Available!

Top-notch coffee, agreeable ambience - and pertinent reading matter. What better way of beginning to ponder one's 'next step'?

Along with a zillion others, I find myself facing the reality of redundancy - and the challenge of the question 'What next?'

Mentored by the ever-optimistic Mr Gnome, I'm determined to view current circumstances as opportunity rather than a source of melancholy.

My 'employment wish-list' lengthens daily. At the moment, every incoming notion gets written down - regardless of its link with realism. Time enough for winnowing by the brisk breeze of truths connected to age, qualifications and abilities.

The future looks exciting. Onwards!

Stormin' and Norman

What could be more architecturally arresting than the soaring solidity of Durham Cathedral at the heart of this extraordinary northern city?


But while Mr Gnome treads the tourist trail, I am immured in the cloistered confines of a college for a week-long course on 'new media': Facebook, Twitter, blogging, podcasting...

All rather challenging.

Thanks to the brilliance and kindness of fellow-course members, I am slowly feeling less of a vegetable than I did at the outset.

More about the course here.

Onwards!