Not much to add really apart from I've been on holiday, came back on Monday (13th) and it's been a busy week.
I've been in charge of the newsdesk on my own as my direct boss is having a well-deserved break.
It's gone relatively smoothly in her absence but I've had to put in quite a few extra hours so I'm feeling pretty tired and done in at the moment.
Desperately trying to find a splash (front page story), which is probably the hardest part of the job. So if anyone knows of a murder the cops have been keeping quiet, I'd love to hear about it.
One of the biggest things for me recently has been giving up smoking. Biggest downside of it (apart from not smoking) is I've been constantly ill. Haven't had a cold for years but have had one almost constantly for about three months. They don't tell you that at smoking cessastion.
Anyway, said goodbye to two of my journos in the past two weeks, which is always sad but at least we've got a new reporter who seems to be settling in well.
As a passing shot to one of them, here was a mistake made by him on his last day (no idea what he is thinking about, but frankly I'm a little disturbed.
The assistant head said: “Having a way of checking if they are drinking enough urine is good because you can get them to be responsible for their own health."
Thanks for coming
Haven't updated my blog for a couple of weeks as I am a very busy man.
But I have a couple of mins spare, so.....
Something that's really annoying me at the moment is parking in Peterborough. Now I realise that getting angry about such local issues probably means I am getting old (am now officially 30), but I am pretty furious with the council on this.
The place where I used to park to get to work had about 10 spaces but has recently become "residents only". When I used to park there, there was very rarely any residents cars as they all have garages. There was always plenty of room if residents needed to park outside, and never any problems apart from one old busy-body (who couldn't drive) with nothing better to do but have a right Nimby whinge-up. I suspect he urged his local cllr to lobby for it to be residents only. And now it is, NO residents park there. They all have garages.
So now there are 10 perfectly good spaces going to waste. Meanwhile the parking prices have shot up everywhere else, station carpark, Queensgate and pretty much all the council ones.
Another place I used to park has gone up 100% from £2 to £4. I could afford to pay £40 a month, but £80???? It ain't practical.
And when I went to park there this morning, it wouldn't take my £4 worth of 10pence pieces. Of course, it waited until I put £3 worth in first before rejecting it. Which was disappointing.
I live just outside the city and can't get busses in as I work odd hours, sometimes very late, sometimes very early.
Anywhere, rant over.
As mentioned in my first piece, I am going to try and post some odd writings from my reporters,
however, today's masterpiece actually comes from a press release. From the council (shouldn't have put up the parking charges).
Anyway, I have no doubt it is accurate, but frankly too much information can sometimes be a bad thing. I had real problems concentrating after the first paragraph...
"The 457
th Bombardment and the 748
th,
749
th,
750
th and 751
st Squadrons came into existence on 1 July 1943.
The 457th Bomb Group was part the 94th Wing of the 1st Division of the 8th Air Force. Three bomber divisions made up the 8th; the 1st and the 3rd flew B-17s and the 2nd flew B-24s. The 94th Wing consisted of three bomb groups; the 457th located at Glatton, the 351st at Polebrook and the 401st at Denethorpe all located within 10 miles of each other. The Wing Commander was Brigadier General Williams. The airfield at Glatton was officially closed on 1 June 1945."
That's all for now, as I am a very busy man. But thanks for coming.
And so it begins..
Anyone who has visited this page in the past couple of months will have seen this blog with its catchy title and no doubt been devastated that it was empty.
This is because I'm a very busy man.
But like some major Hollywood movie premier I expect you;'ve been waiting with barely contained excitement at the thought of what the blog might contain.
So here it is.
Let's just hope it's not as disappointing as The Matrix sequels.
The blog will mainly be about my life in at the newspaper.
I am the deputy news editor - in charge of a team of nine reporters (affectionately known as "monkeys") who gather and write the news.
I get to shout at them, make them write about things they disagree with, get them to make me coffee and do my dry cleaning.
Although I don't do any of that very often as actually I'm nice. Maybe.
Anyway, for the past year I've been keeping a collection of some of their spelling mistakes, mis-types and the odd ridiculous phrase. This is because I am a geek, like to laugh at other people's errors and am generally known as a "git".
I will endevaour to share one of these with you every entry, although most of them are too gallows-humoury to publish here.
This is one of my favourites, just because of the totally random third par.
"John's cerebral palsy is so bad he has difficulties talking and can only move two fingers and his right arm very slightly.
Nurses at his care home have to help feed him and dress him. Meanwhile he sponsors an African elephant."
Right, back to work as I am a very busy man.