Like losing a limb!

I have been the victim of a vicious and nasty attack! For once this wasn't in the Hartlepool Council Chamber, it wasn't even in the Hartlepool Mail or a stab in the back from someone in UKIP! No it was a virus that wiped out my computer. It required new hardwear to actually get my machine moving again, although we did also eventually find two re-sets on the mother board that weren't even shown on the manufacturer's schematics! One advantage of the whole incident has been that I've re-loaded my PC with Windows XP and dumped that bloody awful Vista!

So normal blogging service should be resumed from now on.

I was a little bit misty eyed on Thursday when the UKIP Regional Organisers met in London and I wasn't there. The end of an era, the new North East RO was in attendance and as soon as he is confirmed in place I'll be passing my responsibilities in that area over to him. Good luck Gordon is all I will say, oops I've let it slip now! From the reports I've had I didn't miss much at the meeting, the former UKIP Leader and former UKIP Treasurer turned up and I don't think I'm on the Christmas Card List of either of them!

I am still undertaking responsibility for producing the General Election Address but of course that depends upon who is elected as the new leader of UKIP since he (or she) will then be able to bring in their own team should they wish it. Good luck to them as well.

I attended my first session today for my NCTJ course, I have to learn shorthand! it is apparently fairly easy to learn but hard to acquire the minimum speeds, sounds like Chess, easy to learn how to play but very difficult to become amy good at the ngame. As a "magazine" journalist I only (only!) need to get to 80 words per minute, if I was doing the News Option then it's 100 words per minute. Core modules in semester one are Principles and Practices of Magazine Journalism, Media Law and Media in Society. In Semester two Media Ethics is compulsory. Media Ethics? Contradiction in terms?

The course leader turned out to be a former colleague of Piers Merchant from his days on the Newcastle Journal. He, like all of us was very sad about Pier's death. A good man taken too young.

I haven't been neglecting my other duties while the PC has been down. The sixth form college governors meetings and of course Council work have all been on-going. In fact I have a major announcement going out next week in the Hartlepool Mail about Stage Coach and the buss services in the town. Actually I think I'll preview that now in another post!