Earth hour or TV hour?

Ah Sunday shifts. I’m just waiting on a call back for a story I’m writing so I thought I’d take this opportunity to blog a little.

Did anyone else turn the lights off at 8pm last night? I see Google “turned out the lights”. I though my computer had a virus or something when I saw the black home page. Great idea though!

I have to admit, I’m not the most green person in the world. But I do try. But I was looking forward to Earth Hour and the idea of people across the globe switching off lights.. I had decided to spend the night with my folks but I was running quite late and arrived seconds before 8pm. Unfortunately, I hadn’t warned my parents it was Earth Hour and barged in demanding they switched everything off…much to their confusion.

And the war of all wars broke out as my father refused to switch off the TV (I insisted on EVERYTHING being switched off) and I ended up sitting in the darkness in my old room…fuming with noise from the TV in the background.

But we later debated it and I stopped being annoyed. Of course I was irrational (should have warned them) but this just shows how spoilt we are by technology. We love our TVs, radios, even the internet. For some people, like my dad, an hour without TV just seemed like a nightmare.

He did raise a valid point though. Why one day? We should make more of an effort to switch off appliances and lights we are not using every day.

Click here to read more about Earth Hour in The Birmingham Post.

Jermaine Jackson in Birmingham

Well I have just come back from interviewing Jermaine Jackson at the Radisson SAS. He’s in Birmingham to present an award at the Muslim Writers Awards at the ICC on Saturday.

I was told to be there at 6pm sharp with a photographer. On arrival, however, I was told he was running late (in true celeb style) and I would have to wait. In addition, it seemed he had not been consulted and a request for an interview hadn’t been made.

I finally got my interview at about 7pm.. An hour isn’t that bad I guess but waiting around was no fun.

And then I was told I had three minutes, and only three minutes to talk to Michael’s big bro. (Yes, pun intended) But I was also warned to stick to three areas.

1) The awards

2) His religious beliefs

3) His charity work.

Oh darn it. No mention of Shilpa, Michael Jackson (vast area that with colour, court and strange behavior on my mind) or his hair allowed.

And my thoughts on this great man? Well to start with, he didn’t seem to like me. But after a “Nice to meet you Mr Jackson”, a hand shake, an apology for taking up his precious time and lots of smiling, he seemed to warm up to me. And I to him.

I even managed to get to five minutes. Ok ok, four-and-a-half. And with another handshake, a big smile and a goodbye in that soft voice of his, he was gone.

Yes I was star struck and even sang a Jackson Five medley in my head as I returned to work. And when I got into my car later, “Billie Jean” by little bro Wacko was the first song that came on.. spooky!

Hello world!

Well hello there!

I used to have a blog and as much as I loved it, it was a little too focused on one topic – community affairs. Plenty to write about? Not really.

I hear the most successful blogs are the ones where you write every day. But every time I wanted to write something, I found myself thinking.. is this relevant to my chosen topic? No. Okay then, I’ll wait for a story that is and will write something tomorrow. And now I’m in a position where I haven’t written in over a month.

So here I am again – on WordPress – and with more ideas.

As a regional journalist, I come across the weirdest stories… some funny, some hilarious and some… well I can’t mention them all as I’d get sued. And other days, there are stories that just make me want to cry.

Although I’m still interested in community affairs in Birmingham, I think there is more I can talk about, from my experiences at work and the training I went through for my job to my life as a British Asian in Birmingham (with a mixed Trinidadian and Indian background).

Two of my colleagues at the Birmingham Post have their own blogs – not focused on a specific topic but on anything and everything. So here’s hoping I can pull this off too.

And if you are interested in my original blog, you can see my old posts at… http://birminghamcommunity.blogspot.com/