Sarah Sturt's Blog

Happy 25th, Monkey!

Birthday greetings to young Monkey, who has reached the grand old age of a quarter of a century today and, according to the lads at Worthing whne we were down there yesterday, is probably going through a mid-life crisis even as we speak. Not sure I can quite see the logic there, apparently it's something to do with his love of sailing: not been watching our young GB sailing teams in the Olympics then, chaps?  Anyway, be gentle with him today - he started day one of his 25th year locked out of his own home at one o'clock in the morning and nearly had to sleep in the car. Apparently it's not the first time...

Me - I'll be singing Abba songs all day, and I never did like Abba. If you haven't seen the movie Mama Mia yet, grab a handful of mates and get down to your nearest cinema, it's absolutely brilliant and guaranteed to have you laughing out loud. The sight - and sound - of Pierce Brosnan trying to hold a note will last for a very long time.

British workmen rule

This homeworking lark doesn't half make you realise there's a whole world out there that has been passing you by for years. Today I've put in a good 12 hours hard graft on the magazine, but because you can do things at bizarre times - starting at 6.30am, of which more later, and blogging away at nearly 10pm, for example - but in between I've fitted in all sorts of weird and wonderful things.

Like springing awake at 6am this morning and realising I knew exactly where some precious original photos I'd er, mislaid, would be - having turned the house upside down all weekend and sent fretting emails to Worthing for days, convinced I'd left them there. Why does the brain suddenly provide the answer like that? Anyway, I got straight up, out to the recycling box, which was minutes away from being collected from its position at the top of my drive - and there they were. Bizarre, but what a relief. Apologies to any neighbours who saw me in in my PJ's rootling around the bins at dawn. All legit, honest.

Not very long after that, right on time at 8.30am, along came my third gang in a week to fit a brand new 20m supply pipe. And they were brilliant. Given the fairly complicated scenario - a landscaped front garden dotted with plants growing out of shingle, and a block paving drive, both of which had to be dug up, it could have been a disaster. But by the time they'd finished, you wouldn't have known John and Daniel from Waterlink had even been there - and the plumber, another John, was just as handy sorting out the kitchen side of things. He even cleaned the top of my washing machine, even though it'll probably never see daylight ever again. They were cheerful, chatty and even gave Mama Mia, which I'm going to see tomorrow night with my girlfriends and obviously wrongly thought was a chick flick, a big thumbs up. Who says practical males aren't in touch with their feminine side? Hurrah for them anyway - and they might even become new readers, now they know what I do for a living, in between making them copious cups of tea, that is.

Worthing tomorrow, where I shall try not to lose anything or at least think that I have...

Sarah

Life after the Olympics

As the Bank Holiday weekend draws to a close, I'm sure I'm not alone in having a sense of something missing - ah yes, that would be the 2008 Olympics. Seemingly on the telly 24/7, there was always an extraordinary moment to stop you in your tracks and goggle open-mouthed at the sheer skill of it all - Michael Phelps, Team GB's cyclists and rowers, just how good the Chinese are at displays - and it's left a bit of a gap.

So it was great to wander along to my local castle on a very sunny Sunday afternoon with the camera to be part of Tonbridge and Malling's Olympic flag raising ceremony. Mayor Cllr Chris Smith and 2004 Olympic bronze medallist kayaking champ, Ian Wynne, watched by happy crowds gathered for jazz on Bailey lawn, duly raised the offical Handover Flag above the ramparts of Tonbridge Castle and we all collectively wondered just what 2012 would bring us.

I for one hope we can literally raise our game on the athletics track - my father was Chairman of the Amateur Athletics Association for many years in Somerset and I don't think he would have been too impressed that we seem to have lost our way in the middle and long-distance events. But how brilliant we are - as the Australians jibed - at winning while sitting down! Nothing wrong with that at all, I'd just like to see some of the same Lottery funding that has boosted our cyclists kick-starting athletics into a must-do discipline once again.

Other highlights this weekend - which for me certainly didn't include the UK's very amateurish eight minutes showing the world what we could do for sport in four years time, via David Beckham, brollies, a bus and Leona Lewis - have been a trip to London with my my mum and sister to watch Phantom of the Opera, followed by a great meal in Covent Garden afterwards, and visiting Ightham Mote with Mum today, which was brilliant, but did remind me just how long a visit to a National Trust gem can last when you take a historian with you...

And tomorrow? The joys of my third gang of workmen in seven days, this lot intent on digging up my entire front garden and drive to lay a 20m relay pipe and hopefully stop my water bills looking as if I'm a family of 12 taking baths every five seconds. I shall just hide behind my laptop and pretend the carnage isn't occurring, I think.

Hope you all had a good 'un and are raring to go!

Sarah

Drive of your life

This is the best time of the month - the new magazine is on the shelves, the reactions are starting to come in already ("better than Country Life" according to a message left on my voicemail this evening by a lovely reader) and, of course, the website is reflecting our brand new content, thanks to Monkey magic, ably assisted by designer Kerry. Me? I just blog a bit and call it a job.

You may well have spotted an extra addition to our home page - an intriguing, bright orange cover with Drive splashed across it. Click onto it, follow the dead easy instructions and you'll be able to turn the pages and dive straight in (if I can do it, of course you can). It's a new experiment for us, our first digital online publication and I couldn't be happier about, it nor more impressed.

Even if you don't think you're particularly interested in cars, give this one a go - it's been written entirely by my right-hand man, Michael Palmer, aka Monkey, and designed by Paul Jarvis from our Worthing office. The result is  first class: entertaining, witty and informed prose from my brilliant assistant combined with Jarvis at his absolute best. Well done the lads!

Off to Worthing tomorrow, bright and early, for our September plan and review, and we've also got our very first meeting there at what I guess is our new 'office' with an outside team keen to discuss plans with us for 2009. Should be a busy  one!

Until tomorrow.

Sarah

Contrasts and changes

The craziness continues with a week of contrasts. And it's still only Tuesday. I left you on a cliffhanger of broken pipes and gangs of workmen on Monday morning, but the day turned into a winner when I sped over to Ashford (forgetting how much further the M20 is now I'm not starting out from Maidstone - oops) to meet the team from Visit Kent - the lovely Amanda Cottrell, Sandra Marsh Matthews and new campaigns manager, Julie Edwards - at Eastwell Manor.

I headed for the Brasserie, as instructed, only to be waylaid by chairman Amanda and commanded to get in her car - minding the ashes of her beloved 16-year-old dog in an urn at my feet, as you do - and transfer instead to the restaurant, as there were apparently far too many people in dressing gowns, fresh from their spa experiences, at the Brasserie. Fair enough.

So it was back again to the scene of my September edition review with Monkey, which was slightly surreal but absolutely delightful - and to my complete astonishment, the lunch was in my honour, not as I'd thought for newcomer Julie! Apparently the Visit Kent team are delighted with everything I do for Kent in the magazine and wanted to thank me properly, which rendered my near-speechless and really quite emotional. Anyway, it was all lovely and I drove home jabbering to Monkey via my new bluetooth thingy, which I'm terribly excited about, full of ideas and fresh enthusiasm. Nothing beats a bit of appreciation, especially when it's totally unexpected!

Today was back to earth again, in jeans and trainers and loading the last of the Kent office into our cars while the heavy stuff was put into a truck heading for Worthing - all a bit sad really - and now my back bedroom really is the hub of Kent Life. All I have to do now is learn how to switch the computer off...

Sarah

How to be a homeworker: day one

Welcome to my world. Return from long weekend in Devon, which didn't involve any sunshine at all really but quite a lot of scrubbing of floors, takeaways, drinking and watching far too much Olympics when we should have been painting and decorating... Switch computer on late evening to check progress of ghastly email queue after recklessly taking a day's holiday. Nothing happens. No internet connection. Sleepless night fretting over lack of connection as the brave new world of 'homeworking' reveals itself as Not Quite What I'd Been Hoping For. 

Monday morning and of course it's pouring with rain. Still no Internet. Drive to sorting office to collect 'special delivery' post that arrived when I was away: think I may well get to be a regular visitor here, so am extra-nice to chap at the counter. Back a mere 30 seconds and the SE Water 'gang' due to arrive at 9am to fix my leaking water pipe (don't you dare laugh) turn up at 8am: good job I got up so early then, isn't it? Phone Monkey for IT advice and am told to switch my router off and then back on again - the equivalent of hitting the telly when it doesn't work, I guess. Hurrah! Have connectivity, my new favourite word! Monkey is officially a genius.

9am. Not laughing quite so much when 199 emails flood in, including one from Our Leader about getting our Christmas plans sorted by next week. Don't have any. Attempt to make urgent phone calls but challenging when the sound of a loud drill outside is blocking out everything else. Noise stops. Men have drilled through my drain cover 'by mistake' and have to go off and do another job now, but don't worry, another 'gang' will be along this afternoon to fix it and they'll be back in about a week to finish off. Am rapidly losing will to live. Delete another 100 emails. It is only 10am. But at least the sun has come out...

Sarah

Keeping in touch - urgent

An urgent message, first, to all readers who may have been experiencing difficulties getting in touch with the Kent Life editorial and sales team via our Maidstone office. BT, in their infinite widsom, managed to sever our connection earlier this week, so we have been unable to receive, or make, any calls. So if you need myself, Michael, Angela, Martin or Adam, please click onto 'Contact Us' in the top bar for our individual mobile numbers and email addresses. Huge apologies for the inconvenience. 

I am officially on holiday today, about to leave for what I hope will be a sunny weekend in Devon - it's pretty warm here in Kent at 8am, at least - scooping up my daughter at a service station somewhere along the A303, if all goes according to plan. At least the long drive south-westwards will be full of chat, music and laughter for nearly half the journey!

It's potentially the last time I will see Laura and her boyfriend in their Plymouth home before they move much closer to this neck of the woods when Laura starts her postgraduate course in London this September. Rumour has it I may have to get involved in helping decorate the place before the keys are handed back, ready for the next tenants, but I think I will just quietly remind my daughter just how rubbish I am with a paintbrush and volunteer for cooking duties instead!

We're hoping to get to the beach, and to the Plymouth lido, which is sunk into the cliff face and rather magnificent, and I am apparently joining all her mates in a late rum drinking session tonight, at their particular request Glad I still retain Cool Mum status, then.

Have a great weekend.

Sarah

The Dead Parrot sketch

Well, we got there - Kent Life's September edition finally got to press last night, but it was a day of notable drama. Monkey and I set off for Worthing even earlier than usual, concerned that the lashing rain we were greeted by at dawn would delay our progress. Meanwhile, our trusty sales trio encountered even more difficulties, when ad manager Angela - who lives so far along the east coast she's practically on the continent - got stuck on a largely waterlogged M2, unable to get to Maidstone to even pick up 'the lads' and begin their journey south.

Then when we finally arrived, Monkey and I were greeted by 'you can't sit there', 'that's so and so's seat,' even at crack of dawn. Not this lark again! We eventually disovered two people were on holiday and nailed our colours to those desks, wondering where on earth yet another three Kent bods would fit, when they managed to limp in, wild-eyed and wet through.

Meanwhile, it was confirmed that yes indeed, with unprecedented speed, BT had 'pulled the plug' and 'ceased Maidstone', which prompted lots of really bad Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch renditions from Money. But honestly - when do BT ever do anything quickly, and why pick on us?!! 

So today has been interesting. The sales team are in an office where the landlines don't work and there is no computer access, while trying to get started on our October edition and go through months' worth of files, etc in readiness for us all now officially - but somewhat more rapidly than planned - becoming 'homeworkers.' It all sounds very trendy, but we weren't quite expecting it all to happen this rapidly, to be honest with you. I am now trying to fit more than three years' worth of files, folders and magazines into a pretty small back bedroom I laughably call 'the study' - and, as the daughter of archivists, throwing source material away is unfortunately not something I find easy to do, so it's all got to stay!

Anyway - bear with us please, normal service will be resumed as soon as possible, and just get in touch with us via our mobile tel nos and emails (see our 'get in touch' section).

Onwards and upwards!

Sarah

Kent invades Sussex

If only readers knew the dramas, the tears and the near bloodshed that's behind getting a nice shiny, happy copy of their favourite county magazine onto the magazine stands! Here at Kent Life we're poised to go to press on our September edition, which involves Monkey and I scrutinising each page, word by word, comma by comma on what is fondly known as the 'bingo board' - an electronic version of the whole magazine that we can all access at the same time and is also connected to our printers.

Meanwhile, our sales team are selling the final few bits of space left on said giant flatplan, and the idea is that all the spaces get filled up at more or less the same time with the lovely mix of editorial and appropriate advertising you see in the final product. Sounds like a lovely, fun game, doesn't it? It wasn't today. The penny dropped very slowly this afternoon as, one by one, we all realised, hey, we aren't getting any emails through - and hang on, we don't seem to be connected to our server anymore. Which means none of us can actually do any work, just hours befoire we go to press. Not the best timing in the world, but hey, surely we'll be a priority and connection will be sorted out with the speed of light. We waited, and the waited some more, did a bit of recycling and general tidying up. Nothing.

Fortunately, Monkey and I have something fancy called 'Remote Server Access' which basically means that we can, will, and do work just about anywhere, so we decamped to our separate homes and got onto the internet that way. Then, ominously, the email dropped in - the line at Maidstone has been 'ceased' and the IT department is working towards restoring 'connectivity.' Well, that's two new words at least added to my vocabulary.

So, tomorrow, watch out for your desks and your chairs, Worthing - Kent is on its way! Yup, not just your near-residents, Money et Moi, but Angela, Martin and Adam are all heading south to an office with a modicum of 'connectivity', and we ain't leaving until we've got a magazine to press!

You have been warned.

Sarah

Summer on the Pantiles

Our British summer is so fleeting it can feel like a real triumph when you manage to enjoy a 'proper'  balmy, open air evening event, as I did yesterday - especially when the previous night saw half the population dive under the bedclothes and the other half revel in that spectacular storm, lighting and everything, tearing through our skies.

The occasion was that great Tunbridge Wells' tradition - Jazz on the Pantiles - and if you've never been, make a date in your diary for next Thursday. It's brilliant. Every Thursday until 4 September the outdoor music season, organised by The Pantiles' new owners, Targetflow, takes place from 7.30pm 'til late and showcases a new band every time. I went last week with my mate Kellie, we had a bite to eat first and got there about 8.30pm - big mistake! The place is literally packed every week, all the tables were well and truly taken and we could barely squeeze in at the back.

Last night was different - I met up with an old friend I used to work with and she had very cleverly  got there early and bagged us a prime-spot table right near the bandstand by charming a lovely old boy into giving up two seats at his table for us. Despite the fact that we chatted non-stop for the first half hour at least, I don't think he minded too much: we had an awful lot to catch up on!

We did listen to the music as well, honest, and the Jim Mullen Organ Quartet, with the eponymous leader on guitar, the wonderfully monikered Mornington Lockett on sax, Mike Gorman on Hammond organ and Matt Skelton on drums were absolutley brilliant - perfect summer entertainment.

We were joined by a friend of Mary's who goes by the name of *** (don't even ask) and somehow all four of us got onto the subject of allotments - turns out the old chap has a plot at Hawkenbury and he was a mine of information about rods and stuff (plot sizes are measured in the old Anglo-Saxon unit of rods, a rod is 5.03 metres and plot sizes are usually five or 10 rods. Don't say I never tell you anything useful!). I might even have gained a new reader, as he seemed quite excited about the fact that we're running a feature in our September edition on 'grow your own' and why the take-up of allotments in Kent is at an all-time high. If I could work out how to deal with slugs, I might even be tempted.

The evening took a positively surreal turn when Monkey turned up with his mate who's over here from New Zealand. The lovely Phil has been travelling around the UK for the last five weeks but seemed to have spent yesterday afternoon not only taking the waters on the Pantiles, in time-honoured tradition, but also taking in an awful lot of the beer, too... Monkey was also seeing double - Mary, now an extremely senior journaliast with the Courier newspaper, and I have both been his bosses in his short working career, and here we both were out on the town together, comparing notes about him! Very unfair.

Safe journey home, Phil - and I might take you up on that offer to visit one of these days!

Anyway, the working day beckons and I've got a magazine to get to press - until later,

Sarah

English wines

Writing a blog can become a bit like a diary, an intensely private affair, so it comes as an occasional wake-up to realise it's actually really quite widely read. Like when I walked into the offices at Chapel Down Wines in Tenterden this morning and the md, Frazer Thompson, reminded me I hadn't written anything since his birthday last Wednesday. How time flies when you're trying to put a bumper September edition to bed!

Despite my love of wine, much-documented by appearances in the Diary pages of Kent Life, rarely without a glass in hand (this has been pointed out by quite a few people - it's my job, I protest, weakly), I was at Chapel Down early on a wet Tuesday for non-quaffing purposes.

Frazer is my 'Kent Character' for the October edition and, despite the aforementioned press week, I had agreed to an early date so that my snapper Manu could come along and get the pics in before his holiday. No such luck. Drizzle turned into a downpour and Tenterden will have to wait for a sunny day before it gets its moment of glory. But I had a great chat with Frazer, who seemed to get more Geordie on me as the interview progressed, for some reason, and I was genuinely shocked to find that someone who has made such a name for himself and for English wines has only been in the county seven years. Hope you'll enjoy the read as much as I enjoyed the interview.

Sarah