Just in time for Christmas!

I'm off the blocks!

As of Monday I am staff communications assistant for the London Borough of Merton, updating their intranet with daily news and staff bulletins and writing/editing their staff magazine.

It also happens that the head of PR and Communications at Westminster will be joining the team for 6 months to improve the department - how's that for fortunate timing?!

Lace up them walking boots

Hello boys and girls - anyone still read this thing? Well, things are looking up. Despite the fact that I'm still destitute, I've landed some temp work that will cover the rent, and I'm interviewing left, right and centre for journalism-related positions (some rather tenuously related).

Interviewed for editorial assistant with Estates Gazette magazine yesterday (commercial property - whoop, whoop!) - it's exactly the kind of position I want with good scope for promotion. Fingers crossed for a second interview!!

Had a few pieces published by The Big Issue mag recently - work experience only but all good for the portfolio.

And I may have landed a job as a receptionist at a publishing company - which I'm less than thrilled about but there are some editorial duties involved and it would ease the 'rent day!' panics. The HR manager left a rather chirpy message on my voicemail this evening...

It's like climbing Fuji in winter.

Someone always has to take it too far..

Should you find yourself srtuggling to fill the hours, try this one:

http://www.animalsontheunderground.com/bird.html#

Me like maps

Ahh, the humble tube map - love it and loathe it. This is how I navigate London, and this is why I haven't a clue.

We're not daft, we all know it's geographically mis-representational (liking syllables today), but for folk like moi, who haven't the foggiest where places like Farringdon are, it's a starting point.

My reason for rambling on about such a done-to-death topic is that it happens to overlap with my latest feature, called 'Plonkers who live in London but don't even know where Regent Street is or how to get from Green Park to Picadilly Circus without using the tube' - still working on the title. While messing around on Google(TM - gotta watch your back these days), otherwise known as 'researching', I found this dandy little mutating map thingy that I wanted to share with you.

Take a looksie: www.tfl.gov.uk/tube/maps/realunderground/realunderground.html