In the Thirties

Its hot in the library today. Its an old one on Ladbroke Grove and air conditioning is the last thing that would suit it. Instead the windows are open and the roar of traffic passing down the Grove is the background to my blogging, along with the whoops and screams of the kids in the school next door. They're probably going mad because of the sun and the heat. Hopefully we're in for a cracker of a summer if the weather right now is anything to go by. Its the first one for years when I havent been trapped in an office wishing I was outside so I'm hoping so. Instead I have to find the discipline to get some writing done in this library...

Last week I was at Marie Claire doing my old job of picture researching. I did this mostly to help my friend Sian out (who is the Photo Director there) but also because I wanted to break up my routine as I was getting bored of it. The money will also come in handy of course. I feel guilty complaining about the thing I always wanted, which was the freedom to write what I want, but the fact is that I was getting stale coming to the library in the morning and chasing up writing leads in the afternoon. Going to IPC was good for making a good contact on the features desk and making me remember that working on a picture desk, as lovely as it was there, is not ultimately what I want to do. Breaking up my routine also seems to be good for my writing if today is anything to go by. I've gotten into the habit of naming names of good contacts. Two you should know about on the features desk at Marie Claire:

ellie_o'mahoney@freelance.ipcmedia.com
bridget_freer@ipcmedia.com (Acting Features Director)

The week before that I met up with a lovely woman called Emma Powell who is a travel PR. I confessed to Emma that I was new to the game and we talked through some ideas. Now I just have to put the work in. She's given me a stack of press releases that I need to get through and then come up with some ideas about how to market them. All I need to do now is not be tempted by the sun and get on with it!