Are we hanging up on landlines?

I’m delighted (actually, I’m as proud as punch) to announce that the first of my columns for Stage Screen & Radio – the quarterly magazine of BECTU, the media and entertainment union and a sector of Prospect – is now available. In it, I boldly propose to an audience composed substantially of creative professionals that numbers make the world go round before concluding that, after all, perhaps it is time to say hello to a world based on creative abstraction.

BECTU members – we think the content of Stage Screen & Radio is so good that it should be privileged for those who pay their membership subscriptions each month – can download the magazine here (after logging in). I’m on page 26. Happy reading!

Busy, busy, busy

Not had the time to post anything over the last couple of weeks, what with work, SEER Journal, Christmas shopping (and wrapping!) and a housewarming (today…) for which, among other things, invitations need to be made and people invited, cider mulled and playlists drawn up, tested and adjusted.

So, here in place of a post is a photo I snapped a couple of weeks back (on 19 November) from my kitchen door steps of some oystercatchers, and a few redshank, seemingly anxiously waiting for the tide to recede a bit:

New business cards

Delighted to have taken delivery this morning of these little beauties, courtesy of moo.com. Not only is the quality of the finish (even) better than described, they arrived beautifully packaged, complete with high-quality embossed card box to keep them in, be-ribboned and ‘wax’-sealed. Top stuff, moo.

And – they do what they say. If you’re reading this and could do with some quality, original research or word-smithery: well, the details are deliberately obscured (this is the internet, after all) but I’d be delighted to hear from you via the contact form on this website, which you can find in the links in the sidebar to the left, or otherwise here. I’m a specialist in public policy research, and in organisational development and employee engagement; but I’m a versatile, flexible researcher with a range of interests and an ability to apply research techniques in a wide variety of research contexts, and in a balanced, independent and objective way. Get in touch!

Work :-)

Inbox brings me news that I have some language editing work coming my way (essentially, making sure that the thoughts of writers for whom English is a second (or even third) language are properly expressed, linguistically and grammatically, and with decent syntax). Working with language and with forms of expression is something that I have been doing for over twenty years, not least with the regular, and continuing, issues of the SEER Journal for Labour and Social Affairs in Eastern Europe, and undertaking a course in philology is something I have been considering for quite some time, even prior to my decision to move to Uist.

What’s coming is a quite substantial project (a book of twelve chapters) and it will be my first engagement as a freelancer. After a summer of re-learning long-forgotten DIY skills as regards our new house (which is indeed still standing), it’s exciting to have (paid) work again: but also, after a break of three months away from formal employment, it’s just a little bit daunting, too.

At least the office desk painstakingly brought over from the mainland and carefully erected in our office is going to be used. As indeed is the office itself. I just need to work out how many hours/days it’s going to take me to copy-edit 98,000 words. Now, where’s that piece of string gone?