My old blogs that I didn't want to just delete...
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Alexei Sayle is fun
Sometimes I just want to type, to write and write some more. I am listening to Alexei Sayle’s autobiography and I just want to type what I am listening to. His book of short stories, ‘Barcelona Plates’, is one of the best books that I have ever read. I always miss it out when people ask me about favourite books because it feels like it’s a bit of a cop out to have a book of short stories by a comedian as your favourite book. The first story is about the death of Princess Diana and how a tired driver coming back from a bad holiday in Spain accidently knocks a car off the road and into the wall of a tunnel.
He takes very simple stories and puts a comedic and occasionally horrifically dark twist on this. Apparently he lives in the town that I used to live in just near Kingston. I never saw him but I’d like to think that he saw me and thought, “wow, one day he might produce something brilliant.” His autobiography only covers his life up until the age of 17. I am currently on chapter 31 and he is only 11.
I have written an article for a new online football magazine, Column 10, and that should be out soon. It’s very exciting and I have a few more feature ideas so it should be fun. I also have to get a wriggle on raising money for the breakfast club. I’m not being lazy, I’ve just been busy! I feel settled in my new job now so I will be fine though.
Anyway, I’m off to watch Man Utd v Schalke 04.
Posted @ 19:39:53 on 04 May 2011 back to top
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Bin Laden and art
So, Osama Bin Laden is dead. I remember hearing about the 9/11 attacks while on a bus coming back from my first day of college. I heard about the 7/7 attacks when I was called by a friend in Australia who was worried that I may have been hurt. I was asleep when she called.
Jubilation is flowing in many parts in the world but he has just been a figurehead for a long time. Maybe it’s wrong to celebrate, maybe it’s not. I cannot hand on heart say that I wouldn’t if I had lost a loved one in the attacks.
The way I feel about terrorism and standing up to it is similar to how you feel when a group of thugs shout abuse at you in the street. Someone gives you abuse and if you answer back or retaliate then they will kick off with you. It is all a terrible merry-go-round where no one is seemingly willing to back down.
My thoughts are with all those, from whatever religion or nationality, who have lost loved ones due to terrorism.
Tomorrow I am going to an exhibition for a fabulous young artist called Charlie Gates. She is a DIY taxidermist who works with a level of animation and respect for the animals that she stuffs that you cannot help but admire. I am looking forward to it.
Posted @ 23:00:11 on 02 May 2011 back to top
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Travel writing
I once did some work at The Independent travel magazine with Simon Calder and his team. It was a fun and enlightening experience but one that revealed to me a very unsavoury side of journalism that I would have liked to think was a one off but that may be me being naive.
A famous comedian submitted a piece reviewing a recent holiday that he had been on. Everybody agreed that it was fantastic and with the article set to go to print we looked in the travel section of another national newspaper and saw the same article almost identically reproduced. The same article had been sold to two newspapers and only differing editorial standards provided any real change in content between publications.
We had to discreetly ditch the article but as the comedian still writes on a fairly regular basis for that publication I don’t think he was too severely reprimanded.
Why this tale? Well, I have recently begun reading what I believe is a humourous, good quality and original travel blog: http://www.grumpytraveller.com/ The author is a Mr David Whitley and it is well worth a read.
I never did become much of a travel writer although I have been asked to do some writing about Nepal so you never know I could possibly be able to convey what a magical land it is. Here’s to hoping I guess!
Posted @ 19:51:22 on 01 May 2011 back to top
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The great PR struggle
I work in public relations and this occasionally leads to you having to do things that you don’t want to do in order to keep your job, gain a new job or to further your career. In recent days I have received the offer of an opportunity that would be classed in the list of things that ‘I don’t want to do but it may further my career’ and I am faced with having to do ‘something in order to keep my job’.
I am in the privileged position where I work for a fantastic organisation and I am proud to serve them. In a few weeks I will have to work with someone, albeit for only one day, who I wholly disapprove of in as many ways that it is possible to disapprove of someone. If I refuse on the grounds of morals I will surely lose my job for being unprofessional and if I do it then I will be angry with myself. I know there is only one answer to this quandary but it is still a shame that I feel that I am in this position.
The opportunity that I have been contacted about is one that if I took it, I would potentially greatly further my career (if I do it well) but it would also mean putting aside my beliefs to further myself. Should and can this be done?
I am happy that I don’t work in the world of PR agencies because then I would be forced to represent organisations that I may not care about or even actively feel opposed to. I once went for a job interview with an agency and it was interrupted halfway through when the interviewers were called out because the announcement of a new client had just come through. It was for a cheese company. I would have been asked to represent a cheese companies views in the media. I knew at that point that it wasn’t for me.
I don’t believe that there is any shame in only wanting to work for people and organisations that you believe in. It can be the making of a person but equally, it can be the destruction of a career. I’m not far enough into my career to really be able to assess these risks or indeed to be that affected by them but it’s worth thinking about for the future.
Posted @ 20:49:17 on 30 April 2011 back to top
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Once more unto the breach dear friends, once more.
I am now in my third full week at my new job. It’s gone so terrifically quickly that I can barely consider a new job anymore being so my last one only lasted two months. I have a lot more responsibility in this role but it is very different from the last. I am not so much focussed on press but more so general communications. I am also editor of two publications which is very nice and a good thing to have on my CV.
I have had the opportunity to observe some surgeries though. I must confess, I found this to be a very spiritual experience and it did bring a bit of a tear to my eye when I heard a bit about the donor and the recipient. I can’t disclose this information but I was very moved by it all. What didn’t help was the tall, white haired, charismatic surgeon performing the operation...his god like appearance only enhanced the spirituality of the event.
In my worldly news, my two god daughters came to stay over the weekend. We went to Mamma Mia, the Zoo and I embarrassed them by dancing on my chair in a restaurant to Elvis. Me...embarrassing?! I DO NOT THINK SO! In addition to this my friend Chris (Chris of Mighty Ducks question fame) is coming to stay for a few days. This will involve much merriment and fun times. I hope the weather is good because we’ll be going to the St Georges day festival in Trafalgar Square on Saturday.
I am thinking more about starting a charity to raise money for the breakfast club at a school in Plumbstead. I am just trying to find some willing volunteers to help me and to get the pile of forms sorted so that I can register as a charity. This means that I will be cutting back on the other volunteer type stuff that I do.
I am also going to Glastonbury! Whoop!
Posted @ 12:17:51 on 18 April 2011 back to top
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Work and tiredness!
I work for the NHS again and it has quickly been established that my new boss has the same political opinion as me. This is only a positive because it means that I won’t be made to say anything that I don’t want to at work.
My new job is frightfully exciting, so far I have done several filming sessions and booked in visits to different sites across London, I have watched actually operations....GROSS! I have met some incredible clinicians and my team seem lovely...plus I have my own office which is nice.
It’s nice to have had my confidence built up at my last place of work and now I am beginning to fly.
Following my great time with Danny Wallace, I am going to be interviewing author Tony Hawks next week. Tony, the author of several books including, ‘Playing Tennis with the Moldovan Football Team’, is just a little bit of a legend. To me anyway, he was the man who began the generation of fun, an incredibly funny and original author who strangely doesn’t have the public profile of those who have followed.
I would talk more but I am tired.
Posted @ 23:00:41 on 07 April 2011 back to top
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Danny Wallace, a new office and smiles
So, I interviewed Danny Wallace on Thursday. It was the highlight of a wonderful day. He is a very congenial sort who insisted on buying the beer despite my protests and talked with honesty and friendship in his voice.
One thing I have missed out in my interview which I feel I MUST address here, Danny’s opinion of the Mighty Ducks trilogy.
“I don’t think there are enough films made about people who must make good by coaching a bunch of misfits to sporting glory.”
Although Danny hasn’t seen the films, he has assured me that he will try and get around to watching them.
“If they are a recommendation from your friend Chris, then who am I to argue? He is the expert and so that is good enough for me. It’s only (Danny counts out loud) 450 minutes of my life, I can give that over to a recommendation from your friend.”
In other news, I have started a new job. I got offered a longer contract away from where I was working and so unfortunately had to make the move. I was having such a good time where I was and so I hope that this isn’t all a big mistake.
They threw me leaving drinks on my last day and following this I attended closing down drinks for the place I worked for a year before that and then it was onto my old flat mates birthday drinks. A heady night of fun, friends and booze that made me feel very loved by a lot of friends.
It’s all in danger of going quite well at the minute and long may it continue. I have adventures on the horizon...Glastonbury, Pulp, Glasgow for my friend’s birthday and the aforementioned Chris is coming to stay. All that and the Royal wedding, I am a very lucky boy!
I have my own office now which means that I must tidy it, water the plant and make it a little home away from home. To the shops I must go for coffee...
Posted @ 14:01:00 on 03 April 2011 back to top
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Grimsby - heaven or hell
It’s official, I lived for eighteen of my twenty five years in the second most deprived, poverty stricken area in the country.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/mar/29/indices-multiple-deprivation-poverty-england#
Grimsby isn’t the kind of place that springs into your mind when planning a summer holiday, though it does boast some excellent bars across its surprisingly nice sea front.
I guess that is a digression though.
I started working for the NHS in North East Lincolnshire, the county that plays host to Grimsby, in 2008. One of the first things I noticed was the unmistakeable difference in health education and subsequently life expectancy from area to area within the town. I lived in the Scartho area of Grimsby and my life expectancy was between 9-15 years longer than people who lived three-four miles away. It seems like an unbelievable statistic but it is one that you may comprehend if you walked around the two areas, imagine Kensington and Whitechapel.
An individual’s health is, of course, the responsibility of the individual but in turn, people cannot take responsibility for their own health if they are not properly communicated with. When unemployment is high, people look for things to keep themselves busy. The activities undertaken to relieve boredom can range from drink, drugs, casual sex or smoking to volunteer work, community care or self educating. If you are from a second or third generational unemployed family who wasn’t encouraged to regularly attend school never mind complete the assigned work, which path do you expect you would take?
Each time you consider these issues, it opens up a whole deluge of thoughts, in the end though, I believe that it is down to employment and opportunity. From employment springs so many things, good food for the table so that energy levels increase, aspiration so that you encourage children instead of letting them believe that there is no need to become educated and ultimately health inequalities fall.
No amount of lecturing on the negative impact of fast food, cigarettes and alcohol can change things. If a parent cannot afford to buy fruit and vegetables and if they are having to work such long hours that they cannot find time to cook, then nothing will change.
It is the old cliché, give a man a fish and he will feed his family for a day, give him a net and he will feed them for a lifetime. All that benefits are are a continuing line of fish for people to collect. An individual receives so little that they cannot exchange their fish, invest their fish or pass their fish onto their children so that they can develop new skills.
Employment would provide the net for families. A source of income would help to provide the skills to pass on and ultimately a more prosperous future for their children.
I have a full education up to degree level and several years of experience but I still find it difficult. I shudder to think how people without these cope. I have had the experience of going to a job centre and I know how poorly trained their staff are and how a lot of them do not seem interested in helping you find work but interested in getting people signed on and through the door.
Volunteer schemes and organised community schemes could help but now no council can employ people to facilitate these type of schemes, they will not happen and more people will fall into long term unemployment and health inequalities will increase.
In other news, I have a job. I will be going to a world famous specialist hospital to do their PR. It’s all very exciting although I am very upset to be leaving my current post. They have been fantastic to me here and taught me so much in such a short time.
Posted @ 15:33:15 on 29 March 2011 back to top
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Summer albums...
Pouco me importa se o dinheiro é seu
Ei baby esse cabelo é legal
Moda na gringa é feliz natal
Sei que invocou mas ficou tudo bem
Agora diz estar na onda zen
Ei baby
Você venceu
Passe amanhã e pegue o que é seu
I’ve recently discovered the wonder of Seu Jorge. The above lyrics are from his version of David Bowie’s ‘Rebel Rebel’ and features on his album, ‘The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou’. It is most certainly my summer album for 2011.
In other news, I had an incredible weekend, a trip to Brighton, trying a fantastic restaurant and Persian New Year! All in the name of Emily’s birthday! A fantastic time was had by all, the sun shone, the food and drink flowed and it was just a lovely weekend. Maybe that’s a bit boring for you all but ah well, I guess if you’re reading this then you’re at least vaguely interested in my life.
I have a job interview tomorrow. I know that I have just started my new job but it’s only a short term contract covering someone’s sick leave so I am okay with it. I really do love my current job but they’re not in the position to offer anything beyond the end of April and the job I have the interview for is a six month contract so unfortunately, I have to go for it.
Things are rolling along nicely with the organisation that I volunteer for, Little Episodes. I met with the wife of the founder last night to discuss plans for an auction to raise funds so that we can finally get premises and potentially employ some staff. It’s a journey but a good journey to be on. The beauty with Little Episodes is that the only limitations are our imaginations and money. Our imaginations will help find ways of getting money though so it’s all okay. The proposed date is 21 May so fingers crossed it all comes together in time!
Posted @ 11:19:07 on 23 March 2011 back to top
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The Royal Royal Opera House
Oops. Not blogged for a whole week. It’s not because I had nothing to say, I guess I have just been busy.
I hung out with Princes Charles on Tuesday night...
Well, kind of.
I went to the Royal Opera House to see Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland being performed. It is the first new ballet for many years and it was the first night that it was being performed. Prince Charles, Camilla and the future Princess Catherine were in attendance. I waited for them afterwards and waved...I am a geek but it’s not often you get to see Royals without masses of security and hundreds of people stood in your way.
The ballet was excellent, a visual masterpiece, terrific dancing and spectacular costumes. I can’t speak highly enough of it and would recommend it to anyone, even if you’re not a ballet fan.
So that is twice I have been to the ballet in three months, Gisele and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I’m in danger of becoming middle class. Argh!
The rest of my week has been quiet. Work has been busy, I have even been dealing with the potential fallout of the nuclear meltdown in Japan.
Is it just me or is the world apparently slowly turning in on itself? It seems more like the films every day. They did say the world will end in 2012...
Posted @ 23:38:09 on 17 March 2011 back to top
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Sometimes it works...sometimes it doesn't
So, I sat in a cafe for an hour waiting for Sadie Frost. Then I had to leave because it closed.
Fortunately this isn’t a tale of rejection, it is a tale of someone giving the wrong message. I asked my friend to pass on a message to Sadie saying that I could get there earlier and she mistakenly said I wanted to rearrange for the next day at a new time. Wires crossed and many apologies later all was settled. It’s delayed for a few weeks but that’s okay.
Today I interviewed ex Sheffield Wednesday and Aston Villa player Ian Taylor on his career and his future business ambitions. It was a fantastic experience and despite having to do it remotely, I think I have produced a good interview, reflective of good man.
In other news, my parents are coming down to play for the weekend. Lots of shopping, drinking and eating I imagine. It will be a light relief from work which although is excellent, is also tiring.
I’ve been writing all night so don’t have that much energy left to write as I have typed up my interview and still have things to do!
Posted @ 21:23:54 on 10 March 2011 back to top
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Tomorrow tomorrow...
Tomorrow I am interviewing Sadie Frost.
I am just a little bit excited. I first saw her in the Pulp video, Common People, many years ago and although I didn’t in any way track her career, I know she is a woman of many talents who is also a great philanthropist. It should be a good one.
You may or may not be wondering why I am interviewing people, you may or may not even care. I’ll tell you anyway.
It’s the world’s worst kept secret, I am ambitious. Sometimes overly so and end up trying to do so much I end up doing nothing at all. Well, that cycle is over my friends. I am interviewing people because I would very much like to write for publication one day and hopefully while I am still young enough to provide a fairly youthful perspective on things. I have done some writing in the past. I used to have a column in a magazine called Insight and I have written for The Independent and the BBC website but I have nothing that could really justify me getting work as a writer.
By doing this myself, it is serving several purpose, firstly, I get to write and subsequently read something that I would like to read. I ask the questions I want and so far, have got the answers I least expected. It will help be build up a portfolio of writing that I can be proud of and by having a website I have an easy access platform to demonstrate what I can do to people.
I know this probably all seems a bit too self serving for your liking but writing, meeting people and learning are things I love to do and this gives me an opportunity to do it. Even if I don’t make it, it is still an adventure and how many people get to have real adventures nowadays?
I am interviewing Sadie Frost because I have met her through volunteer work I do and found her to be an infinitely interesting person. She has had her ups and downs but she has faced it with dignity and has battled through and come out the other side with a family she obviously adores, a fashion range which my sister swears down is to die for and a whole host of upcoming projects.
None of this is gratuitous, I guess what I am trying to say is that I am not interested in talking to just anybody. I want to talk to people that I admire, in the case of some it is people who’s writing or professional work I admire but they are all people who have sparked an interest in me. I promise you, I work in PR and I would only ever face those beasts to organise an interview with someone if it was really worth it.
Have a good evening, do something nice for someone tomorrow!
Posted @ 21:25:42 on 07 March 2011 back to top
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and so it began...
There was nothing glorious in suffering from depression. It is incredible that in this day and age, people still don't recognise it as an incredibly debilitating illness.
I started suffering in 2006 after returning from a trip to Nepal where I had been working with young children who had been trafficked to India. Before that, I was, well, I was 'that guy'. The one at parties, the one in the pubs and clubs. I was in lots of societies at university, I was an editor at the student newspaper, I played sports and had a lot of friends. Yet after returning from Nepal, I took such drastic steps as not sleeping on my bed because the kids that I had left behind only had hard mattresses to sleep on. I ate rice at every meal and drank ginger tea.
There was little that was of interest to me other than helping the people that I felt that I had abandoned but the more I worked myself up, the less I became able to do. I tried to fight it but I couldn't and I sank. I was left behind by my peers, stop participating and drifted through the last year of university a battered shell of the man I was before.
After I graduated, like many, I fell on hard times in terms of both employment and subsequently financial. This continued for sixteen months with internships and temporary work filling in the gaps between signing on. I then moved back to my parents and got my first job in PR, working for an NHS trust in North East Lincolnshire.
After I lost that I went onto a local council and then I moved back to London and spent a year working for an arm length body of a government department. During this time I felt a slight rise in my mood but nothing of major significance.
Various things happened on this journey, including having to cut my friend from a noose and taking her to hospital while also looking after her two year old daughter, I lived with someone who can only be called unhinged (at best) in Streatham and then struggled to find my way back into London life after I had found my current dwelling.
Before all of this, I used to live and during all of this, I lived vicariously.
I am currently fighting back and this is why I am running my lovely website here. I am going to live again.
So here goes...
Sometimes I just want to type, to write and write some more. I am listening to Alexei Sayle’s autobiography and I just want to type what I am listening to. His book of short stories, ‘Barcelona Plates’, is one of the best books that I have ever read. I always miss it out when people ask me about favourite books because it feels like it’s a bit of a cop out to have a book of short stories by a comedian as your favourite book. The first story is about the death of Princess Diana and how a tired driver coming back from a bad holiday in Spain accidently knocks a car off the road and into the wall of a tunnel.
He takes very simple stories and puts a comedic and occasionally horrifically dark twist on this. Apparently he lives in the town that I used to live in just near Kingston. I never saw him but I’d like to think that he saw me and thought, “wow, one day he might produce something brilliant.” His autobiography only covers his life up until the age of 17. I am currently on chapter 31 and he is only 11.
I have written an article for a new online football magazine, Column 10, and that should be out soon. It’s very exciting and I have a few more feature ideas so it should be fun. I also have to get a wriggle on raising money for the breakfast club. I’m not being lazy, I’ve just been busy! I feel settled in my new job now so I will be fine though.
Anyway, I’m off to watch Man Utd v Schalke 04.
Posted @ 19:39:53 on 04 May 2011 back to top
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Bin Laden and art
So, Osama Bin Laden is dead. I remember hearing about the 9/11 attacks while on a bus coming back from my first day of college. I heard about the 7/7 attacks when I was called by a friend in Australia who was worried that I may have been hurt. I was asleep when she called.
Jubilation is flowing in many parts in the world but he has just been a figurehead for a long time. Maybe it’s wrong to celebrate, maybe it’s not. I cannot hand on heart say that I wouldn’t if I had lost a loved one in the attacks.
The way I feel about terrorism and standing up to it is similar to how you feel when a group of thugs shout abuse at you in the street. Someone gives you abuse and if you answer back or retaliate then they will kick off with you. It is all a terrible merry-go-round where no one is seemingly willing to back down.
My thoughts are with all those, from whatever religion or nationality, who have lost loved ones due to terrorism.
Tomorrow I am going to an exhibition for a fabulous young artist called Charlie Gates. She is a DIY taxidermist who works with a level of animation and respect for the animals that she stuffs that you cannot help but admire. I am looking forward to it.
Posted @ 23:00:11 on 02 May 2011 back to top
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Travel writing
I once did some work at The Independent travel magazine with Simon Calder and his team. It was a fun and enlightening experience but one that revealed to me a very unsavoury side of journalism that I would have liked to think was a one off but that may be me being naive.
A famous comedian submitted a piece reviewing a recent holiday that he had been on. Everybody agreed that it was fantastic and with the article set to go to print we looked in the travel section of another national newspaper and saw the same article almost identically reproduced. The same article had been sold to two newspapers and only differing editorial standards provided any real change in content between publications.
We had to discreetly ditch the article but as the comedian still writes on a fairly regular basis for that publication I don’t think he was too severely reprimanded.
Why this tale? Well, I have recently begun reading what I believe is a humourous, good quality and original travel blog: http://www.grumpytraveller.com/ The author is a Mr David Whitley and it is well worth a read.
I never did become much of a travel writer although I have been asked to do some writing about Nepal so you never know I could possibly be able to convey what a magical land it is. Here’s to hoping I guess!
Posted @ 19:51:22 on 01 May 2011 back to top
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The great PR struggle
I work in public relations and this occasionally leads to you having to do things that you don’t want to do in order to keep your job, gain a new job or to further your career. In recent days I have received the offer of an opportunity that would be classed in the list of things that ‘I don’t want to do but it may further my career’ and I am faced with having to do ‘something in order to keep my job’.
I am in the privileged position where I work for a fantastic organisation and I am proud to serve them. In a few weeks I will have to work with someone, albeit for only one day, who I wholly disapprove of in as many ways that it is possible to disapprove of someone. If I refuse on the grounds of morals I will surely lose my job for being unprofessional and if I do it then I will be angry with myself. I know there is only one answer to this quandary but it is still a shame that I feel that I am in this position.
The opportunity that I have been contacted about is one that if I took it, I would potentially greatly further my career (if I do it well) but it would also mean putting aside my beliefs to further myself. Should and can this be done?
I am happy that I don’t work in the world of PR agencies because then I would be forced to represent organisations that I may not care about or even actively feel opposed to. I once went for a job interview with an agency and it was interrupted halfway through when the interviewers were called out because the announcement of a new client had just come through. It was for a cheese company. I would have been asked to represent a cheese companies views in the media. I knew at that point that it wasn’t for me.
I don’t believe that there is any shame in only wanting to work for people and organisations that you believe in. It can be the making of a person but equally, it can be the destruction of a career. I’m not far enough into my career to really be able to assess these risks or indeed to be that affected by them but it’s worth thinking about for the future.
Posted @ 20:49:17 on 30 April 2011 back to top
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Once more unto the breach dear friends, once more.
I am now in my third full week at my new job. It’s gone so terrifically quickly that I can barely consider a new job anymore being so my last one only lasted two months. I have a lot more responsibility in this role but it is very different from the last. I am not so much focussed on press but more so general communications. I am also editor of two publications which is very nice and a good thing to have on my CV.
I have had the opportunity to observe some surgeries though. I must confess, I found this to be a very spiritual experience and it did bring a bit of a tear to my eye when I heard a bit about the donor and the recipient. I can’t disclose this information but I was very moved by it all. What didn’t help was the tall, white haired, charismatic surgeon performing the operation...his god like appearance only enhanced the spirituality of the event.
In my worldly news, my two god daughters came to stay over the weekend. We went to Mamma Mia, the Zoo and I embarrassed them by dancing on my chair in a restaurant to Elvis. Me...embarrassing?! I DO NOT THINK SO! In addition to this my friend Chris (Chris of Mighty Ducks question fame) is coming to stay for a few days. This will involve much merriment and fun times. I hope the weather is good because we’ll be going to the St Georges day festival in Trafalgar Square on Saturday.
I am thinking more about starting a charity to raise money for the breakfast club at a school in Plumbstead. I am just trying to find some willing volunteers to help me and to get the pile of forms sorted so that I can register as a charity. This means that I will be cutting back on the other volunteer type stuff that I do.
I am also going to Glastonbury! Whoop!
Posted @ 12:17:51 on 18 April 2011 back to top
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Work and tiredness!
I work for the NHS again and it has quickly been established that my new boss has the same political opinion as me. This is only a positive because it means that I won’t be made to say anything that I don’t want to at work.
My new job is frightfully exciting, so far I have done several filming sessions and booked in visits to different sites across London, I have watched actually operations....GROSS! I have met some incredible clinicians and my team seem lovely...plus I have my own office which is nice.
It’s nice to have had my confidence built up at my last place of work and now I am beginning to fly.
Following my great time with Danny Wallace, I am going to be interviewing author Tony Hawks next week. Tony, the author of several books including, ‘Playing Tennis with the Moldovan Football Team’, is just a little bit of a legend. To me anyway, he was the man who began the generation of fun, an incredibly funny and original author who strangely doesn’t have the public profile of those who have followed.
I would talk more but I am tired.
Posted @ 23:00:41 on 07 April 2011 back to top
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Danny Wallace, a new office and smiles
So, I interviewed Danny Wallace on Thursday. It was the highlight of a wonderful day. He is a very congenial sort who insisted on buying the beer despite my protests and talked with honesty and friendship in his voice.
One thing I have missed out in my interview which I feel I MUST address here, Danny’s opinion of the Mighty Ducks trilogy.
“I don’t think there are enough films made about people who must make good by coaching a bunch of misfits to sporting glory.”
Although Danny hasn’t seen the films, he has assured me that he will try and get around to watching them.
“If they are a recommendation from your friend Chris, then who am I to argue? He is the expert and so that is good enough for me. It’s only (Danny counts out loud) 450 minutes of my life, I can give that over to a recommendation from your friend.”
In other news, I have started a new job. I got offered a longer contract away from where I was working and so unfortunately had to make the move. I was having such a good time where I was and so I hope that this isn’t all a big mistake.
They threw me leaving drinks on my last day and following this I attended closing down drinks for the place I worked for a year before that and then it was onto my old flat mates birthday drinks. A heady night of fun, friends and booze that made me feel very loved by a lot of friends.
It’s all in danger of going quite well at the minute and long may it continue. I have adventures on the horizon...Glastonbury, Pulp, Glasgow for my friend’s birthday and the aforementioned Chris is coming to stay. All that and the Royal wedding, I am a very lucky boy!
I have my own office now which means that I must tidy it, water the plant and make it a little home away from home. To the shops I must go for coffee...
Posted @ 14:01:00 on 03 April 2011 back to top
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Grimsby - heaven or hell
It’s official, I lived for eighteen of my twenty five years in the second most deprived, poverty stricken area in the country.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/mar/29/indices-multiple-deprivation-poverty-england#
Grimsby isn’t the kind of place that springs into your mind when planning a summer holiday, though it does boast some excellent bars across its surprisingly nice sea front.
I guess that is a digression though.
I started working for the NHS in North East Lincolnshire, the county that plays host to Grimsby, in 2008. One of the first things I noticed was the unmistakeable difference in health education and subsequently life expectancy from area to area within the town. I lived in the Scartho area of Grimsby and my life expectancy was between 9-15 years longer than people who lived three-four miles away. It seems like an unbelievable statistic but it is one that you may comprehend if you walked around the two areas, imagine Kensington and Whitechapel.
An individual’s health is, of course, the responsibility of the individual but in turn, people cannot take responsibility for their own health if they are not properly communicated with. When unemployment is high, people look for things to keep themselves busy. The activities undertaken to relieve boredom can range from drink, drugs, casual sex or smoking to volunteer work, community care or self educating. If you are from a second or third generational unemployed family who wasn’t encouraged to regularly attend school never mind complete the assigned work, which path do you expect you would take?
Each time you consider these issues, it opens up a whole deluge of thoughts, in the end though, I believe that it is down to employment and opportunity. From employment springs so many things, good food for the table so that energy levels increase, aspiration so that you encourage children instead of letting them believe that there is no need to become educated and ultimately health inequalities fall.
No amount of lecturing on the negative impact of fast food, cigarettes and alcohol can change things. If a parent cannot afford to buy fruit and vegetables and if they are having to work such long hours that they cannot find time to cook, then nothing will change.
It is the old cliché, give a man a fish and he will feed his family for a day, give him a net and he will feed them for a lifetime. All that benefits are are a continuing line of fish for people to collect. An individual receives so little that they cannot exchange their fish, invest their fish or pass their fish onto their children so that they can develop new skills.
Employment would provide the net for families. A source of income would help to provide the skills to pass on and ultimately a more prosperous future for their children.
I have a full education up to degree level and several years of experience but I still find it difficult. I shudder to think how people without these cope. I have had the experience of going to a job centre and I know how poorly trained their staff are and how a lot of them do not seem interested in helping you find work but interested in getting people signed on and through the door.
Volunteer schemes and organised community schemes could help but now no council can employ people to facilitate these type of schemes, they will not happen and more people will fall into long term unemployment and health inequalities will increase.
In other news, I have a job. I will be going to a world famous specialist hospital to do their PR. It’s all very exciting although I am very upset to be leaving my current post. They have been fantastic to me here and taught me so much in such a short time.
Posted @ 15:33:15 on 29 March 2011 back to top
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Summer albums...
Pouco me importa se o dinheiro é seu
Ei baby esse cabelo é legal
Moda na gringa é feliz natal
Sei que invocou mas ficou tudo bem
Agora diz estar na onda zen
Ei baby
Você venceu
Passe amanhã e pegue o que é seu
I’ve recently discovered the wonder of Seu Jorge. The above lyrics are from his version of David Bowie’s ‘Rebel Rebel’ and features on his album, ‘The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou’. It is most certainly my summer album for 2011.
In other news, I had an incredible weekend, a trip to Brighton, trying a fantastic restaurant and Persian New Year! All in the name of Emily’s birthday! A fantastic time was had by all, the sun shone, the food and drink flowed and it was just a lovely weekend. Maybe that’s a bit boring for you all but ah well, I guess if you’re reading this then you’re at least vaguely interested in my life.
I have a job interview tomorrow. I know that I have just started my new job but it’s only a short term contract covering someone’s sick leave so I am okay with it. I really do love my current job but they’re not in the position to offer anything beyond the end of April and the job I have the interview for is a six month contract so unfortunately, I have to go for it.
Things are rolling along nicely with the organisation that I volunteer for, Little Episodes. I met with the wife of the founder last night to discuss plans for an auction to raise funds so that we can finally get premises and potentially employ some staff. It’s a journey but a good journey to be on. The beauty with Little Episodes is that the only limitations are our imaginations and money. Our imaginations will help find ways of getting money though so it’s all okay. The proposed date is 21 May so fingers crossed it all comes together in time!
Posted @ 11:19:07 on 23 March 2011 back to top
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The Royal Royal Opera House
Oops. Not blogged for a whole week. It’s not because I had nothing to say, I guess I have just been busy.
I hung out with Princes Charles on Tuesday night...
Well, kind of.
I went to the Royal Opera House to see Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland being performed. It is the first new ballet for many years and it was the first night that it was being performed. Prince Charles, Camilla and the future Princess Catherine were in attendance. I waited for them afterwards and waved...I am a geek but it’s not often you get to see Royals without masses of security and hundreds of people stood in your way.
The ballet was excellent, a visual masterpiece, terrific dancing and spectacular costumes. I can’t speak highly enough of it and would recommend it to anyone, even if you’re not a ballet fan.
So that is twice I have been to the ballet in three months, Gisele and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I’m in danger of becoming middle class. Argh!
The rest of my week has been quiet. Work has been busy, I have even been dealing with the potential fallout of the nuclear meltdown in Japan.
Is it just me or is the world apparently slowly turning in on itself? It seems more like the films every day. They did say the world will end in 2012...
Posted @ 23:38:09 on 17 March 2011 back to top
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Sometimes it works...sometimes it doesn't
So, I sat in a cafe for an hour waiting for Sadie Frost. Then I had to leave because it closed.
Fortunately this isn’t a tale of rejection, it is a tale of someone giving the wrong message. I asked my friend to pass on a message to Sadie saying that I could get there earlier and she mistakenly said I wanted to rearrange for the next day at a new time. Wires crossed and many apologies later all was settled. It’s delayed for a few weeks but that’s okay.
Today I interviewed ex Sheffield Wednesday and Aston Villa player Ian Taylor on his career and his future business ambitions. It was a fantastic experience and despite having to do it remotely, I think I have produced a good interview, reflective of good man.
In other news, my parents are coming down to play for the weekend. Lots of shopping, drinking and eating I imagine. It will be a light relief from work which although is excellent, is also tiring.
I’ve been writing all night so don’t have that much energy left to write as I have typed up my interview and still have things to do!
Posted @ 21:23:54 on 10 March 2011 back to top
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Tomorrow tomorrow...
Tomorrow I am interviewing Sadie Frost.
I am just a little bit excited. I first saw her in the Pulp video, Common People, many years ago and although I didn’t in any way track her career, I know she is a woman of many talents who is also a great philanthropist. It should be a good one.
You may or may not be wondering why I am interviewing people, you may or may not even care. I’ll tell you anyway.
It’s the world’s worst kept secret, I am ambitious. Sometimes overly so and end up trying to do so much I end up doing nothing at all. Well, that cycle is over my friends. I am interviewing people because I would very much like to write for publication one day and hopefully while I am still young enough to provide a fairly youthful perspective on things. I have done some writing in the past. I used to have a column in a magazine called Insight and I have written for The Independent and the BBC website but I have nothing that could really justify me getting work as a writer.
By doing this myself, it is serving several purpose, firstly, I get to write and subsequently read something that I would like to read. I ask the questions I want and so far, have got the answers I least expected. It will help be build up a portfolio of writing that I can be proud of and by having a website I have an easy access platform to demonstrate what I can do to people.
I know this probably all seems a bit too self serving for your liking but writing, meeting people and learning are things I love to do and this gives me an opportunity to do it. Even if I don’t make it, it is still an adventure and how many people get to have real adventures nowadays?
I am interviewing Sadie Frost because I have met her through volunteer work I do and found her to be an infinitely interesting person. She has had her ups and downs but she has faced it with dignity and has battled through and come out the other side with a family she obviously adores, a fashion range which my sister swears down is to die for and a whole host of upcoming projects.
None of this is gratuitous, I guess what I am trying to say is that I am not interested in talking to just anybody. I want to talk to people that I admire, in the case of some it is people who’s writing or professional work I admire but they are all people who have sparked an interest in me. I promise you, I work in PR and I would only ever face those beasts to organise an interview with someone if it was really worth it.
Have a good evening, do something nice for someone tomorrow!
Posted @ 21:25:42 on 07 March 2011 back to top
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and so it began...
There was nothing glorious in suffering from depression. It is incredible that in this day and age, people still don't recognise it as an incredibly debilitating illness.
I started suffering in 2006 after returning from a trip to Nepal where I had been working with young children who had been trafficked to India. Before that, I was, well, I was 'that guy'. The one at parties, the one in the pubs and clubs. I was in lots of societies at university, I was an editor at the student newspaper, I played sports and had a lot of friends. Yet after returning from Nepal, I took such drastic steps as not sleeping on my bed because the kids that I had left behind only had hard mattresses to sleep on. I ate rice at every meal and drank ginger tea.
There was little that was of interest to me other than helping the people that I felt that I had abandoned but the more I worked myself up, the less I became able to do. I tried to fight it but I couldn't and I sank. I was left behind by my peers, stop participating and drifted through the last year of university a battered shell of the man I was before.
After I graduated, like many, I fell on hard times in terms of both employment and subsequently financial. This continued for sixteen months with internships and temporary work filling in the gaps between signing on. I then moved back to my parents and got my first job in PR, working for an NHS trust in North East Lincolnshire.
After I lost that I went onto a local council and then I moved back to London and spent a year working for an arm length body of a government department. During this time I felt a slight rise in my mood but nothing of major significance.
Various things happened on this journey, including having to cut my friend from a noose and taking her to hospital while also looking after her two year old daughter, I lived with someone who can only be called unhinged (at best) in Streatham and then struggled to find my way back into London life after I had found my current dwelling.
Before all of this, I used to live and during all of this, I lived vicariously.
I am currently fighting back and this is why I am running my lovely website here. I am going to live again.
So here goes...
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