Rowing?

It looks like it is going to be a nice day so we will be going to the boat race. I have no interest in rowing really, nor in Oxford or Cambridge. But one of the strange things about living with people who come from all over the world is this strange urge to show them really English stuff, most of which you've never even seen yourself. Regardless of the sporting activity, I'm sure the picnic will be fun. Clare will want to go to church this evening so I will have to make sure I go easy on the beer.

I've also just learnt that Entreprenuers in Action have won a new contract with the DfES so i'll have to get on to that on Monday. I've got a few calls to make and a few write ups to sort out on that front so it looks like the bank holiday is booked up. Somehwere I've got to fit in my essay. I've been thinking about how to get hold of some journalists to talk to about how new media is changing the relationship between media and politics. It's like trying to get blood out of stone although I can always refer back to the thoughts Lawrence Shaw gave me a couple of months back.

Finally, a quick one liner on the now concluded Iran incident. In PR terms, I think Iran views its most important audiences as the internal one (obviously) and the midle east in general, where it is working hard to ensure it secures it's position as teh region's leading power at the expense of Saudi Arabia. In that respect, job well done. Whether in the long term their strategy continues to be as successful as it has been over the past three or four years is another question.

End of Term

Pointless fact of the day: There was a time when there were 500 spelling variations for the word ‘through’ and sixty variations for ‘she’! Where did I learn this? From Melvyn Bragg’s ‘The Adventure of English’ which I am reading at the moment. It’s packed full of bizarre and fascinating facts about the language and a pretty entertaining read.

Anyway, what’s been going on over the last few days? The formal classes for my Masters have now ended. Our last lobbying class on Tuesday ended in the pub, which then caught fire. On Wednesday I presented the political communications campaign plan by myself following illness and foreign travel by team mates. Our ideas for raising awareness about STDs among teenagers seem to go down well with the lecturers. We’ve been going on about new media so much now it’s starting to sound old. Now, it’s just a case of waiting for all the marks to come in.

Speaking of which, a mark did come in at the end of our last core module class in for which our guest speakers came from TfL. The assignment in questions was this blog. It seems to have gone down well as I got a 75 for it! Apparently I can be quite humorous which was somewhat surprising. All that’s left to do now is a final essay for political communications and my dissertation on perceptions about the potential of new media in political communications. Luckily enough one of the essay titles in political comms covers this specific subject so I’ll be killing two birds with one stone.

The quest to get some MP input for the dissertation seems to be going rather badly as both Dianne Abbott and Meg Hillier seem unable to take part at the moment. I am still deciding whether I am going to be a pest about it and keep trying. Maybe, once the summer holidays arrive they’ll have a little more time to spare. Maybe. I still have to hear from Tom Watson but I suppose everyone’s away for Easter so I won’t chase up again for another couple of weeks. There’s no great rush at the moment.

Yesterday was also my last day as a ‘temp’ at Propeller. After Easter, I’ll become a proper employee, which is good news! At least there’ll be a bit more money coming in so we won’t have to stay cooped up in our little studio on the Harrow campus so much. It also looks like I’ll be doing some proper client work too, initially for CITY A.M. It’ll be good to get back into doing some proper PR after this sabbatical.

In the meantime, I’ll just enjoy the weekend. I might do some work on my dissertation questionnaire but as it seems like the weather’s going to stay fine we’re thinking of going to watch the boat race. We’ll see.