Right into my twenties, I used to hate it when different compartments of my life dissolved and started mingling together. That doesn’t bother me any more (what compartments?), but I still can’t stand it when all my competing enthusiasms, responsibilities and commitments get so thoroughly entwined that I can’t tackle any of them as well as I’d like, or enjoy them as much as I should.

When this does happen, my first instinct is to pretend it hasn’t. Then I spend weeks or months doing absolutely nothing about it. Only then do I feel ready to act.

I feel ready now. What’s more, I’ve been acting like billy-ho.

I won’t bore you with the details, but insofar as this blog is concerned I have decided to drag it back onto the tracks by reserving it for the kind of writing I enjoy best: observational, wry and - I hope - with a dash of humour. Things like this or this or this or this lot (which I really must finish).

That’s rule number one, and it’s in force from today. Oh, and I’m keeping Elegantly Dressed Wednesday here as well.

Next, I’ve decided to separate out all those snapshots of Hackney that I’ve been inflicting on you. The problem with those, it struck me, was the fact that they had little meaning to anyone not familiar with the borough. There wasn’t enough context.

So I’ve decided to resurrect Hackney Lookout on rather different lines. It will now be a repository for photos of the area and those snippets of dialogue that I sometimes overhear and which I adore. Things like:

“Do you speak English?”
“Yes.”
“I’m from Limerick.” Then: “Do you know what just happened to me?”
“No.”
“Don’t laugh. Don’t fucking laugh at me. Do you know what happened?”
“No.”
“They threw me out of the shop. Just like that. And do you know why?”
“No.”
“Just ’cause I’ve got no money. I ask you - is that fair?”

Vistors to the new blog will have to navigate it by scrolling round a satellite map of Hackney. Every time I make a post, I use stick-pins in the map to connect place with post. That way I hope even people who are not familiar with the area will begin to form a coherent picture of the borough. Those little posts will have a bit more context.

Of course, it might not work, but I like anything that connects stories to places; so I’m going to stay with it and see how it gets on.

Last of all, there’s another big chunk of writing I’ve been doing over the last two to three weeks. I’m not going to give the game away on that just yet, but I’ll let you know all about it soon.

In the meantime, I’d love to know what you make of the new Hackney Lookout. Sure, I’ve recycled some old photos to begin with - but remember I only put it together last night…

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• Many Lookouts
• Another Hackney Post
• Common Ground in N16
• Paper all over the tracks
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