Radio Features

Former Apprentice contestant and Essex girl Natalie Wood came on board to cover stories around the county every weekday morning. And what a baptism of fire!

We had her squeezing into corsets, delivering fruit and veg, planting salad seeds and going on an early morning pub crawl with some trainee vicars! She loved it!

Ian couldn't help but try to follow Natalie's lead

Check out her shoes, which caused some attention at the Great Leighs Racecourse this week. We sent her there on the first ever Ladies Day. There was a £1000 prize for the best dressed gal, and Natalie favoured her chances... but didn't get a look in!

We wait to see what assignments she gets next week...

All aboard for Planet Ray

As August ends, normality returns, (well, as normal as things get on Planet Ray). 

Ray's back at the controls next week, no doubt full of tales of his summer adventures. Following the excitement of his 'Ray on the Road' week, and then joining me at the Clacton Airshow, he's had another week to recover in the Essex sunshine (ha!). Pity he didn't get to see much of it.

In his absence, we tried something new for our 'Story that you help us write'. Rather than one story across the week, we've enjoyed a separate 90-second story each day. They've been great and many thanks for sending them in.

If you missed any of the short stories, click here to listen to the full set:

Fun in the Sun

As we tried to grasp on to August before the sun sets on summer 2008, we've been looking for holiday destinations in our daily teaser. If you missed any of the (rather obscure) clues, here they are for you to catch up on:

Sounds like a magazine for your mum = MARBELLA
Unlock memories of an old South West favourite = NEWQUAY
Could be a term for an animal losing lots of it's summer hair, or someone making beer perhaps = MALTA
It may've taken a while to build, but it sounds like there's no place like it! = ROME