Living under canvas? I'm converted | Rick Jackson

Even the wind and the rain of the Monday did not put a damper on our spirits as we cosied up inside our tent, playing games and reading books.

The weather slowly improved and you soon realise how much freedom you have.

For once there was no timetable, there were no queues and no hustle and holiday bustle.

My ‘cruise updates’ were running thin by Tuesday as I announced that we were now arriving in Naple – had our cruise ship actually sailed – or that we’d be eating dinner in the Epicurean restaurant now.

After a game of crazy golf and a trip to Sandown Zoo, where I was basically face-to-face with tigers and lions you see only at a distance at Longleat, I’d forgotten all about the 24-hour buffet on a cruise ship.

The kids were sleeping in their own black-out pods which meant they settled better and weren’t awake at sunrise.

Our airbed looked straight out of a plastic window and the view was perfect. Trees, blue sky and a couple of people in the distance pottering around their caravans.

It was so much more serene than queueing for the breakfast buffet on a cruise ship, which can be a right old bun fight.

That’s the one thing you can escape from on a camping holiday, people!

On all-inclusive holidays you are governed by timetables. When to eat, entertainment, kids’ clubs...

As I sipped from a glass of merlot from my pitch it was only then I realised how much you are herded around like sheep on other types of holiday.

I found camping very relaxing and rather enjoyable.

There was even more quality time with the family than I had imagined and some amazing memories made from this new experience.

Don’t get me wrong, as soon as I am able, I’ll be back on a cruise ship sipping from a glass of merlot in the Crow’s Nest bar above the bridge.

But until then, all I need is a field, a mallet... and a heater!

They want us to get fit then give us a tenner off a meal

I’ve just finished my first indoor workout at the gym since March. I’ve been impressed with the team at SC Vital Fitness at Farlington who have gone above and beyond to keep everyone fit and healthy.

It’s strange, the government giving us £10 in its Eat Out to Pork, sorry Help, Out campaign, but not offer incentives to get fit when obesity puts you more at risk of complications from Covid-19.

Nine separate workout areas with our own equipment and two trainers provide a safe but fun environment. It’s different from March but the results are the same. No government can get everything right, but making it easier to work out should be on the list.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

If I be waspish, best beware my sting… and your groin!

My poor daughter Holly was stung by a wasp on holiday, but her pain did provide some great content for my breakfast show!

After Ross Kemp was stung on the upper lip by four wasps, making him look like the girls in Towie, I asked my listeners the worst place they’d been stung.

One woman was stung on the boob on her way to school as a child. By the time she got to the nurse it looked like she had four breasts! Then there was the lorry driver, who with his cab window opened, spotted an angry-looking wasp in his groin. Should he wait to be stung? No, he thought, and swiped it off. He felt the sting would have been less painful than that sharp, hard slap to his private parts.