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| In which town will you find this? |
For the past four or five years Tonbridge Blog has been steadily providing you with daily information, entertainment and general rantings almost always with a Tonbridge focus. I do it unpaid, largely unthanked and out of the goodness of my own heart. So imagine my horror at seeing the face of that blond lady, Suzannah Niklaus staring smugly at me from the page when I opened up this weekend's Courier newspaper! They've only gone and given her nicey, nicey Tonbridge Daily blog a half page feature. Blumin cheek I say. There she is looking all over enthusiastic, with her historical snippets about the tops of buildings and daily observations about the town. She struts around with her Nikon SLR taking abstract photos, at weird angles of obscure bits of buildings, as if she's Mrs. Tonbridge or something. What's she got that Tonbridge Blog hasn't?! What about doing the same for Tonbridge Blog Mr. Frankham. Whenever I get the odd mention in the Courier the name of the blog, miraculously, is not to be seen anywhere. Not so much as a bit of a small print tacked on the end of the piece. I promise you my little efforts really aren't a threat to the might of Northcliffe Newspapers, owners of the Daily Mail and other national rags. By the way Suzannah also writes the Tonbridge Community column for the Courier, which I wrote before her. Is there a pattern developing here? Will her next move be to open a bookshop? Perhaps if I were slimmer better looking, female and blonde I'd also get to appear on page 3 of the local paper!...
15 comments:
PS. before anyone starts having a go this post was written with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek! No really it was. Well, okay, maybe not firmly....
Oooh Mr Books, your petticoat's showing!
Will she be able to keep up the pressure of coming up with something new and novel on a daily basis?
Sounds ok to begin with, but wait until the novelty wears off and the writer's block sets in!
Ok, perhaps I'm wrong. I see the lady in question has been blogging for nearly a year now. I'll do a bit more research next time before shooting my mouth off.
Oh, dear, Mr Bookman, such vitriol!!
Why did you stop writing for the Courier? If you chose to there shouldn't be a problem with who took over from you, if you were 'let go' it really is time you accepted their decision.
Maybe if you stopped considering this lady as a 'threat', and instead boosted your ego by thinking that she is following in the footsteps of 'greatness', you may feel more benevolent and give encouragement instead of un-warranted scorn.
Imagine you're on the Moon looking at the Earth, it's small, a dot in the Universe, we are less than Ants, scurrying about our daily business, does it really matter how many blogs there are about Tonbridge? No, ofcourse it doesn't!
Be the best you can in what YOU do and be proud of that.
Remember, nasty, thoughtless words can stain a good character forever!
Maybe I'll have another look at her blog. When I dipped into it a few times last year, it seemd like one of those hollywood films. Great production values but badly written lightweight content.
Hi Anonymous,
We are all guilty of sometimes regarding what we like as 'good' and what we don't as 'rubbish'.
I had a look at Tonbridgedaily and thought it charming. I loved the 'snippets' about old Tonbridge, but that's probably because I am old!
For the people who read it daily it obviously 'fits the bill'.
Personally, I didn't find the writing poor, a couple of spelling mistakes and punctuation errors, but we all do that purely because our fingers don't do what the brain is telling them when we type!
(See my first comment for my errors!)
Everything we are, do, say and feel is on a scale from 'less' to 'more'; Tall, short; outspoken, reticent; hopeful, bereft; consequently, our likes and dislikes vary too.
Some of you want to be Lion Tamers, put the world to rights and fight injustice, others are quite happy to sit in a comfy chair and stroke the cat!
The Blogs ARE different and that is why they have their own followers; support your favourite and praise them for their hard work, but don't demean the other writer or their readers because it's not your 'style'.
Different blogs give a variety of opinions and content, giving a more overall view of Tonbridge, surely this is of benefit to the town and it's populace.
Having met you both in person I know that you both do a great job - that job being to put Tonbridge on the map! You both provide a good service to the Tonbridge community with your blogs, both free of charge, although of course Suzannah has posted more about the bowls club than you have... (tongue just as firmly in cheek). I hope that I'll see you both on Thursday, we can all have a beer together and love the town we live in. There's room for us all!
Is this the lady behind tonbridgedaily.blogspot? If so - personally I think the delivery style of both your sites differ quite a bit - and I enjoy reading both.
Hi Fatbob,
I'm not quite sure if you are referring to me, but I am not the tonbridgedaily.blogspot lady, and if, as Angelibc says, they are all to meet up soon, even being as laid back as I am, I would have a problem being in the same room with Mr Bookman.
I feel the very least he can do is offer a public apology for this really atrocious, and totally unacceptable sexist attack.
I am also stunned that they know each other!!!
How much venom must one have to make a public, literary assault, on someone you have to look in the eye socially.
I think I am more suited to living in gentler, more polite times!
Ever thought about changing your name? From "chillout" to "tightarse"?
Just a thought.
Learn to take competition TB. First we had your spat with the owner of a rival Tonbridge book shop, then we had your attack when a rival to the Tonbridge Insider, that used to pay you, came to town. And now another blogger.
I really am quite shocked and a little disurbed that a few of you seemed to have taken this post seriously. I know "that blonde lady" Suzannah fairly well and hope that she sees the funny side of this. I'm 99.9% sure that she will. If anything it was meant to mock myself and pretend that I'm jealous. But, if there's any doubt then I should set the record straight: I am not in the least bit sexist. Having 4 elder sisters wouldn't allow it; if I were I'd be mince meat by now! I'm not in the least bit jealous of Ms Niklaus in fact I've known her quite a few years from poetry nights and as a customer in my shop and, hopefully by now, after many pleasant chats I would go as far to say that she is a friend. She writes a lovely column in the Courier and, unlike me, she does it on a voluntary basis whereas I got paid. Not much but I did get something. Her blog is nice as well and so different to mine so that, actually, they probably complement each other. There, is that apology enough? Can we all move on now?!...
...looks like someone's jealous...would probably help if your page didn't look like a geocities site from 1994...
Ha ha ha... I love it. particularly the disturbed individuals who have forgotten to take their tablets. It reminds me of the father michael saga.
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