Lost in notation blog

Day 89 – Going against the clock

March 30, 2010 at 10:49 pm (America, bipolar, Charity, Computing, Counselling, Dads, Dress making, dresses, Fashion, Female solidarity, Homelife, Market Harborough, Mend and make do, mental health, Motherhood, Mummys, Newspapers, photography, Style, Uncategorized) (http://twitter.com/Lostinnotation, http://www2.sainsburys.co.uk/tuclothing/spring_2010.htm)

I am a sleepy social media madam today.  I had an ingenious idea last night that if I went into work a little earlier than expected I would get more done.  It was a good idea and maybe I did get more done but now at ten or maybe even eleven at night my brain is buzzing but my body is begging me for sleep. One of the most exciting and addictive things about journalism is the thrill of being ever slave to a deadline.  It can be stressful, of that there is no doubt but the pressure of knowing the clock is ticking often forces us hacks to hammer out some of the most inspirational, witty and really just rather wonderful pieces which would never have been as good if they had been given too much time to brew and mellow.

Today has been hectic.  For some ridiculous reason our phones went down.  This would have been okay by itself but for some reason this also meant our email, internet access and really just about everything went down at the same time.  You would be amazed at how adaptable one must be in times of technological meltdown.

Today I have used the yellow pages, not the yell version, but the kind which short men would use in the past to kiss girls which were just that little bit too tall for them to reach up to.  I also became acquainted with an interesting tool known as an A-Z.  As a girl who is unable to find her way to her fella’s home without guidance from Shawn, my friendly Irish friend of Tom-Tom fame, I was amazed to find I can still read a map.  Admittedly I lost at least half an hour on my way home after forgetting to turn the map the right way up but nevertheless I must admit I am feeling fabulously independent.

I was hoping today would be the last time I had to stumble about the town in heels as I was due to have another chat with the giant this evening about the car situation.  Unfortunately my mother, the peace maker intervened early on.  She apparently sensed that one was too stressed and the other was too tired and so because of her uncanny powers of perception the talk will have to wait till tomorrow.

Though I am feeling rather romantic today about old-fashioned methods of communication and information acquirement there are a number of  benefits and charms of the internet and IT which must be mentioned.  Copy and paste is one of the most brilliant inventions of our time; one realises this after claw hand sets in after copying endless quotes from paper, actual paper! I  was also informed the other day by a friend that Microsoft Office actually gives one the opportunity to recall an email.  Just think of all the relationship breakdowns and diplomatic fall outs which could have been avoided had this trick been more widely publicised.  Rather than trying to get people to ping, poke or bing, or whatever the new sappy sounding buzz word of the moment is, Mr Gates should be sending out emails across the globe telling people about this, the holy grail of idiots who email.    

I had better get my blogging bottom off to bed for tomorrow is my actual first deadline day as a trainee reporter.  I am paranoid about getting my patch page just right and have spent the past couple of hours craning over my copy to make sure everything is just so; however my eyes are starting to stream and my head is beginning to lull and if I do not go to bed soon I risk boring the tweeting world with my angst.  I think I need to get back in touch with my counsellor.

• Today’s dress is from the lovely Lara who has donated a whole heap of dresses to the project.  This dress is originally from Tu which I think roughly translates as Sainsburys.  I must admit I am rather impressed with the supermarket frocks at the moment, yesterdays dress was also from a supermarket and I had quite a few compliments on it.  I am totally in love with the floral print on this dress and even though I found it a bit too low on the bust the cut is quite clever and it tucks you in at the waist with a tie which runs round the back.  I think it was originally designed to be a knee-length frock but Lara is a creative lady who is a little shorter than me and I think she has taken the hem up herself.  Mummy took the photos, don’t ask.