The new all-singing, alldancing Whistler Insta
Editorial
Today is the first day of the rest of my life. Since we last met, we’ ve been on holiday, got married( fourth time! Same woman!) and been invited to the Royal Enclosure at Royal Ascot. Morning suit, top hat, the lot. But today is a different day. Today is the first day after my work contract expires. I’ d been there 16 years. Extraordinary really. For 16 years I knew what I was going to be doing on Monday. And now, for the first time in 16 years... no idea. I could do anything. I could do nothing. I’ ve no idea. How does that feel? I’ ve no idea.
It’ s time to do something new. The only problem is, I have no idea what that something might be. I mean, what am I qualified to do? Not a lot it seems.
It’ s a curious thing. You can’ t really retrain when you’ re... of an age because by the time you qualify you’ ll be even more of an age. Can you? Could I get work while I retrain? I was thinking maybe a job as a night porter or night concierge or whatever. Sit in a hotel, watch the night sky, hand over to the day time staff at 8am or something with a wave and a“ No, nothing happened at all. Cheers!” Maybe gardening. Dog walking. How about keeping lonely people company in a bar. No, don’ t knock it. Isolation, loneliness... these things are terrible and a big societal problem. What we need is people willing to give up their time and provide an antidote to that isolation. In a bar.
If anyone has any bright ideas... you know the email address.
Postscript to the work thing. I just tried to sign in to my work email and... locked out. Ex-communicated. Gone. No access to anything. Apparently it’ s standard practice, something to do with GDPR- one of those helpful acronyms that are like a Get Out Of Jail Free card. No one knows what it means but if you’ re in doubt about anything just say“ it’ s something to do with GDPR” and people will buy it. It’ s a bit blimmin quick is all I know. Oh well. There really wasn’ t much temptation to look back and wonder and now... none at all. So all’ s good. Scorched earth.
Just as we hit the button and the tanks rolled out of Whistler Towers loaded with the latest issue of The Mighty Whistler, we heard that there’ ll be no“ Burning Of The Clocks” this year. They say it’ s a“ pause”, a pause to negotiate“ funding challenges”. Well, how very sad is that? Apparently, there’ ll be a“ massive lantern sculpture” central Brighton on Sunday, December 21. But there will be no parade. How very sad is that?
Burning of the Clocks has been going since 1994, and it was one of the first things we encountered when we moved here in 1997 and I’ m sure that costs have“ soared”, but surely there must be a way of keeping things like this going. Maybe not. Maybe it’ ll just be another of those things that people in the future will read about while they’ re zapping around on their hovverboards and planning their holidays by the Sea of Tranquility. Hope
The new all-singing, alldancing Whistler Insta
So many times, we’ ve heard about a gig, a show, something going on and we’ ve gnashed our remaining teeth and wished there was a place that told us it was happening. A listings magazine, maybe, But any printed magazine that sets out to provide a listings service is making itself a hostage to fortune. There’ s print deadlines, there’ s last minute changes, there’ s the question of how you cover spontaneous pop ups. When you’ re a magazine that comes out every two months...
Well, we here at Mighty Whistler Towers are very 21st century and because we’ re very 21st century... we’ ve gone all Instagram.
We’ ve hired at great and considerable expense( oh, calm down Chris) a new Social Media guru and have revamped our Insta account and... It’ s very cool. Check out @ westhillwhistler
And anyone who’ s putting on a show, organising a street party or doing something interesting... Get in touch by sliding in our DMs.( Oh, just send us a message)
A Sussex House
A very big house in the country
A stunning rural retreat location, event space and house rental for up to 18. It’ s a blank canvas for painting your dreams. With six double bedrooms and another three in the barn, ten acres of wildflower meadow, two ponds and its own private woodland, A Sussex House is a unique and cosy home from home. You can rent the whole house and barn with its 60ft underfloor heated space for yoga or well-being retreats, team building, executive coaching, daytime creative breakouts, location photography, and content creation. A Sussex House is a tranquil, thoughtful place where a community of creative and inspiring people come together to make real change in their worlds.
Contact Gilly Smith gilly @ gillysmith. com asussexhouse. org