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