this week i’m back at my old haunt, guest blogging for trashionista about shopdropping.

(and in woman’s weekly again.)

TV presenter jeremy beadle has just died aged 59, from pneumonia following his treatment for cancer.

although i wasn’t a huge fan of his programmes, he seemed like a nice man, and as this article reveals, is estimated to have raised £100 million for charity. how brilliant is that?

my mum: what are those round things, that things sploosh in?

me: fondue?

my mum: no… [thinks a bit]…

reservoirs!

er, that’s about it.

happy birthday to meeeeeeeeeee!

friday afternoon.

i was feeling ten kinds of terrible, sitting at my computer with a sinking stomach and a heavy heart.

wallowing.

i’d started the week with bucketloads of hope, and ended it in a trough of despair. it had been a week of no thank yous, not right for uss and we’re not looking for anyone at the moments. i’d tried harder than i ever thought possible, and got exactly nowhere.

well, that’s it, i thought. it’s hopeless. i’ll never work again and no one loves me and i’ll have no money and have to go and live in a cardboard box and drink methylated spirits.

then i looked up, and at that moment, my eye caught the quote i’d cut out from o magazine and stuck on my wall. it said:

the difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that… [are you ready?]

successful people fail more.

great parody. (i guess tom & jerry won’t be friends anymore. appropriately.)

(just in case you missed last week’s biggest media story, here’s what he’s parodying).

un-congratulations, you’re pregnant.

perhaps because i’d seen a lot of his films and found him devastating in monster’s ball, this has really upset me.

like me, he was 28, born in australia, and had a lot to look forward to. unlike me, he was a talented actor who probably would have won an oscar one day, and he leaves behind a little girl who won’t remember him.

it’s ironic that some sickos have been counting down the days ’til britney pops her clogs (there’s even a website) and here heath ledger has quietly, and possibly accidentally, slipped away.

in work news (don’t yawn!), i have been sending out pitches like mad, dead keen on getting in lots of lovely lucrative and interesting writing to do. yes peeps, the sabbatical is officially OV-ER… send yer (lovely lucrative and interesting writing) work my way, and be quick about it!

and you can see my new, improved, pimped up and ready-to-rock work website (which i made myself, just like a proper person!) at:

www.dianeshipley.co.uk.

also, i’ve signed up for a photoshop course.

dorkily, i’m very excited about it. it’s a two-day introductory thingy, in february. which is good ‘cos i know not one thing about photoshop and i think i need to. fabbily, i got 40% off the price! (i don’t know how i qualified for that, it was all v. secretive, but somehow i did.)

i want to expand my “skills portfolio” by getting to grips with graphic design at least a little bit and then i’ll conquer stuff like CMS, CSS and HTML so i can take over the internet and be reech beyond compare do more.

finally, i got the BEST business cards from moo. after dilly-dallying with picture cards, i finally went for some text cards (i got aqua, black, pink and red) with ‘DIANE SHIPLEY. FREELANCE JOURNALIST’ on the front in a cool font, with a stripey print background. that sounds gaudy; but they’re just funky. and small! (cute). i love them and will be finding all kinds of excuses to give them to people.

i have other work-related news involving spreadsheets and the like, but even i have to draw the line somewhere…