Aperol Spritz, and pizza perfection.
Coco Tang: Thai food, cocktails, and portions big enough to bring down a bear.
Baresca: Sangria and some, um, very large balls.
Bohn’s Burgers: So good, we visited their Edwinstowe branch the very next day.

Note to the organisers: if you could build in a nap break around restaurant four, we’d be forever grateful- but even without that, we’ll defo be doing it again, and may even venture beyond the border of fashionable Nottingham.

Book Club: The Self-Help Edition

It was Lucy’s turn to choose this month’s book club theme, and she picked Self-Help – because, in her own words, she’s “intrinsically miserable.” Her words, not ours.

We read 19 books between us. Lucy polished off six (classic overachiever- due to all the self helpy ness), while Katie got through one – Atomic Habits, gifted with great love and cherishment from Lucy last year.

The average score? 6.9. Respectable. Not life-changing. Pretty… whelmed. Which is ironic, because Lucy’s personal self-help philosophy is exactly that: not overwhelmed, not underwhelmed – just whelmed. Goldilocks-level contentment. (Mel Robbins, if you’re reading – call us- We’ve got a theory to pitch.)

Dog of the Week: A Victory by Default

Being honest – our dogs were gremlins this week. Between poos on carpets, midnight barking, and wandering off with other people mid-walk (seriously, Mabel?), it was chaos….ooh and Cyril dyed his head green.

But Flo? Flo did nothing wrong.

She wins Dog of the Week purely by default. Sometimes, staying out of trouble is the biggest flex of all- another lesson from self help month!!!

Black dog holding a colorful toy bone, resting on a red blanket. Text reads "Dog of the Week" on a gold badge and "Slinky by Tuesday" below. — The winner of DOTW

Meanwhile, the cats continue to be, well… cats:

Beverley: Lives in a pastel dreamworld.
Samantha: Only cuddles when she’s in the mood – which is rare.
Dolly: Still a criminal.

📚 Coming Up Next Week…

We’re airing our chat with author AJ West, whose works include The Spirit Engineer and The Betrayal of Thomas True - absolutely gripping. There’s also a book giveaway (if we can pry the copy from Katie’s hands). Stay tuned!