At home with Laura Wood

Entertainment Correspondent for TV3, presenter of the Saturday morning show on East Coast Radio, as well as doing voiceovers and links for Dublin’s 98FM, Laura Wood is certainly among our busiest broadcasters.

When not fronting a microphone or appearing before a camera she likes to spend her time at home, chilling out.
“I’ve found that I stay in much more these days than I used to,” she says. “I tend to take it easy in the evening after a hard days work, so a glass of wine and a DVD is the perfect way for me to relax.”
Home for Wood for the last three years has been an apartment in Sandymount in south Dublin, which she shares with a friend.
Unlike most property-obsessed Irish people, she says she has no intention of climbing on the property ladder. “My philosophy on property is, I’m probably going to rent for the rest of my life like a French person,” she says. “I prefer to rent where I want to live, rather than have to buy somewhere I wouldn’t want to be. Since I couldn’t afford to buy in this area I’m happy to rent.”
She says the location offers everything she could ever want. “I absolutely love where I’m living,” she enthuses. “The apartment is older than most and is nice and roomy with a real fire. It’s right beside the railway line but that doesn’t bother me. Though when people visit say they’d often say, ‘Oh my God what’s that?’ when a train goes by. The apartment doesn’t exactly shudder but you can certainly feel the vibrations.
“The big thing about Sandymount for me is there are lots of nice cafés and restaurants around here. It’s a Sunday afternoon kind of place which I like. It’s only in the last year that I’ve stopped working on Sundays and I’ve come to appreciate it much more. But the other thing about living here is you’re so close to town.”
Wood got into broadcasting almost by accident, having worked in the restaurant business in Greystones where she grew up. After spending time travelling in Australia and New Zealand she decided to pursue a media career. “A couple of people had said to me that I had a good voice,” she says. “My dad worked for RTÉ as a legal correspondent and he encouraged me to do something about it. So I ended up doing a voiceover demo which I sent to a production company. I got offered a 12-part educational series on RTÉ which was the first thing I did. Then I got contacted by City Channel where I presented a fashion programme. TV3 contacted me when Lorraine Keane was on maternity leave and then 98FM asked me to do all their voice-work. I love the fact that my work involves working across the two different media.”
Given the fact that music plays a big part in her working life she is an avid consumer of CDs and a regular at live shows, as she explains. “I probably have the broadest range of music taste of anyone I know,” she says. “The Beatles would be a big one for me – I started learning guitar about a year ago and I have a Beatles book so I know pretty much all their songs. Aside from that I’m a big Primal Scream and Stone Roses fan and I love everything from Johnny Cash to Amy Winehouse and Ennio Morricone.
“I go to a lot of live music went to Rodrigo y Gabriela recently and they were brilliant though I didn’t really enjoy them as much on CD. I love going to see bands like Republic Of Loose and The Chapters.
Entertaining is another favourite pastime of Laura’s and she regularly has friends around for an evening. “I would generally tend to have a few people over, go out to town and have even more people back later on. A lot of my friends would be into playing guitars so there’d be a bit of a session, which doesn’t always go down well with the neighbours.
“And I’m big into food,” she adds. “I love eating and I got to taste a lot of things working in the restaurant. If they got in something unusual like kangaroo or quail I’d always try it out. Mainly I love cooking Italian food and I’m addicted to rocket salad. Another favourite would be beef stroganoff with lots of red wine.”
Appearing on TV regularly, Wood has to keep up appearances and she keeps in shape by attending the gym as well as walking on Sandymount strand. “I’m into fashion too, especially shoes,” she says. “I have quite a few pairs of shoes – I wouldn’t call it a massive collection but recently I found that I’d hid quite a few pairs under the bed.
“I’m quite a tidy person around the house. I didn’t realise how tidy I was ‘til my mum said it to me the other day. I always remember when I was younger folding things and putting them away neatly. I’m not saying I wouldn’t have clothes all over the bed when I’m getting ready to go out, but I do like to be organised.”