Weds May 18

Wednesday May 18

Off to Sunderland for my first gig as an External Examiner. Got that huge “they’re going to find me out” feeling, and this time I think they’re really going to find me out. An external examiner? I’m barely an internal examiner. But I figure that in this game appearances are all and as long as I do a bit of reading and sound like I’m proper person, well what’s to go wrong? It’s interesting. There’s a bloke I know from this place who, the few times we’ve met, has given me the look that he knows. But I’m still not sure what exactly the look is. Is it “I know you’re a charlatan and I’m just waiting for you to blow your flimsy cover”? Or is it “Listen, I’m also a charlatan. Let’s just understand each other and move on.” No idea which of those it is. Gotta play safe and straight.
Retford. Where the bloody is Retford? Somewhere up north(ish). Fields and pylons and Monopoly board houses. Retford. By the time I consider it, it’s gone, replaced by somewhere else with fields and pylons and Monopoly board houses. Maybe it’s still Retford and I’m stuck in some timewarp. The train is hurtling forward, the trees are flying past the windows, the carriage is rumbling along as carriages do... and we’re not moving at all. We’re not moving at all, stuck in Retford in a bubble, trapped like a hamster on a four dimensional wheel, running and running and not moving anywhere. Either that or everywhere here looks the same.
Still very excited by the house story. Really, how many people get this opportunity? How many people get the chance to play Grand Designs? And it’s not that so much – it’s that we’re getting to do it without having to save up for years, without having had a “dream” that we’ve followed – finding the plot, saving, taking years and all that, it’s just fallen into our laps.
OK, it’s not that straightforward and I know that partly the reason that we’re in this position is bravery. I always say to the students at college that the most important thing for any of them to say is “Yes”. Any opportunity that comes along, say “Yes”. A chance, an option, a door... say “Yes”. As someone else once said, “I didn’t get where I am today but not saying Yes”. Gill and I both have that thing of saying Yes at the important time. If there’s a big decision to be made, we both say Yes and take it on. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it kicks you out the park.
Sometimes we end up with mad debts and sometimes we end up with mad opportunities. It cuts both ways, but it adds up to an interesting whole.

This is becoming problematic. I’ve got The Book Chapter to write, the WAP project to do and the MRes to start. Oh, and there’s the Dubai conference paper. And every time i think of a subject and start reading about it, i find that someone else has already done it.
I was going to do something on Beckham and celebrity – but that’s been done. This is actually a problem because I’ve already sold the idea to both Cambridge and to Dubai and I can’t get out of it for either. I did day that I’m going to do that for the WAP, but nothing is signed sealed or delivered so I can delay that. On the one hand it’s a mare, on the other hand... if I can think of a solution, I can do the same piece all over the place. Just a question of finding a solution.

For the MRes I was going to do a study of Cool, what it was, what it wasn’t, how we define it etc. But hey and ho, someone has already done it.

Beckham
PR
Survival
Acceptance
Royalty
Celebrity
Advertising
Branding
Privacy
Cool
Marketing
Icon
Symbol
Twitter
Super Injunctions
Accessible
The hero
Mystique

Am I any nearer? Am I hell.