I am in a very posh and expensive hotel in the city of London, wedged between the Gherkin, The Cheesegrater and the Tower. It's a bit disconcerting that my old flat is about 5 mis walk away, and I keep getting this 'urge' to go home.
I have a heavy workload today - I'd not realised what a big deal this was going to be - other judges have flown in from Europe and Australia and I feel as if I've been invited by mistake - there may be another person with a similar name with more experience than me and I'm just an admin error.
I'm an awards judge for this - have been really looking forward to it, everyone is very nice and I've already met two of my all time professional heroes.
The hotel is staggeringly good, the room is the size of the top floor of my house - I was in the bath last night and realised there was another door that lead to a walk in wet-room I had somehow missed. I have a lounge and an office area, and a bed the size of a small beach hut.
I have already caused chaos in the dining room by not wanting to make a fuss about the lack of milk and butter - I have a bad feeling someone will be back on a plane to the Ukraine by lunch time.
It's snowing heavily - but not sticking, as it is further up north - and I'm actually really looking forward to going home tomorrow night - I've had a really bad cold for about 10 days and enough is enough - I need some time off.
I will post more in detail about the whole week - including the plays I have been to see and the film at the Curzon I saw on Tuesday night, and the exhibitions I saw - the other hotel I stayed at in Charring Cross road and my odd experience of living back in London again for a week - 15 years after I left. I may also mention the obscene prices....
In an aside.
I may call time on this blog, I have been writing for 5 years and have really enjoyed the discipline and diary aspect - but as time goes by and I realise how Identifiable I have become (I mean in a 'local' sense - I'm not that interesting ) - I have now been forced to carefully edit everything I say and have already fallen foul of imagined insults and breaches of confidence, people engaged in what could best be described as 'stalking' and the irritation of being reprimanded by complete strangers who regularly email to say the are unhappy about something. I have also had to deal this week with someone using this blog to try and accuse me of gossiping about a mutual friend. Total bollocks - and the person involved really needs to take a good hard look at themselves and back off.
I like this blog when I was a nobody - not that I have become 'somebody' - but I always wrote for myself - and not an audience. I may change or re-invent it as something more work related - or I may not. I'll think about that next week. However - in the meantime - will the person I just referred to kindly piss off.
7 comments:
Don't do it. I love your blog!
You are on my daily read list. I live far, far away, have no interest in meeting you in real life, want nothing from you except to get a glimpse of your world and your perspective. If you ditch this blog, I will miss you. I hope you continue to write here.
Pay no attention to detractors, their opinion of you is their business, not yours.
I've enjoyed reading your blog very much over the years. I hope you decide to continue but if not I wish you and your lovely dogs well.
Everything must have a beginning and an end but your life and your work, of prior importance, must take priority. Even Inspector Gadget called it a day earlier this month and finally booked off. Did he jump or was he pushed? Your decision will be yours and yours alone. You will be missed by your followers, stalkers even!
I know exactly what you mean. My blog is now read by my mother-in-law, former colleagues, a few friends and God knows who else and it really inhibits me. I'm tempted to start again and email a link to the people who have been kind enough to leave comments.
I discovered your blog because you commented on mine and it has become one of the few I visit regularly. It would be a great loss if you stopped altogether.
I can understand about the local aspect. It's a small world around here (e.g - the woman you wrote about who died after swimming on Christmas or Boxing Day turned out be be the aunt of my son's friend) and I hadn't realised just how 'public' a blog is. Even using a pseudonym doesn't work.
If you launch a new blog, avoid the word 'Hastings', you should be okay. You could also throw people off the scent with a badly-designed header!
I echo previous comments (apart from Pizza Pan Man).
Yours is one of the relatively few blogs (along with Steerforth's) which I visit on a regular basis and I would miss it greatly if you decide to pull the plug.
I also am rather too easily identifiable online, and I know that ex-partners, former friends et al get a voyeuristic 'access all areas' pass into my life via my blog, and at times I have considered deleting it and starting again.... incognito.
Having followed your blog through several incarnations, and having had the pleasure of actually meeting you in real life, I do hope that if you move elsewhere you'd let me know.
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