So I considered making this one much shorter. I considered that for a couple of seconds and then dismissed the idea. It will be slightly shorter but I thought I would tell you about my day yesterday and see what happens when I start writing.
I consider myself a people person and when I'm not with people I enjoy writing for them. That writing now primarily takes three forms. Firstly there's this blog. Then there's Hethersett Herald and thirdly Good News. As I write I'm always asking myself a simple question " are people going to be interested in or enjoy reading this?"
Sometimes what I include in the publications might be more for information than enjoyment but overall I hope I've got a reasonable balance and information is as important or even more important than anything else.
Being outward focussed does help me to communicate. Recently I was referred to in an email as the village's communication champion and I liked that. I'm not so sure that I can communicate verbally as well as I can with the written word and I don't kid myself that I do more than scratch the surface of communication, but the important thing for me is at least I have it a go and if I fall somewhat short well at least I've tried.
So my day yesterday - another little insight into my world.
I slept in a bit. It was all of 7.30 when I got up for a very quick bowl of cereal. Then it was onto the computer in the study. At the end of last week I hadn't started on Good News magazine. So that was my first port of call. I got stuck into filling up the pages with information and news I already have. I looked at the clock and couldn't believe it. It was 9.15. I'm glad I looked up as I had a coffee date with mate Mike at Kin Cafe in the village and that's a good 15 minutes' walk away. I just had time to get ready and walk there.
Kin Cafe which I used to call Cafe Kin is enhancing its reputation all the time and quite rightly becoming more and more popular as a meeting place where people can relax over a cup of coffee.
Mike and myself discussed the state of the universe, but mainly music and football and the recent publication of my top 136 or was it 135 songs of all time. He was impressed that I included Diamonds and Rust by Joan Baez which is about her relationship with Bob Dylan. It's a wonderfully emotive song likening a relationship to both diamonds and rust, in other words big opposites.
I know this is also a favourite song of another of my readers. Seek it out if you've not heard it.
Once again an hour and a half flew past. I paid a fleeting visit to the library to drop off a poster advertising Good News. We have a readership of around 1000 for this printed magazine. Assuming each copy is read by two people, that gives us a readership of 2000 plus.
I also popped posters up at Kin Cafe and the noticeboard outside one of our charity shops. This is an interesting noticeboard. The noticeboard itself is bog standard but it used to be full of scruffy out of date posters advertising events long past along with commercial adverts. Now somebody (and bless them) has completely tidied it up. It's no longer a mess and you can actually read what's there. I have no idea how long my poster will stay up because it's advertising a publication rather than an event.
A quick visit to the chemists and then in the words of Paul Simon I was Homeward Bound. On the way I stopped to chat with a friend who apparently knows the identity of my occasional correspondent Tommy Titt. I would like to get hold of TT and not in a good way.
It was a quick bowl of soup at home and then off to walk granddog Reggie who made friends with a couple of other dogs. You never know with Reggie whether he's going to make friends with other dogs or try to kill them. We have to take it in steps. Today was fine. From there we went to the Big C charity shop in Wymondham which is one of my favourite places to shop. It's more of a warehouse than shop and it has a good history section in a book room upstairs.
I try and ration my book buying. Sometimes I succeed but more often than not I don't. At least yesterday I only bought one book which was Dominion by historian Tom Holland. Holland does a podcast with another historian Dominic Sandbrook. We would love to get them interested in our coming book. At just £1 the book was a bargain. And so we returned home and I'll leave it there as the rest of the day followed a similar pattern.
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Just to clear up a slight mistake. I believe the French item of death was known as Madame Guillotine rather than Monsieur Guillotine. It's always said that the female is deadlier than the male.
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Where did Sherlock Holmes retired to was the question I posed yesterday. The answer apparently is a village in East Sussex by the name of East Dean. We know this village well as it's just a 10 minute drive from Eastbourne where eldest son lives.
Fans of Sherlock have worked out the destination from clues left in his books which indicate East Dean. The village has embraced this and one of the cottages around the village green has a blue plaque which contains the words. "Sherlock Holmes consultant detective and beekeeper retired here 1903-1917." So perhaps Holmes is real after all.
Holmes was born in 1854 which means he was just 49 when he retired
In the preface to the story "The Last Bow" Conan Doyle mentions that Holmes retired to a small farm on the Downs five miles from Eastbourne where he was “living the life of a hermit” among his bees and books.
The people living in the cottage must embrace the legend and not mind tourists staring at their home and taking photos of it.
Last week I mentioned going to a presentation by Norwich based poet and presenter John Osborne. One of the poems he shared was about scampi. What has this to do with Sherlock Holmes I hear you ask? Not a lot except for the fact that I'm a scampi aficionado or should that be numericalist. Now I know that's another of my made up words but I haven't made up a new word for quite some time.
This surrounds the number of pieces of scampi you get with a scampi meal. Yes I do count them and the usual is around 10 to 12. The worst to date was either six or eight pieces at the Tiger Inn which just happens to be around the village green in East Dean ( interesting to note that the words village green and East Dean rhyme. I might write a poem on that but poetry is not my forte or my thirty of fifty for that matter).
The Tiger Inn in East Dean goes back to the 15th century. That means that Sherlock Holmes probably ate and drank there. I wonder how many pieces of scampi he was given?
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I was browsing the books at the charity shop as already mentioned. Picked up a copy of Sharon Osborne's autobiography without any intention of buying it but just to confirm that she was born on the same day as me - which indeed she was. Opened the book to find a dedication on the inside.
"Christmas 2007 - I think you said you liked her. Happy Christmas."
Obviously liked her so much they gave the book to charity. I always look for such dedications as they can be quite amusing.
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Roger Martin. A man I loathe. I've nothing against him personally but I dislike the bonhomie he brings to the Sun Life insurance adverts where he's always doing ordinary things like cutting up cheese and tomato sandwiches whilst talking about his funeral with a huge grin on his face.
Don't be taken in people. This man is an actor. But then aren't they all?
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Latest in a long line of stupid answers on TV game show Tipping Point. The question was: Which American author's last work was Billy Budd - sailor?
Contestant answered: I want to say Charles Dickens but I'm not even sure he was an author.
The answer incidentally was Herman Melville.
In her defence the contestant did say "I think it was probably the author who wrote Moby Dick."
So presumably employing logic she believes Moby Dick was written by Charles Dickens. Rather fishy I think you will agree.