My week in an online media wilderness October 20, 2009

oof! I can’t believe it’s a month since I last posted here!

I had a week of enforced IT-slacking last week as we travelled up to Scotland in Trevor the camper – no Twitter, no FB, no email…what’s a gal to do?

Reading

In a way it’s good to go cold turkey from the online news sources I love, (usually I’m logged into The Guardian, BBC, Times, Twitter  and Google reader right through thru the day) but I still needed my news fix so The Times was purchased each day and for once, I had time to forage through the whole paper, including reading features from start to end, doing the crossie (with help from The Hub) and even reading sports articles on cricket. What a total treat!!

Fiction wise I got through The Reader - not seen the film but the book was really compelling. Meanwhile the Hub tucked into two Famous Five stories (having rediscovering these on honeymoon) and we discovered that actually the famous five mostly spend their time eating and drinking ginger beer.  In years to come, I reckon Julian and Ann will grow into the obese, slightly sweaty and red-wine drinking detectives that we’re all so much more used to.

I also got a copy of Easy Living for some light amusement but did no more than flick through it as we were chatting away to mates we stayed with over the week rather than getting stuck into reading.

Watching

From Scotland we made it to Carlisle where my sis has the very ace wine store Corkscrew Wines.  Apart from some indulging in some Sky Plus viewing the highlight of which was Takeshi’s Castle – Sis and her Boy had NEVER SEEN this TV wonder – that was pretty much it for TV viewing for the week.   Actually I also recall we watched the unbelievably good Leicester v Osprey’s Heineken Cup game which our lovely Scottish hosts had recorded for us – absolutely brilliant, and I’m not even a Leicester fan.

Listening

With all that time in the van (seriously, it takes a loooong time to get to Scotland in Trevor), we took in a lot of Radio Two and disappointingly it was Mayo filling in for Chris Evans, so drivetime was lacklustre for me.  Aside from the rad, we also got through the Noisette’s album, the Phar Cyde cd belonging to the Hub and some Led Zepplin just to balance it all out.

Our final destination in the van was to friends in Birmingham and we had some ace retro music going on (ok, not that retro) – Inspiral Carpets, The Cardigans and other random brit pop stuff. Brill accompaniment to our hosts’ baking efforts in cookies…cakes..breads…mmmm.  This week I’m aiming to get the MP3 on with some serious work-out podcasts from Dr Bob!!

And online?

Is the economy biting – or just nibbling a bit…? January 13, 2009

I concur with my buddy Robyn’s view, that no news is good news – she’s a journo, so she should know.  Cocooned in my house for the past 8 days, I’ve had ample chance to devour the papers and tune into breakfast, lunch and 6pm bulletins – as a media relations officer, I probably should be as well – but I’ve barely managed to read T2 this past week and have positively avoided the tv news by sticking to my SATC dvd diet – the only time I have read a paper from cover to cover was whilst I was waiting to get the nod to leave hospital and desperately trying to avoid chatting to the man who wanted to talk all the time.  Deep breath – that was a long sentence.  

 

I’m not sure what my reason for avoiding the news is at the moment, usually I’m drowning in it at work with RSS feeds, daily emails and BBC News as my homepage, maybe I’m just enjoying the break and indulging in other things – like wedding planning and today, making marmalade! 

 

Through the haze of seville orange steam, I can see that the economy is all over the place, and yes although money and numbers and jobs are important, I’m kinda not *really* interested – maybe that’s a reason for my current news-avoidance. That sounds bad though – I am interested when it affects me, and this is how I’ve been affected by the downturn so far:

 - mortgage payments on all our properties have gone down – good times

- Nissan, who The Boy works for, announced job cuts  - bad times

 - Our honeymoon may now be a tour of the south coast of England in the camper van, rather than a trip to Ireland, cos of the Euro.  Or, it might be in a car park near the wedding, if The Boy doesn’t get it moving:

Trevor the van

 - Slight upturn in our thriftyness in the household, I would say (cheaper meals, less eating/drinking out, no weekends away for a while)

But, like Robyn, I haven’t yet been massively affected by the downturn.  I know of people who have lost their jobs and seriously hope that neither mine or The Boy’s are in real jeopardy yet.  But I remember my Dad getting redundant when we were kids (I loved it actually, because he was at home and had time to make our sarnies for packed lunch – important, cos he cut sandwiches into triangles, I tell you, not squares like Mother did) – we, as a family of six, survived that.  Recessions do end, jobs emerge, people get through it by not buying massive plasma tvs on credit and instead, scrimping a bit.  I may have a less postitive view if redundancy ever comes my way, but at the moment, I’m not too worried.

 

This is all of course in the context of spending a heck of a lorra cash on The Big Day later this year. We’re lucky, both sets of parents are chucking us a few quid, and we’re being creative and bargain hunting wherever we can (yesterday’s good finds were 150 candles for less than 50p each, and terracotta pots for table centres for £1.50 each, hooopla!!).  We’re also taking advantage of people we know with talents – Dad bakes cakes, mate does flowers, sister has a wine shop – all good. 

Like thousands of others, I subscribe to the Moneysavingexpert email update and this week, I actually got time to read it properly and take advantage of some stuff.  Usually I skim read and delete as I know I won’t get time to get round to following his advice and leads.  This week, being incarcerated at home recovering, I’ve had time to research and write to my banks to ask for unfair charges to be repaid (only £30 from if.com – but better in my account than theirs – and awaiting info from Alliance and Leicester), and I’ve managed to get 90 photo prints free from Jessops as well, which I never would have done if I was on my usual routine of flying in and out of the house, stuffing food down my gob and then sweating it out with exercise (I’m banned from exercise for 2 weeks. It’s doing my nut).

 

Who knows what 2009 will bring?  The certainty, despite any economic doom, is that I’m gonna get a husband, hopefully a camper van that works, I’ll be tucking into home-made marmalade and will continue having great times with my good pals – now, that can’t be bad, eh?

Off the CASE August 30, 2008

Got back yesterday from the CASE 2008 conference, which is a three day fest of info, ideas and presentations for people working in alumni, comms, fundraising and development in the HE sector.  It was an oooofing packed few days and I’m still feeling utterly brain drained and slightly achy from Thursday night’s dance fest.

There’s loads I’ve picked up, some good and bad, and I’ll post the serious stuff on our worky blog, so on this one I’ll focus on the world outside the conference presentations…

1. Going with 2 ace gals from work meant for a week of hilarity (mostly hysteria due to tiredness but, all the same, we larfed a lorra!).  Also, Brighton brought out our clumsy side – falling off kerbs, up steps, off coffee area platforms, down stairs – I think we managed to cover every eventuality where a trip could occur.

2. Why most people were in smart dress when the invite clearly said ‘casual’ was beyond me. Stop trying to show off, and put your jeans on.

3. Tuesday’s reception at Brighton Dome was hilarious, mostly because there was free wine, and the tropical theme involved throwing beach balls round.  On it’s own, a good PR concept.  With balls raining down, clattering into people’s drinks and the sound of smashing glasses resounding throughout the venue, a moment of pure comedy.

4.  Hot buffets. Stop them. Everywhere you turned it was hot food. I just want a sarnie or salad and fruit at lunch, not noodles, nor anything that will increase my muffin toppage further!

5. Seaside venue = good times.  Fresh air and the chance for a dip in the sea on the Friday morning, the best hangover cure known to man.  I managed to dive in pretty swiftly, which was the right thing to do cos the pebbles hurt your feet.  Robyn discovered this pain as well and instead of plunging in, chose instead to play statues, holding her pose knee high in water and finally releasing a blood curdling shriek when dunked.  The lifeguard ignored us. Probably best. Next year’s do is at Liverpool and I feel the water will be slightly chillier (more shrieking no doubt will ensue).

6. The peg game was a superb ice breaker.  Take a room full of pissed up HE people.  Add some cheesy music.  Sprinkle in a lorra more wine.  Then, introduce a peg and you have a hilarious, challenging game involving everyone of all levels and ages.  Hats off to Slingers who randomly had a peg in her bag. My highlight was pegging the eminent Peter Slee.

7. I’m going to sneak in a last highlight which actually is conference related and that’s just to note that Professor Tara Brabazon was the best speaker by far.  Completely engaging, sometimes in a slightly scary way, utterly bonkers – but brilliant.  She knows her stuff. And she has good shoes too.

I’m too tired still to recount any more, as is Ellie and most other delegates I’d imagine (although Mike had the energy to blog from CASE, and attend brekkie dos. What’s that all about!!). 

 

I now have urgent weeding to do around our broccoli and curly kale and more tomatoes than I would care for.  The garden calls!

Truth Recognition for idiots January 17, 2008

Reading last week’s PR Week (too busy to read over weekend) on the train yesterday, the industry leaders’ comments on what was to come in 2008 was pretty interesting.  John Stonborough’s prediction caught my eye:

“…despite spending over half a million quid of licence payers’ money to send 16,500 employees on a Truth Recognition course, the BBC will be engulfed in another fact fiddling scandal in 2008.”

A “Truth Recognition” course.  Really? What does that actually involve? I am intrigued!

Perhaps the need for this is indicative of the problems of the ’google’ generation where people are relying on random internet sources (such as blogs!) for their stories, but surely any journalist worth their salt should be checking facts, verifying stories and ensuring their sources are reliable?  My job in media relations demands this – how rubbish would we look putting out duff stories and flimsy facts!?  We certainly wouldn’t get off lightly and journalists shouldn’t either (as we’ve seen).

I’m one to believe that the BBC’s (and others of course, crap journalism isn’t exclusive) downfall is laziness, rather than malicious fiddling of facts but everyone needs to pull their socks up if the British public is to have faith in its media again…

My Week in Media January 8, 2008

Inspired by this blog and finding it interesting to see what people are consuming, media wise, I thought I’d have a stab at detailing what I’m taking in:

 What I’ve Read:

• The Blair Years – extracts from Alistair Campbell’s diary
• Dipping into The Thunderbolt Kid by the utterly ace Bill Bryson
• The Times, irregularly, but particularly for the sports coverage and T2 features
• Times Higher Education Supplement
• Brides magazine (did you know there are no less than 835 gorgeous wedding looks?)
• The apple tree pruning section in my gardening book, with the hope I won’t kill off the thing when it comes to hacking time

What I’ve listened to

• Radio 2 and Five Live on the way to work (flicking between the two according to how interested I am).  Always Radio 2, Chris Evans, on the way home
• On the MP3 – some Amy Winehouse, Fratellis and Human League
• The Idlewild album
• Random tunes on YouTube, which the boy has picked out as potential wedding bash dancefloor tunes – including Egyptian Reggae, Teardrop Explodes and Julian Cope

What I’ve watched

• A bit of light hearted GMTV if I have time in the mornings
• Sense and Sensibility – proving to be a great watch
• How to Look Good Naked with the loveable genius that is Gok Wan
• Gloucester being well and truly (and deservedly, worse luck) beaten by Bath on Sky Sports – down the pub, I hasten to add

What I’ve surfed

• Most news websites, on a daily basis! Particularly liking Google News at the mo
• People’s pics and status updates on Facebook
• Rugby websites: namely Gloucester RFC, the RFU and Olney RFC
• The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music’s forums, for advice on how to teach a pretty difficult piano piece to my student – very useful, if you’re interested

Boo, just realised I have already broken my NY resolution for less lists….