From the Antarctic to solar panels to teaching subbing

It has been a very entertaining and enjoyable final week of work before Christmas.

Last Thursday I was in Shrewsbury where I wrote a couple of press releases for The Lion Hotel and the stories will be on my blog in the next few days.

I was quite saddened to hear the owner, Howard Astbury, who was a great supporter of my book project, is retiring and has put the hotel up for sale at £2.95 million.

One press release is about a couple who spent their honeymoon night at The Lion and returned there 50 years later to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary.

Howard said he would knock the original amount off the present bill if they could produce their 1961 receipt – and they did.

The second story was about a group who had worked in the 1970s for the British Antarctic Survey at Halley, the most southerly British base.

Amazingly, they held a reunion at The Lion, Shrewsbury, because one of their leaders lives nearby.

They enjoyed their weekend so much they have already booked another one at the hotel – in 2013.

Then on Friday I was talking Steve Legg, publisher editor of the only men’s Christian magazine, Sorted, whom I met at the Gorsley Festival, near Ross-on-Wye, over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

He told me they were running a big feature on God’s Secret Listener, published by Lion/Hudson/Monarch, in their latest edition.

The magazine arrived today and I was delighted to see they had done a brilliant job with three pages on Berti Dosti, a 2,000-word article and pictures.

On Monday I learned that a press release I had written for the Solorvox solar panel company had appeared in seven different newspapers throughout the Midlands and a delighted director, Ron Fox, said within 24 hours they had already received three inquiries from interested customers.

Then on Tuesday I had a fascinating day in Manchester where I was invited to give a 90-minute lecture to journalism students at the News Associates training centre just by Piccadilly Railway Station.

It was my third visit there and this time I was teaching subbing and then helping the 24 students design their first page from scratch.

The students, who were on a 26-week intensive training course, were eager to learn and did excellently.

It was no surprise to learn that News Associates, was ranked the best course overall by the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) in their 2009/2010 annual report

They do two journalism courses at their London and Manchester offices.

The NCTJ 20-week Fast Track course has two intakes a year – in March and September.

Trainees attend full time Monday to Thursday and are expected to work Fridays at a work placement on a newspaper or news outlet.

Then there is the NCTJ-accredited 40-week Earn While you Learn course which has two intakes a year in London in January and September and a September intake at Manchester.

This course allows trainees to work part-time and study on Monday evenings and all-day Saturday plus a two-week work placement.