Known to the public as the presenter of Godline, The Health Report, Getting into College and sometime present of Liveline, Teri Garvey's typical day, at home and work, has little to do with radio.
"I'm not a morning person," she readily admits. With three teenage children, "there's no family breakfast - we help ourselves." Dabheoc, now almost 19, begins engineering in TCD soon and will commute by DART, while Dallan, 17, is in fifth year in Monkstown and Yseult, 14, is in an all-Irish school in Bray.
Garvey's job is in the Central Remedial Clinic (CRC), Clontarf. There she teaches preschool children who are physically disabled. "The clinic is a lovely place to work," she says enthusiastically. It would need to be: living in Dun Laoghaire, and with the DART providing a level of intimate contact she is not quite ready for in the mornings, she usually braves the traffic - leaving home, her three children and husband at 7.45 a.m.
Garvey says she does most of her radio in the summer holidays and in the past few years has largely done live radio. "People says they hear me on the radio all the time but what they're hearing is usually taped promos or Playback."
She makes it all seem easy and even fun: "When I was doing Godline I had a five-minute drive in to RTE on Sunday. I was blessed with wonderful producers. You prepare in advance by phone. Live radio is highly productive." She is narrator for a new TV series, Read Write Now, and is presenting a new radio series, Making Waves, where listeners' views on programmes are solicited by letter, e-mail and fax. "The real hard work is done by the producers," she says, "I'm lucky to be a presenter."
"I have a philosophy that I only do what I enjoy. I'm lucky. I love the clinic, I adore the job, and I love radio. I'm sensible about keeping a balance. Coronation Street is a sacred half-hour when I won't answer the phone and I have lie-ons on Saturday and Sunday."
When three of her children were under five, she took a five-year career break from teaching: "I was able to do the swimming run, and the ballet, and the music . . . I have enormous sympathy with people who are torn to bits working and ferrying children."
Having trained as a Froebel teacher, she did a masters in early childhood education and has taught at second-level in Africa and at third-level both here and abroad.
Jobsharing for the past three years, she casually mentions that the then Minister for Education, Michael Martin, asked her to chair a committee on primary school principals. That took about a day a month, she says. It's all about organisation.
She is now back full-time at the CRC. Finished teaching at 12.30 p.m., she leaves at 2.15 p.m. and is usually home about 3 p.m. giving her an hour to read the paper and relax before the children get home.
She has a woman who comes in to clean once a week: "She's fantastic. I'm not big on house decor or gardening. I grow herbs. I love ironing and I like cooking but I hate hoovering.
"Last week I had a wonderful surprise. My daughter rang me. She had a half-day and wanted to check I'd be in by three as she had done a stir-fry."
Having recovered from Hodgkins, which she had during her teens, she had breast cancer, and a mastectomy, five years ago. "I would maintain a lot of people don't enjoy life enough . . . and then something happens. People keep making plans for the future as if they will be there forever. They shouldn't put things off."
As to the suggestion that she may lean somewhat too much in the other direction, she says she doesn't consider herself busy: "Life is very short. I like to do what I like. I like to spend time well."
