The end of the year

Holidays in The English Lakes, Barcelona and The Loire region of France. Working in Hull, Blackburn, Bolton, Skelmersdale, Cheltenham, Leeds, San Francisco, New Jersey, Leicester and York. Leaving the BBC after 18 years and starting my own business called digistories. Cycling, walking and enjoying the hills of the North of England. Visiting friends and family and enjoying the challenge of my church friends in York. Working with Daniel Meadows, Joe Lambert and Leslie Rule and broadening my experience of digital storytelling. Adding to my music collection and loading up my first iPod. Some of the things that made up the year for me.
I also observed the national and international events that made their impact on our recent history. The natural disasters - Tsunami, earthquake, hurricane and flood. Man’s violence in Iraq, London, Bali, and many other hotspots around the world.
In my own small way I participated in the Make Poverty History campaign. Measuring the impact is not easy, but whatever the outcome it’s better than doing nothing. If we learn from the experience we may be more effective next time.
Regrets? Could I have done more with some of the time that I’d been given this year? There are certainly thing I wished I had done - more digital stories, more of my research documented, more articles written, more stories told. But I won’t sit and mope around in regret. There’s a new year beginning and 365 days to achieve what remains to be done. So look out for a storytelling podcast, performance based storytelling, training trainers events to pass on my digital storytelling skills to other tutors, features both about storytelling and simply telling good stories. A radio experiment to refresh journalism with authentic voices and a cross generational storytelling project on local TV. I’ve also been asked to assist in an Alpha Course at my church. Joan says I’m going to learn to dance properly this year, and as soon as the weather improves the road bike will be out again. We’re planning to travel to the US for our annual holiday and no doubt storytelling will take me to some interesting places too.
Have a happy and busy new year.