Miserable July, Magical August

Okay, so July gave me a lot of time to think. I won't complain about that.

As it happened, all this time to think came just after I'd attended Journalism.co.uk's Newsrewired in London. So I thought a lot about journalism in July, which has resulted in posts like this and the one I've just posted below (I have more such musings scrambled down on my PC, waiting to be given a more coherent form).

But I could have done without that back injury which put me in bed and out of work for weeks, not to mention having my wallet stolen and credit cards abused when I finally started moving about again (I've described the latter experience on my travel (micro) blog here, in Norwegian).

It all felt rather unfair. Of course, the back injury was probably down to that amazing £28 a night in London bargain, which wasn't such a bargain after all if you count in the weeks not working and bills for the physical therapist (next time I'll pay more heed when Tripadvisor reviews talk of the bed being unusually hard to sleep on). I should also mention that if it hadn't been for Wimbledon filling up most of the hotels in London that week I would've stayed in one of my usual hotels, and even the free wifi wouldn't have tempted me to check out that £28 a night place.

Also, next time I won't wait a month before I seek out a doctor and/or physio (as it turned out, the injury was remarkably easy to fix once I went to see the physio).

Several lessons learned in other words. But if you gave me your card during Newsrewired and I promised to email you, this is the reason for my radio silence. I've been a bit backlogged for a while due to my misfortunes in July, but have almost worked through that backlog now, which is good timing because August has proved to be wonderful for work – and, as so often, all the assignments are streaming in at the same time.

Still, it's good to be back in business, and there's some wonderful business coming my way, which I'm sure I will write more about later. But now for those deadlines...

Photo by me from the closing drink at Newsrewired late June

Comments

[delmer]

Sorry to hear about the bad luck with the back and credit cards.

My back has started doing some sort of clicking thing. At one point I could actually feel it in my sternum. I went to the chiro and he did some back-cracking, heat & electricity applying, magic and I seem to be a bit better. (I mostly went to the chiro for the will-this-likely-get-better-or-worse advice he'd be able to give. He thinks it'll get better and that I've nothing to worry about longterm.)

[Kristine]

Oh, I do hope the chiro is right. It's expensive therapy, at least in Norway, but for me at least the physio was worth it (I know it's not the same, but equally expensive;-) ) Funny thing is, after my first session the physio said the best thing I could do was go home and have some red wine. He said he'd happily prescribe it even, probably because he realised doing nothing is something I'm not very good at. I sort of, almost, took his advice, I opened a good book and started reading. Impossible to put down, good enough to keep me from moving about much;-)

The last time I went to a chiro's office waa probably when holidaying with my then boyfriend in Costa Rica. He came down with the flu and decided he needed to see a chiro (understand it if you can), we walked all over San Jose and in the end found a wife and husband, American expats, who took turns walking all over his back. That must classify as one of the more bizarre memories from encounters with that profession;-)

[Kevin Anderson]

Kristine, the next time you need a cheap (free) place to stay, we have a spare bed (as long as you're not allergic to cats).

[Kristine]

Thanks, I'll keep that in my mind. I've actually been cat sitting all summer, though for the first two weeks after London it's probably more correct to say the cat was looking after me by making sure I got out of bed at regular intervals to feed him;-) August is proving to be really great though, albeit extremly busy. Hope all is well in London.

[Janet Olson]

Awww... sad to hear about ur wallet and credit cards... did you report that to police??? Stolen wallet with credit cards etc can result in identity theft... and this identity theft has become such a common practice these days that no one is safe from it.... i was also a victim of identity theft and i was so afraid!!! ......