Meet Will: A Thirty Something “S40 Local” Will Jackson’s Blog
H
ello, my name is Will Jackson and I am a ‘thirty something’ S40 local; I grew up within the S40 area and would like to think that I know it pretty well. I live with my partner Clare of 6 years (who is nicknamed Margo due to her similarity with the character from the TV show The Good Life) and our 2 beautiful daughters; Evie who is nearly 4 and our new addition, Harriet who is 2 months old. Prior to finding a career, a mortgage, and the barrage of responsible stuff associated with settling down I spent many care free years pleasing myself, travelling and working abroad and it was then that I started to write about my experiences.
“A blog (a blend of the term web log) is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse‐ chronological order. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.”
Wikipedia
The majority of the experiences I wrote about on my travels were always personal, just for my posterity but I also tried to email home most weeks summarising my experiences, primarily to let parents and close friends know what I was up to (albeit subjected to partial censorship!) and over time, as I moved around meeting new people, I added more recipients to the circulation list and inevitably built up a bit of a following. I definitely speak before I think and it does occasionally get me into a bit of bother but my intention is always to be light‐hearted if not slightly idiotic; I like banter and I love sarcasm so I try to apply that to the articles I write. I returned to the UK in 2004 and concentrated on life back in ‘Blighty’, it was only a year ago that I happened Page 72 • www.s40local.co.uk
to enter a competition and won the opportunity to ‘blog’ for the Derbyshire Times. ‘Blogging’ was a new thing to me; I am still not sure what ‘blogging’ is, even after a year of doing it but I am fairly sure that ‘blogging’ is about periodically writing articles, stories, experiences, interviews or reviews etc and then publishing them online, yourself. The idea is that as time goes by your ‘blog’ attracts an audience, subscribers etc; it’s seems like a new age of freelance journalism almost, but whatever it is I quite like it and gathering from the feedback (and not just from my mum!) people enjoy what I ‘blog’ about. My viewing statistics are now comfortably in the thousands. However, by a twist of fate, blogging for the Derbyshire Times wasn’t meant to be and the newspaper are refreshing it’s bloggers with new competition winners, leaving me slightly obsolete. By pure chance though, within the same week of stopping blogging for the Derbyshire Times’, I met Paul, the editor of this magazine and I guess that a new chapter was started… Paul has invited me (at his peril) to write an article each month for S40 Local which I am really pleased about! But before I start next month, I must stress that I am just an ordinary bloke living a very ordinary life, attempting to provide my take on everyday occurrences. I hope that you can relate to my ramblings with, hopefully, a couple of chuckles to boot. It might not be your cup of tea but I hope it is… Let me know what you think next month! If you are interested in seeing any of my previous articles already published you can find them by visiting my ‘blog’ webpage here: http:// wj79.wordpress.com/