Evening all,
At the end of the 2014, I was in a good stead to make 2015 a
special year for me. Things were finally going well for me and I was getting
more reporting work. But 2015 completely blew the roof off the previous few
years and this has been the best year for my work and my life so far. And it
all started to change 72 hours into the New Year...
John Seager...In a Relationship
Someone once said to me: 'the smallest of changes will make
the big things happen in your life'. This was true when I decided to ask Esther
(a girl who I met from Match.com back in November of last year) to be my
girlfriend. I did think she would say no as she was travelling back from New
Zealand and the jet lag might catch up with her. Luckily for me it didn't, we
had a nice drink together and I asked her at the end of the night which she
said yes. It felt amazing closing down
my dating profile and for the first time in my life, someone actually wanted to
go out with me for being me.
The stuff we have done as a couple over the past year has
been special and fantastic. We spent a lot of great time together and she has
been really supportive to my work as a reporter and also my plans for the
future. We have also spent two holidays together one in Berlin where I learned
the lesson never to take her to a football game again, but we both had a
fantastic time there and also in Bruges for her birthday. It was really nice to
go on holiday with her, but nothing can compare to the holiday which I went on
back in February.
Das Deutschland...Das Bundesliga
This was a holiday which was the culmination of months of planning;
saving and buying everything I need for a one week football trip on my own to
Germany. Considering it was over ten
years since I last went on a foreign holiday, I was very excited but nervous at
the same time as I was travelling on my own. I would call it a once in a
lifetime trip, but it started with an uncomfortable night sleep at Gatwick
whilst watching the Super-bowl. A few hours later I was in Dusseldorf in a
small hotel trying to acclimatise to my new surroundings. Over the rest of the
week I caught 5 games in Germany for less than £100. Four of them were top flight games; including in Dortmund where I stood opposite a big
yellow wall, in Gelsenkirchen where I made a lot of friends from both the UK
and in Germany despite getting lost at the end of the game and in Köln
(Cologne) where I witnessed one of the best football themes at a club, despite missing
Gillingham winning 2-0 at home to Sheffield United. Finding out that result
caused some 'fun' on the way back to Dusseldorf. I also caught a third division
game again in Köln the following day which I found myself acting like a fool on
the 'Sportschau' sports show on ARD 'Das Erste' channel.
One positive thing to come from the trip was that my travel
exploits was featured in the Gillingham FC programme for the game verses
Doncaster later in February. It did feel nice to write again for the main
programme and share my story of a fantastic trip. The only major downside were
that I didn't get to see many goals - six in total and three came in the final
game which I wasn't expecting. I also wasn't expecting a hotly atmosphere when
I went into see Borussia Dortmund's game with FC Augsburg, this happened
because I was wearing blue shoes and I took a photo with my blue Gillingham
scarf inside the ground, with some of the Dortmund fans thinking I'm a Schalke 04 fan (I'm not making that mistake again.) One other thing, I have
caught the 'football travel bug' and I will be making more trips back to Germany
and possibly to France next year. And who knows, Russia in 2018 anyone?
So with less than two months completed of the year things
were going very well...could they get better?
(KLAXON) Job Alert...The RFL is calling...
It does feel nice to get a call out of the blue and get
offered an opportunity of a lifetime, and that call came for me happened whilst
watching FC Bayern Munich v FC Köln on a Friday night in February. Out of the blue I get
a phone call from Martin Coyd, the Chairman of the Wheelchair Rugby League - a
sport which I reported on over the past two years - and he offers me the newly
created position of Media Manager of the sport at national and international
level. I couldn't believe he would offer it to me and I gladly accepted the job
offer without knowing how difficult the job would be. I spent the first few months of
the job travelling up and down the country reporting on the season
(with a little help from the Medway Dragons WRL team). I think I did OK despite using the best facilities
that I had to me (yes even the pen and paper technology was used). It was a
steep learning curve but I was kept on track by the keen eyes of John and Sean
from the RFL. It was a tough first season but I made a lot of progress showcasing the sport. I arranged coverage of the first ever WRL Challenge Cup Final with ITV News Granada Reports and ITV News Calendar. Despite the game not going ahead, the
seeds were in place for showcasing the sport in the future, little did I know
what was going to happen next.
2015 WRL European Championships
I knew that the pressure was on me to get some great
coverage of the tournament which being held in Gillingham. And I had a plan to showcase
myself not only as a good media manage/reporter but also showcase the sport
like never before. I offered coverage to all the major local media outlets both
in Kent but also in the heartland of Rugby League. Luckily the seeds which I offered
coverage of the failed Challenge Cup Final helped me here and I helped arranged
ITV News Meridian to film the opening of the tournament whilst finals day was going
to be featured on at least one ITV News region. The pressure was on to get the
job done, luckily for me I was fully prepared with the right equipment which
profiled a fantastic tournament. England WRL won the tournament with a golden
point try in extra time over the world champions France, once game was finished,
I got the coverage I wanted to be showed sent to ITV News and my job was done.
I felt that I did a good job. I had two packages, which I got
some good reviews on and filmed coverage of the final which was sent to three
ITV News Regions, thirty seconds of my coverage was used on ITV News Calendar. It may have taken me nearly ten years to
achieve this but I have finally filmed something for ITV News and I don't want
to stop there. We have a new season to showcase and we have a World
Championships coming up in 2017 in Australia and I want to film England WRL
winning it for ITV News. The coverage and the stories from this tournament
alone will also help me get future work as a reporter. Overall, I had a great first year
in charge and I want to take it further in to my second season.
Away from my RFL work, I continued my work with the Kent
Kings Speedway, Gillingham Ladies FC and also with GB Handball which has given
me the thirst to play a bit of handball in the future, trust me I will be a
better handball player than a football player.
Well that will do for now, so have a merry and enjoyable 2016 and I hope it will bring everything that you want from it.
Till next time,
I'll Sithee and 'appy New Year to y'all
