It's farewell to Eastbourne - for now!

THE calm before the storm.....I'm sitting in a flat with boxes piled high ready for yet another move. I still can't get rid of those 1980s "Imagination" albums, the embarrassing photo albums, aging bottles of after shave and those well-worn running shoes!!

There was an advert on television this week which described how a person moves home on average eight times during their lifetime. Crikey! The folks conducting that survey didn't ask me. I've moved so many times this past decade that I've got a loyalty card from Pickfords!

This move, though, will be the last major one since I am heading back to the south coast to be closer to my family which will be great. I can't envisage ever moving out of the area again. A new job and a new start.

Mind you, it was a little strange at work yesterday. I am going to be home-working for the last two weeks of my contract at the newspaper before I begin my new career with the charity, Hearing Link.
When I handed in my resignation I told my boss I didn't want a fuss made about my last day in the office - no presents, no speeches - just to shake hands and leave.

I'm not quite sure whether he passed the message on because when everyone left the office on Friday afternoon nothing was said, just "have a good weekend" and that was it. It was one of those awkward moments. I don't think they realised that this was my last day in the office, but I wasn't going to correct them.

I'm going to miss this flat though. It sits right opposite the pier in Eastbourne with an ever-changing vista throughout the seasons which never fails to impress. The flat has been a place of extreme joy and supreme despair, a flat I've shared with my boss, Keith, whose hour-long morning bathroom routines will never be forgotten. But he too has been a great friend and fun to have around.

There have been times, mind, when I have been absolutely busting to go to the toilet in the morning but too embarrassed to knock on the bathroom door while he has been flossing away to ask. Once I fled to a nearby garage, another time a leftover Coca-Cola bottle had to do! Keith has two alarm clocks set outside his bedroom which go off at 5.45am, so I used these to race to the bathroom before he sets off on his daily constitutional!

But of all the homes I have shared, this flat for the past two years has been one of the best. To be able to walk out of the door and stroll along the seafront, or to set off on a run up towards Beachy Head and over the Downs is something I will miss.

And I have come to love Eastbourne. Before I came to East Sussex I had no idea what the town was like. I had perceptions that it was wrinkly-ville and dull. But Eastbourne is anything but. Give me Eastbourne ahead of Brighton or Hastings any day. It is unspoilt and charming. Stroll through the town centre and most days the pedestrianised area is filled with the music of buskers. Eastbourne is a great place to live and no wonder so many people choose to settle here because of the quality of life.

With my new job I get the best of both worlds. I will be able to home work, so it means I'll be close to family and friends, but I'll be visiting Eastbourne a couple of times a month to work from the charity's office at Sovereign Harbour.

I can't wait, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow (Sunday) when I am compering a variety show at the Devonshire Park Theatre in Eastbourne for Hearing Link to demonstrate just how good the loop system works.

Twelve months ago my world had fallen apart and the view of the grey English Channel from the second floor flat was pretty bleak. But maybe actually living here helped me to work through those troubles. To be able to run along the seafront to clear my mind, or lie on the sofa at night with the window open and falling asleep to the sound of the waves was the medicine my troubled mind needed.

As I cycled along the seafront this morning, the air was still warm, the gardens along Grand Parade were looking as pretty as ever, and the sea lapped gently on the shore.  This was Eastbourne, an absolute gem of a town.

We're on the railway to nowhere!

I AM sitting out the 8.30am Kings Cross to Newcastle East Coast service which has unfortunately been delayed by 70 minutes due to power supply problems at Finsbury Park!

Was it ever thus?!! Can you believe that commuters in Europe suffer the same frustrations and pitiful excuses for delayed trains as their beloved British cousins?!!

We're just pulling out of Newark Station right now and in front of me are a couple of total railway anoraks who are gushing at the sight of freight trains in the sidings. They're trying to engage my in a conversation about some of the new rolling stock on the East Coast Line! I'd rather poke my eyes out with knitting needles! In fact, I'm trying to avoid eye contact altogether!

Mind you, it is a delight to be riding on a 21st century train which has wi-fi, power points for your mobile phone and laptop, comfortable seats, a food trolley and a small cafeteria, and even toilets! It's a far cry from riding cattle class with Southern Railways which is like travelling in a bygone age.

The worst aspect of rail travel in this pocket of south-east England are the slow and cumbersome trains which call at every small hamlet and whistle stop in Sussex and Kent.

Last weekend, as it seems most weekends, there were major engineering work on the line. It meant shuttle buses were running between Eastbourne and Lewes. One of my friends was travelling to Brighton. The double decker bus pulled into Lewes Station and just as the passengers stepped on the platform amazingly the train pulled away.

Fair play to my friend who harangued a beleaguered guard to ask what bit of Southern Rail's mealy-mouthed brain had disregarded common sense and customer convenience by letting the train go? "Oh, we have to stick to the timetable," was his pathetic reply. A timetable which was totally skewed where the rail operator still had the temerity to charge dissatisfied customers full fare for a sub-standard service. Disgraceful!

However, fair play to the Southern Railway guard last week who was excellent when the guy in front of me on the train back to Eastbourne went into an epileptic fit. We managed to ensure the guy was in a safe position while he fitted by lying him across some seats, and an ambulance was called. The guard was very good, and the guy soon came round seemingly as if nothing had happened.

I WILL be leaving newspapers next month to take up an exciting challenge working for a charity. I will be working for Hearing Link who I have been involved with for the past year as part of a campaign about hearing loops. 

The Eastbourne Herald has joined forces with the charity to promote the "Let's Loop Eastbourne" campaign which is striving to create Eastbourne as the best looped town in the UK. The idea is to encourage shops, businesses and public buildings to be fitted with working hearing loops to help hearing aid wearers.

I am really looking forward to working with the charity - a move which will also enable me to move closer to my family.

Last Sunday, I pitched in to help Hearing Link when a film crew from BBC TV's Breakfast Time came to Eastbourne to film a piece on hearing loops. I set up the interviews for the film which took place in the 19th century Devonshire Park Theatre, which has had an impressive state-of-the-art hearing loop fitted.

The film crew also interviewed the amazing Walter Wigfield, a former doctor and now an active auditor of hearing loops for the charity. He was wandering up and down the High Street wearing his yellow jacket and carrying various bits of equipment checking out the various loop systems in shops. I was tempted to ask the Beeb whether Walter, who is a pensioner, should check out Ann Summers' loop system!!

It was a long six-hour day, but the filming went well. However, as someone who works to the tightest of deadlines in the print media and online, I am amazed how it is possible to take so long to film a two-and-a-half minute video. It's equivalent to one of our reporters taking a whole day to write a 300-word article. We'd never get a newspaper out that way.

Even so, the BBC did Hearing Link proud and the clip was shown on Breakfast Time today (Friday). It makes for great viewing and is a shot in the arm for Hearing Link and its campaign.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24076383

Video killed the radio star - but it's changed the face of the modern day journalist

TWO weeks' leave is coming to an end and I return to work on Monday knowing that I have a month left working for Sussex Newspapers before heading on to pastures new and an exciting venture.

Technology was meant to make working life easier. In fact, I am writing this blog on my laptop, connected to a wi-fi signal which is being sent from a fancy mobile phone which can also take web quality video and pin sharp pictures. It is the ultimate in remote working - when you can get a signal, that is!

The downside, of course, is that it means you have constant access to work emails where no-one really takes any notice of your holiday alert notice. So while you try to ignore checking up on work emails during vacation, it is hard not too.

Was it ever thus in the days before the internet? I remember starting with a clean slate on returning to work after holidays since any extra work had been absorbed by other members of staff. But I guess those were the days when we had staff and a degree of slack and flexibility.

Technology is an amazing thing, however, and a visit to PC World this week left me goggle-eyed and totally Googled at how fast the market is changing.

I found myself referring to old school features - I don't want gaming options, I don't want bells and whistles, I just want a laptop which is reliable, is wi-fi enabled, can allow me to use Skype and which I can work from without too much hassle.

Being served by sales people younger in age that my eldest son, people who would never remember the clunky days of Compuserve, the two tone sound of an dial-up internet connection and those snail-like first computers with memories the size of a gnat, was a little unnerving. They didn't have to suffer the technological disappointment we endured during those prehistoric technology days!

For work, we have all been issued with HTC mobile phones which are absolutely brilliant. This is the fresh face of the 2015 journalist where journalists won't necessarily work from offices but instead they will be out in the field using their laptops and mobile phones to write words, send images and produce video.

Last month I was looking out of the flat towards the pier when I saw an Air Ambulance helicopter land on the beach. The arrival coincided with a noisy collection of emergency sirens to an incident which didn't seem to be far away.

So ever the journalist, I hopped on my bike and didn't have to venture far to witness a phalanx of emergency vehicles strewn along the road, sealed off by police tape, where a car with three people inside had crashed into the wall of a building.

You could hear firefighters using cutters to break open the car, the horrible sound of metal tearing as the jaws of life cut through the wreckage in a bid to free the passengers with ambulance crews on standby.

All the while, I had manoeuvred myself to the front of the police tape where, using my phone, I began shooting video and taking photos. I wasn't alone either. Passers-by were also capturing images for the family album at Christmas.

Fortunately, there were no major injuries from the accident (yes, accidents do happen despite this mad, mad world of suing anyone and anything for what was a blatant accident) as all three people walked free from the wreckage.

I high-tailed it to the office on my bike, put in a couple of calls to the fire brigade and ambulance to get some details of what had happened, started editing the video on my laptop, and within half an hour a story had been written with an accompanying picture and a short 30 second video uploaded - not Spielberg exactly, but it did the trick.

That was technology working well and working to its best ability. The article was the best read story published on the website that weekend. www.eastbourneherald.co.uk/news/local/car-crashes-into-building-on-eastbourne-seafront-1-5328157

Now all that is needed is a program which can automatically answer and deal with those holiday emails!