Hard labour...

A new experience for me. I've taken on, along with Bob Spigel, the voluntary editing of the Bay News - Governors Bay's bimonthly newsletter. With Bob away on holiday, last weekend saw me clenched and hunched over the laptop, trying to come to grips with the intricacies of Erik's Word formatting. I had forgotten a) how tenacious I can be when I want/need to get a job done and b) how stressed I can become at my lack of sufficient IT knowledge. Word slips and slides all over the place; the regular disappearance of large chunks of text and graphics not good for my equilibrium!

All that aside, a newsletter did emerge from a difficult labour and strangely, I feel more pride in this small achievement than I did in the production of my PhD. There is something very satisfying about facilitating a publication by and for the community in which I live. Also this particular issue follows the bay experience of the earthquake and reflects the extent of our neighbourhood support in a crisis.

None of this would be likely were it not for my decision to forgo full time employment and to work part-time and independently, from home. A decision I have never regretted. Now I am really looking forward to developing my desktop publishing skills and working with Bob on further issues.

I'll post a link to the newsletter when it goes up on the Governors Bay website...