Time For A Cuppa And A Chat

I’m back.

Not that I ever went away you understand – I’ve just been filling my time with other projects.

Namely a new-found love of Twitter @pacey_patrick and my pictorial blog: thisisingaleesh.blogspot.com.

However a quote I read today from @BristolEditor sparked this blog back into life; in his 10 Commandments of Social Media (trust me to pay attention to something with a Catholic reference) it was Number 5 that jumped up and slapped me squarely round the chops:

One number and four stark words: 5. Thou shall not kill.

Guess I'd better stop sharpening my axe and polishing my gun then.

But, I digress.  So the quote:

“Nothing is quite as bad in social media-land as an account which is established and then sits there. Dead. No content. Nothing contributed. Setting up a social media space, such as a...blog, and then not adding content to it regularly is a sure-fire way of killing your social media credibility in front of a global audience. Add content. Add value. Just add!”

Therefore I decided it was high time I launched myself at Sebastian Vettel pace right back out there into the blogosphere.

As is probably clear from previous posts, my blog has two central themes: politics and my journalistic ambitions.

And in many ways the topics themselves explain my 3 month blog-lethargy.

1) The Tories and Lib Dems have been killing each other in the last few months, so I haven’t felt the need for blog-based Tory bashing; I simply sat back and let them get on with it, waiting to pick off the spoils at the opportune moment – more of that to come soon.

2)As for journalism, I haven’t had much to blog about there either; four months down the line, £3,000+ lighter and I’m still working for @bradmanagement (which is not to be sniffed at in the current climate).

However, I’m still hunting and ever optimistic – I’ve been wanting this for 15 years so it’s in my nature to be patient. 

My job hunt has taken me to some interesting places (Congleton among them); yesterday’s destination of choice was Dubai (lots of journalism jobs out there), although I’m not sure whether my forthright political views would be that well received in the land of milk, honey and erm…oil. Then again I should at least be able to tap up @Bin_Hammam for cheap Qatar World Cup tickets, if they ever get to host it that is.

So what's happened while I've been away?

Crucially,

Doreen and Neville Lawrence appear another step closer to getting justice for their murdered son Stephen http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13438629

And,

A court officially confirmed what anyone who saw the G20 video footage already knew – newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson was ‘unlawfully killed’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HECMVdl-9SQ

Everything else simply pales into insignificance.

Heading for the startline

The groundsmen are painting the white lines and the nets are being tested; as I stand here in the empty stadium, just days before kick off, I can at last see the newly laid turf of the field upon which the next chapter of my life will play out.  I say life, and not career, because for so long (since the age of 10), they have been intertwined.  I don't write to get paid, or because it's a job - I write because I love writing, and everything good in my life tends to spark creative thoughts in my brain which usually end up on paper in one way or another.


It's taken a long time and a three year hiatus moonlighting as a university recruiter, but finally I'm about to go back to my first love - journalism!  I'm staying true to my Northern roots but for four days a week I will betray the White Rose county as the express of trans pennine speeds me over the tops, through the dark stone walls and grey towns of Marsden, Stalybridge and beyond,  to land me on t'other side of the flowerbed.


The first textbook has already dropped through the letterbox and trying to comprehend understanding every page of this legal tome in 5 short months has already scared me enough into wrapping the book back up in the Amazon recycled cardboard and hiding it under the bed!