Wed 13 Sept 06

After a sleepless night fretting about all the what ifs - how much does it cost to hire a marquee? (For the Basildon Buddy event). Plus, I'm going to need to hire everything! Chairs, tables, helpers etc etc. It's all very well having these big ideas, practical reality is another consideration. And, horror of horrors, what if no-one turns up? - we were twenty minutes late to school. Son 2 was very reluctant to go, and insisted I sit in class with him and read him some stories. On my way home I stopped off at Borders to look at the literary magazine section. There are two new ones: Bad Idea and Ape Illustrated. One of them used stonespublishers. I will contact them as my first port of call for a quote for a publication. Although I will need to have some idea of the population of Northlands Park. Should it be a free copy for every household? I was thinking a good title for it might be Basildon Blag: (Your Annual Rag) The Art U Need Guide to Northlands Park. I hope it's acceptable to use Basildon in there, as with this blog, it's just that it rolls off the tongue a bit better than Northlands Park Estate. More issues that will need to be clarified. The idea for the publication is that it be part traveller/tourist guide - fulfilling the brief of the Northlands Park Partnership Management pathfinder year 4 Delivery Plan to make Northlands Park a "Thriving Neighbourhood...a safe, clean healthy...place, where people want to stay and move to...", part index of local shops, services, amenities - this could even be a pull out section, and part creative forum with as much input from residents as possible. But I am working in a vacuum here and have to start from ground up. I need to find a publisher, an art director, typesetter, illustrators, photographers, and I also have to reach you, the residents, for your input. I think a notice board in the GP/neighbourhood office, can't remember what it's called just now, wouldbe a goodidea. I need to arrange a meeting with all the local groups, schools etc and a plan of action re leafletting etc. I'm going to call the publishers now for an idea of costs and timescales. It is most likely that I would need to have all material to them by January for the publication to be a reality in March. I have to admit I'm a bag of nerves.