Excuses, excuses and statistics

So where have I been?

I left my last job as a Building Surveyor at Southwark Council at the beginning of September and joined the Metropolitan Police - still a Building Surveyor, but now in a management position, and not getting out and about or getting my hands dirty. Also the official secrets act means I can't photograph or say anything about what I'm doing. At least noting directly - so for the first couple of months I haven't brought my camera out with me and have neglected this blog. The whole management thing is a good move for me, a step up on the ladder, with the potential for further advancement over the next three years - my next step is to secure my professional qualifications.

What I have been doing is writing more and more poetry, and performing it around town. On Tuesday nights I'm at the open mic night at Poetry Unplugged at the poetry cafe. I've also been going to the Slam poetry nights at Farrago, at RADA, submitted some poetry to the National Poetry competition, and also entered in the Slam Idol (http://slamidol.tripod.com/v2/) poetry podcast.

I try to have a new 'poem' to read every Tuesday, and I get a good feeling about what needs to be changed, edited, altered, and over the next few weeks, work on it, and then try and perform it again, just to see if it's worked. The fifteen poems here are those that I've worked on a few times, but that is not to say they wont change again. I'm currently working on getting a 'chapbook' together, something to punt around the publishers, which is what I want to do next.

So, enter a few more competition, push my stuff around the magazines and try to get some floor spots outside of the Poetry Cafe - that's what I'm trying to do - that and hold down a day job, run some personal meetings, be a member of my residents association, volunteer at the local Buddhist monastery and find some time to spend with my beautiful fiancée. All in all I'm really enjoying myself at the moment.