Are you reading this? Maybe you’ve perused The Lockwood Echo before or is it your first visit? Either way, I would like to embrace you till you go all the colours of the rainbow, shower you with a thousand rose petals (your favourite variety of course) and buy you that Ferrari/Pony/Lego/Kitchen Gadget that you’ve always wanted (I said ‘I’d like to’ NOT ‘I’m gonna’. I’m barely employed, cut a girl some slack).

The reason I’d like to do all of the above is to say a BIG THANKYOU to everyone that has taken the time and trouble to pick up a copy of The Echo, even if it was just to read the Headlines. This publication is now six months old and although I hoped for some British readers (emotionally obligated friends and family), I did not consider my readership would extend internationally. I’m not very well travelled. In fact I’m a bit of a hermit. Although I did once go on a plane as far as you can go before coming back on yourself. A very unnatural state to be in and not one I’m in a hurry to repeat. (The flight that is, not the trip. The trip was AWESOME!).

So the world is still a very big place to me and therefore seeing readers drop in from other countries as well as the UK, feels like I’ve tuned into the National Geographic channel or picked up an encyclopedia; Nigeria, Turkey, Australia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Canada, USA, Italy, India, South Africa, Egypt, Romania, China, France, Russia, Hong Kong, Germany, Ireland, Kenya, Jamaica, Belgium, Netherlands, Pakistan, Spain, Bangladesh, Philippines…….WOW! A whole atlas of visitors! Looks like I’m showing off but I don’t have the follower numbers yet to be truly egotistical, so don’t think less of me. But it does remind me how wonderful the internet can be. And if I’ve missed your country off my list, give yourself a big ol’ ‘here I am‘ in the comments.

Six months in business. Time then for a stocktake. It’s one year since THAT redundancy, a catalyst for this publication, sent an already fragile self into a flat spin. My experience and venomous survival technique has just been documented as a fun yet facetious diary. And although I’ve officially finished spitting out my Christmas Redundancy Diary, there is so much more to tell and another related chapter to come. The clue is in the italics…….

I’m sure you would just love to hear my thoughts on the month and a half long confrontation consultation with the Department of Work and Pensions. I will try to condense that into just one or two packages. I have some rather poisonous wrapping paper to decorate the box with and I’ll tie the whole thing up with a vindictive bow. Just to make it real pretty.

Madame Charlatan has been very quiet over the Christmas period. I must get one of the staff (me) to give her a call and sober her up/pay her bail/collect her from that dusty damp caravan she inherited, and remind her she has an obligation to write a regular column for The Echo.

What else can you expect amongst these pages in 2018? Well, maybe there’ll be more of this Editorial type column, expectations, intentions, thankyous and personal insights. Don’t expect deep investigative reporting, intelligent observation, social comment or in fact anything that could be defined as mature and grown-up. I am not cultured, I’m not sophisticated, I’ve already explained I’m not well-travelled, nor am I that well-read or terribly educated. Correction; I am terribly educated!

I did go to see a play once (which did feel incredibly grown-up and cultured). In the heart of London’s West End. Steeped in theatrical tradition, historically significant, the setting for this play transported you to bygone days. A classic theatre, evening gloves and opera glasses optional. Not only was the location superbly perfect, the play featured two of Britain’s best-loved and most widely respected actors; Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart. Thespians who have been endorsed by our Queen! How posh is that? So, trying our best to look and sound like we did this kind of thing all the time; ‘Did you remember to tell the Nanny we are at the Wyndham darling?’, (we don’t have kids), we sat captivated by the performance before us. And we loved it. We didn’t get it. But the people next to us did, and that was good enough for us to justify the ticket price. And as everyone departed for their post-theatre a la carte reservations, we sat in Leicester Square eating pizza, reflecting on the astonishing craft we had just witnessed and why we didn’t understand it.

So, long story short, thankyou, thankyou, thank YOU for reading, for subscribing, for calling in from all corners of the globe and for also giving me some great stuff to read. For inspiring me, for comforting me, for informing me and for giving me a reason to keep the printing press rolling. I love you ALL! (Except for those spammy email followers the other day. I don’t love you. Find something better to do with your time. Go on. Chuff off).

The Lockwood Echo has no Facebook page, but there is a Twitter account whose content and subject matter is as random as the Echo’s. It’s a good place for me to rub shoulders with people I admire and subjects I’m passionate about. Or follow this site by gently tapping the Subscribe button. It’s here somewhere. To the right? Bottom? WordPress bloggers will then find me in their reader, everyone else will find me magically appear in their email. Well, not magically, I will need your email address or I won’t know where to send the postman 😉