A month off from writing

I haven't felt the need to write a blog for an entire month. This is good news in lots of ways. My general sense of well being has been such that it has enabled me to have a period of stability, mentally speaking.

And this is in spite of me making an idiot out of myself at a conference where I stupidly forgot my 15 years of PR experience and got quoted saying something I then regretted.

Anyway let's not dwell on that shall we. We're focusing on the positive here for goodness sake.

I've just finished reading The Psychopath Test. A great read if you've not heard of it. I like the fact that the author has chronicled a two or three year period and questioned his motivations and beliefs along the road. He also leaves you guessing as to whether we're all a little mad, if not surpressing psychopathic tendencies.

Last week I also watched Rita, Sue and Bob too for the first time. A true classic of British cinema history. Packed so full of memorable one liners like:
'Fat fucking Mavis', 'it's like a frozen sausage', 'get em darn Manningham lane', and 'better than match of the day this'...I could go on!

It makes you realise how much you are unaware of. How did I get to 38 and three quarters without watching this movie. And what else is out there still waiting to be discovered?

My final reflection is about an event I went to last week. It was held in London at the University of the Arts. It was for PR academics and practitioners and was themed around the idea of disruption. I was asked to give them my perspective from the world of Asda and how social media had fundamentally changed our approach to PR and communicating with customers.

But the bit that was weird was doing all this in front of one of my old tutors. She had interviewed me for the course 20 years ago and been one of the first to teach me when I started in Leeds in September 1994.

Those numbers are ridiculous. When I started at uni I was 20 years old. Now someone born the year I went to uni is starting. Yet it doesn't feel like twenty years ago.

I obviously knew nothing back then. But I also still feel like I'm only just starting out. I wonder when if ever I'll feel accomplished. To some extent I hope I never do. Like my scientist father the fun is in the research and exploration, any new discovery only opens up the door to what else is possible.

Yet holding my own amongst academics on Wednesday was also rewarding in its own way.

I can imagine going back to uni in 15 years time. 30 years after graduating I quite fancy the idea of theorising whatever it is I've practiced by then. I'll need to attend somewhere different to my daughters should they choose to go themselves. Dad at freshers week is not cool.

Anyone else fancy joining me? Safety in numbers and all that.

In the meantime my personal development continues with my latest self help style text book 'Make Yourself Unforgettable. How to become the person everyone remembers and no one can resist'.

I'll let you be the judge of whether it has the desired effect. Can you resist telling me I wonder.