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Dear iPhone I think we both know things haven’t been great for a while now. I haven’t tried to disguise the fact that I’ve been getting frustrated with things you do; I just don’t think you have ever given me many options, whether it’s ringtones, settings or anything to be honest. I have a mind of my own and you just don’t let me be myself. I look around and I see you, and hear you wherever I go, and it’s just always the same thing. I REALLY don’t like the way you try to guess what I’m thinking when I write texts; to beRead More →

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You can feel the energy around you change as you approach London. It’s something in the atmosphere; the pressure rises and the speed increases as though you were approaching some great vortex. The view out of the window of the train becomes busier, harder, greyer, denser. The eyes have less space to see out to and more details to focus on. Perhaps it’s just nerves. It’s a journey I’ve taken too many times to count but more often than not there’s some big reason to be going back to the city I lived in for four years, the place where my career began. Usually it’sRead More →

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Smoking is stupid. It gives you cancer, heart disease, ages you, makes you smell and drains your cash. I’m not saying it’s clever or healthy, how could I? But seriously, it’s time to stop the persecution of smokers. We’ve given up airplanes, cinemas, workplaces, restaurants, wine bars, and pubs. Gladly in most cases. The pleasure of lighting up in all of the above places is something we used to love but we knew it couldn’t, and shouldn’t last. Out of consideration for others and oursleves we gave up that right. We’ve also put up with the constant price-hikes of the past three decades, shelling outRead More →

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St Pancras stood cool and strong, a serene rock. I cursed my own bad planning and dashed red-faced from platform to platform, as though if I moved stealthily enough I might be able to slope across the grand old station and avoid its disapproving stare. It had hardly been the smartest preparation for another big slog. I’d only groaned through the front door eight hours ealier, ragged and feeble after a day of travelling, and already the four o’clock alarm was screeching in my ear. It was pointless setting one, looking back. I had hardly sunk into anything more than a thin stream of unconsciousnessRead More →

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BEING A JOURNALIST sometimes just involves waiting in a state of wretched anxiety while something you desperately need to happen doesn’t happen. It’s not unusual for me to be sitting hunched over my laptop, stomach acid flowing freely, feeling like it’s burning a hole through a vital organ or two, praying that a simple question I asked seven hours ago to an indifferent press officer is being handled. Knowing but denying the truth that it’s sitting feebly in an inbox about as likely to be read as a letter from the bank. Here I am, in exactly one of those moments. Several hours late forRead More →

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Please see my latest blogpost, another story from my travels around Asia, that has appeared on We Blog the World   One evening as I sat outside my hotel, slouching and sweating in the heat, a young Cambodian boy called Thoi who I had given a few dollars to the day before suddenly arrived out of nowhere. Without any hesitation he repeated an offer from yesterday to visit his home and his family. I had awkwardly but politely declined it then, but this time, maybe just out of sheer curiosity, I decided to take him up on it. As we scrabbled across the dust, dirtRead More →

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I am very pleased to have been taken on by SMS community business news site 160Characters to provide regular news and features to its large membership of SMS industry professionals. I welcome contacts and releases from PR companies operating in this field. Please feel free to contact me.Read More →