The year 2009 is almost over and it's this day of the year when you sit down and think about everything you want to do and achieve in 2010.

Chances are that somewhere on that list there are the well-known points of doing more sports and losing some weight.

My own list includes graduating from university, finding a job and, most of all, moving in with my boyfriend. By the time we can actually move in together, we will have been talking about it for over a year!

Other than that, I want to pass the CBT somehow at some point during the year. But you see, I never really make New Year's resolutions, as what happens, happens, and there's no real need for me to plan these things. Yes, they are things I'd like to do, but then again, except for maybe the CBT, they are all a given for 2010 anyway.

I'm not going to reflect on the year that's just coming to an end - too many journalists and hobby bloggers do that already. The only thing worth mentioning about 2009 for me is that I think I found my soulmate in the middle of January. And because of that, 2009 has been an amazing year!

Whatever your resolutions, and however you plan to celebrate tonight: Have a Happy New Year and I hope that 2010 will be as great as you want it to be!

This Christmas was the first I celebrated with my boyfriend, and the first I celebrated in the UK.

And although it was great, it was also.... different.

At home in Germany, we celebrate on 24th December. Usually we decorate the tree either on the 23rd or during the morning of the 24th. We go to church in the afternoon for an hour, and then the whole family gathers at my parents' flat and we open our presents. After that, we have Christmas Dinner in the form of meat fondue and later some coffee.

This year, my boyfriend and I decided to open our presents on the 23rd December already, as he'd also gotten presents for his housemates, and they left for their parents' houses that night. On Christmas Day, we then met up with nearly the entire family at my boyfriend's parents' house at 10am and opened our presents, before half of us were kicked out of the kitchen so that the rest could prepare lunch. We had turkey for lunch, complete with stuffing, parsnips, carrots, potatoes, pigs in blankets and gravy. We each had Christmas crackers, and ended up wearing those funny paper crowns. Later, most of us played Scattergories and Charades while getting drunk and eating too much cake.

It was a really nice Christmas, but it was still weird not to be home.

All the people of Merrydale want is a life in peace. Yet the Giant, who lives in Cloudland above the village, is getting hungry and wants to eat 12 children, a cow and Jill, the most beautiful girl in town.

The pantomime “Jack and the Beanstalk”, currently on show at the Southport Theatre and Convention Centre, guarantees family fun which young children will especially enjoy. The show contains many well-known songs that even small children will be able to sing along to and ballet dancers help to tell the story of the songs even better. And of course, as you would expect from a great pantomime, there is also a lot of interaction with the audience, and not just in the form of “He’s behind you!”



Jill’s boyfriend Jack (David Flynn), his brother Silly Billy (Steps star Ian ‘H’ Watkins) and their mother, wanna-be sassy Dame Trott (Jamie Greer), have to do everything they can, to make sure that the Giant’s plan does not come true. In the meantime, they also have to fend off the evil Queen Blunderbore (Paula Bell), who is Jill’s mother and the Trotts’ landlady.

In order to afford rent, Dame Trott has to sell her pet cow Gertie, but Jack is paid in beans instead of the expected gold at the market. When Flesh Creep (Eastenders actor Marc Bannerman) manages to also kidnap Jill (Tara Wells), and take her and Gertie to the Giant, Jack has to overcome his fear and, with the help of a little bit of magic, fight for what he loves most.

“Jack and the Beanstalk” offers a great mix of entertainment for children and accompanying adults and is sure to provide Southport residents with a Christmas treat.

The pantomime is on show at the Southport Theatre and Convention Centre until Sunday 3rd January 2010.

This review was written for and published on The Champion's website.

If you are a fan of Swedish cult band ABBA, then ABBA - The Show is the closest you will get to seeing the real deal live! Coverband Waterloo is probably the best ABBA since ABBA themselves!

ABBA - The Show came to Liverpool's Echo Arena last night, and they mesmerised their audience within the space of two songs. Following ABBA's career, from Ring, Ring to Mamma Mia and ending the night with 1974s hit single Waterloo and Thank you for the music the night held something in store for everyone.

By the third song, it was hard not to jump up and dance, and the audience singing along word for word probably gave goosebumps to a lot of people. During Fernando, the audience took over from leading ladies and Agnetha and Anni-Frid look-alikes Camilla Hedrén and Katja Nord and you'd be hard-pressed to find another concert with so much audience-participation.

Like ABBA, Waterloo hail from Sweden, so they gave their British audience the chance to listen to S.O.S in the Swedish version. And with all of them wearing stage costumes from the 70s, you really thought it was Benny, Björn, Agnetha and Anni-Frid up there on the stage, supported by the National Symphony Orchestra of London.

The coup, however, was that they managed to get original ABBA-musicians to perform on stage with them, namely Ulf Andersson on saxophone, and Roger Palm on drums. It added a lot to the authenticity, and even though you couldn't see the real ABBA, at least you got the real and original sound!

ABBA - The Show has been performing since September 2001 and it's unlikely they will stop anytime soon, as not just the audience is having a fabulous time during their performances. So if you're up for a show that transports you back to the 1970s and gives you an excuse to sing, dance and listen to ABBA all night, this show is for you! They are second only to the real deal!

For tour dates and tickets check the ABBA - The Show website.

By the Book, an original musical by UoC student Scott Tomkins, will come to the stage of the Stanwix Studio Theatre on 18 December. Watch Scott talking about the inspirations that influenced him to write By the Book.




You can also listen to an interview with Scott, in which he explains the ups and downs of the casting and rehearsing process here.

Listen to writer and director Scott Tomkins talking about the casting and rehearsing process for his original musical By the Book, which will premiere on 18th December at the Stanwix Studio Theatre.




Watch a video of Scott talking about his inspiration and influences for By the Book here.

A new and original musical by a third year UoC student is coming to the Stanwix Studio Theatre this month. Cornelia Kaufmann had a chat with writer and director Scott Tomkins.

Sue is a librarian and absolutely loves her job. The only thing she doesn’t like is the fact that every day is the same and her boss Beryl holds her back from what she wants to be.

This is the scene for the original musical By the Book, which will be performed at the Stanwix Studio Theatre on 18th and 19th December at 9pm.

“The old library is being upgraded and Sue is really excited about the change. However, her boss is a bit old-fashioned and against it. Never in her life has Sue stood up for herself or to her boss before and you just have to see what happens when she finally does,” writer and director Scott Tomkins, a third year Musical Theatre and Technical Theatre students explains.

“The musical is very quirky, very up-beat and funny. Some of the songs are taken from already-existing musicals, although they are not too well-known. One of the key songs, I’m a librarian, is by American singer Jonathan Rundman, who kindly gave me permission to use it for By the Book. Other songs the audience will get to hear I’ve written myself,” Scott says.

The cast, led by Alex Anstey as chief librarian Beryl and Jennifer Yeates as Sue, will encounter exaggerated versions of real-life students throughout the show. “The casting and rehearsing process was fun! There’s mature Creative Writing student Bob, portrayed by Ben Edgecombe, who’s been doing the course for eight years now; and Adrian, a student who has lost a book and now has to go on a mission to find it again, who is played by Martin Carlton,” Scott laughs.

However, the musical also shows that good things can come from a bad situation and it doesn’t all have to be doom and gloom. By the Book is partly based on the library situation at the University of Cumbria’s Brampton Road campus, which was closed and converted into teaching space over the summer. Watch an interview.with Scott, in which he talks about influences and inspirations that led him to write By the Book .

Tickets are available at the Stanwix Theatre Box Office, by phone on (01228) 400356 or email stanwixtickets@googlemail.com. They cost £ 4 for adults, concessionary tickets are available for £2 and members pay £1.

Only two weeks until Christmas! But it's a bit weird. Because I'm in England, I hardly get to hear all those childhood melodies that to me mean: "Christmas time!"




And



Songs by Rolf Zuckowski, especially those on the Dezembertraeume and Winterkinder albums were part of our childhood Christmas ritual. In der Weihnachtsbaeckerei would play when we were baking cookies. Even today, when my mum and sister make cookies, they still listen to those songs. We'd put Rolf Zuckowski on while decorating our Christmas tree to get in the spirit. And I miss it. There's no music anywhere, there isn't that smell of freshly baked cookies in the air or the smells of apples, cinnamon, trees, oranges, Gluehwein or anything else I usually associate with Christmas.

I have just found this on Informer Online. It's a review of the movie "Wall-E": Who needs words to be a hero? written by yours truly.

Isn't it great to see that your work does get published on the website for our university newpspaper? Even if it's a year too late? You see, I wrote this review, and posted it on Conny's Corner on 17th December 2008! I know that sometimes stories don't make it into papers right away for various reasons, like tight space or bad subbing. But waiting one year is a new extreme, I would say.

I had urged our lecturer who's responsible for IO and Online Journalism, to put features up on the website, that were written for the latest Informer print version, which came out 3 weeks ago. We need our features to be published for an assessment, but, as usual with this university, nothing is done about it. I just don't think it reflects well on us, that we say in the print version "For the full story, visit us online" and then the story isn't there. Do you think that's good journalistic practice?

Well, along with some stories written for the latest Informer, some articles that have been waiting in a folder for a year finally got to see the light of day. Apparently, who ever put these things online, didn't bother to check which stories went into the print version, but just put everything that looked unpublished on the web. Thanks for that.

Next to the Wall-E review, there's also a story about a photography competition that I wrote for Conny's Corner last December on IO now. It's great our students finally find out about this competition, however, the book that resulted from the competition hit the shelves this autumn. Is it just me, or could this be seen as taking the piss?

And I'm still waiting for my Berlin Wall story - which you can already read here, as I posted it in time for the 20th anniversary celebrations - to be published on IO, so that I can hand it in for assessment. Maybe I should check back next November. Chances are, it might have made it online by then.

Yesterday was the first advent, and tomorrow it will be December already! Time really flies!
With only 24 or 25 days to go until Christmas (depending on whether you celebrate on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day), the hectic shopping season has well and truly begun.
Personally, I am still working on a present for my other half - but it will be the only present I create myself this year, as it is more time-consuming than I thought it would be.

However, just like every year, the question remains: What to get everyone? Especially since this is the first year that I will celebrate Christmas with my boyfriend's family (and repeat it all once we get to Germany to celebrate New Year's with my folks).

The Cecil Street Project opened its doors for a fun Christmas Market. Next to the existing shops at the Project, which obviously did a good job of promoting themselves, artists, jewellers and fashion designers from further afield were also invited to showcase their work.

Even if you missed the Christmas Market - the Cecil Street Project is well worth checking out of you want that special, unique Christmas gift or a little something for yourself. Whether its Allsorts-shaped jewellery, or Pimpfish's funky T-shirts, there's bound to be something for everyone! They also offer workshops like jewellery-making and knitting, so if you're the crafty type, look them up!

Today, our last, proper Informer came out! So go aorund one of the Carlisle campuses (although your best bet is the Brampton Road Newsroom) to pick your copy up!

And I am proud to report, that all six stories I submitted were published as well!
They were:

• Wild Wolf Publishing
• "When the Wall came tumbling down" about the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's demise and my personal experience
• Former student David Simister met the Prime Minister
• Former student Rashid Adamson - from writer to PR Manager
• Former student Claire Lewis published her first novel "A sick work of Art"
• and former student Kirsty Wood was crowned the first-ever Spirit-Catch European Women's Wrestling Champion

I actually got Kirsty's story on the backpage - the main Sports page, which is almost as important as the front page! And the other success stories are all on centre spread!!

Although the rivers in Carlisle are still high and it continues to rain, the water level is actually lower than it was yesterday.

Finally some good news!

I've just got a letter from the University of Cumbria, informing me, that I am going to receive a small bursary in form of their Cumbria Bursary for EU students!

This is the first response I've had from the university, since I wrote a letter of complaint to their Finance Department last month, after they tried to take out my tuition fee without warning or approval.

I discovered in October (embarrassingly when I wanted to pay for Sunday Lunch), that all my money was gone, although I had just paid money into my account. It turned out, that after two years of me paying my tuition fees myself, the UoC had decided to take two payments (a total of more than GBP 1,070) out in one go, without sending me a letter informing me of payments amounts and dates. I therefore decided to cancel the direct debit, and informed the university, that I am still in the process of applying for my student loan (which I still haven't heard from - all I know is they're assessing it) and I will therefore not make payments, until I have heard back from Student Finance.

Up until today, I still haven't received a letter about tuition fee payments, or an official response to my complaint. But I will count awarding me this bursary towards it - after all, why else would they all of a sudden send money my way?

Flood alerts have been issued for Carlisle and the county of Cumbria today, as the heavy rains, that have been hitting us since Monday, continue.

The Stoneyholme Golf Course is already under water, and warnings have been issued for all three of Carlisle's rivers: Eden, Petteril and Caldew. Rickerby Park, (above) is a swamp, but the cycle path and road were still passable today. The picture shows river Eden (top right corner shows its usual width) and Rickerby Park seen from the Eden Bridge on Scotland Road, looking towards Brampton.

After the severe floods of 2005, flood gates and flood warning systems have been installed along the shores of the rivers. Flood alerts have been issued to mostly residential areas in the vicinities of the rivers, including my street. Although we are right on the edge of the flood warning area, our house DID get flooded in 2005! And our daily route to university leads across Rickerby Park. Check the Environment Agency for a bigger map and advice!

We are finally putting the finishing touches on the 53rd edition of our university paper "The Informer."

It is the last Informer that we third year journalism students will work on. It is weird, in a way. But then again: We only have two Informers per year, the other two issues are a "Words by the Water" magazine and a magazine we can choose ourselves.

But with all of us now focussing on dissertations and final projects, the second year's now have to replace us as sub-editors, page designers and proof-readers.

Production days are always mental, and I am glad, this was our last one!

Earlier this year, I wrote a post about a journalism competition called "Duden Open".
In Round One, all you have to do is answer a multiple-choice general knowledge quiz. I gave it a go, and just had word that I passed Round One, and can proceed to Round Two!!

I will have to write an article about the Football World Cup 2010 in South Africa, but it doesn't need to be about sports. I could also look at it from a historical, economical, cultural etc. angle, as long as I show creativity!

My deadline is 31st December, so wish me luck!!!

PS.: Feel free to leave article suggestions ;)

If you're in your final year at university, you probably stress out about having to write a dissertation just as much as I am at the moment.

Because I have no clue, really, how to actually produce said epic of 10,000 words, I tried to get a little help and inspiration from books. Three books, to be exact. Joan Bolker's "Writing your dissertation in 15 minutes a day" seemed like a good idea, but didn't really help me. Swetnam's "Writing your dissertation" is better and would have been my favourite, if I hadn't found this: "Excellent Dissertations" by Peter Levin!

Honestly, for writing my dissertation, Levin's book is rapidly turning into my bible! Written in a personal style, constantly addressing the reader and explaining everything in simple language, this book makes you feel like you've got your personal tutor sitting right next to you! It has definitely helped me already,to sort out a timescale for my dissertation, as well as organising my thoughts and outlining a draft contents list!

As a former lecturer at London School of Economics, Dr. Peter Levin has seen thousands of students attempting their dissertations and given advice to them to see them through. The chapters are short and don't contain any "academic speak". I can only recommend this book! Trust me, it will help you realise that a good dissertation is achievable!

A short story about growing up with mixed heritage has set UoC Creative Writing and Journalism graduate Rashid Adamson on the path of success. He talks to Conny Kaufmann about writing to promoting.

The clocks have turned back, the orange leaves have almost all fallen to the ground already and are making the pavements treacherously slippery... autumn is well and truly upon us!

I can't help it, I'm a summer child. I don't like it being dark at 5pm, needing the heating on just to keep warm and most winter coats are not the most fashionable either.

So I had a little scoop around on Youtube, and I found one of my favourite childhood songs. It is called "Wir wollen Sonne" (We want Sun) by Rolf Zuckowski (everybody, and I mean everybody born after 1975 grew up with songs by Rolf Zuckowski und seine Freunde). His "friends" are local kids singing the songs with him, and if I'd lived anywhere near Hamburg when I was growing up, I would have loved to sing with him! I still know all the lyrics by heart!

As you might be able to tell by the people in the video, this song was recorded in the early 90s. And it played all day on the car's radio when my family was en route to our (summer) holiday destinations! On one of our 3-week holidays on the island of Wangerooge, it rained on all but four days - and I kept playing this song over and over, hoping that the weather would get better if I just played the song long enough (I want to add that I was roughly 6 years old or younger at that time!)

So all you Germans: relive your Rolf Zuckowski - memories! Everyone else - sit back, relax, and think of summer! It's only about 8 months away!!!

This has been on the internet for a few days now, but it still cracks me up.



If you don't know what this is about: Nick Griffin is the leader of the BNP (British National Party), which have very racist views. He was invited onto BBC's programme Question Time last week, where he was asked by the panel, led by journalist David Dimbleby (green tie), and the audience about his politics.

This little video cut together his responses, and probably reflects what many think Griffin really should have said.

Getting her novel published was Claire’s big aim. Now that her first work is in print, she talks to Conny Kaufmann about her novel, similarities between her and the protagonist and how she finally got published.

When Claire Lewis was studying towards her degree in Creative Writing and Film at the University of Cumbria, she had a dream. This dream stayed with her so much, that she wrote a short story about it while she was in her third year. However, feeling that there was more to it still, she successfully turned her dream into her first novel “A sick work of Art”, which was published in August.


“The story’s main character is 24-year-old Maxie, who works in the coffee shop of an Art Gallery. One day, she finds a video on the internet, in which an artist kills someone. Through her work, she gets mixed up with the art scene and the story really gets quite dark from there”, Claire outlines her novel. “Because of the subject matter, one of my friends was worried I might have turned into a serial killer – but I can assure you I haven’t” she laughs. “And although 40 per cent of Maxie’s personality are based on me – we both live in Newcastle and our boyfriends are in the Royal Navy – there are still quite a few differences between us.”

When she couldn’t find a job as a writer after her graduation in 2006, Claire decided to put her novel on hold and do a fast-track journalism course. “I guess, in the end, it all worked out for me as an author. But that was the hardest course I’ve ever done!”

Claire had been sending her manuscript to publishers all over the country. In the end, Newcastle-based Wild Wolf Publishing, who specialise in dark fiction, thought she has potential. “It’s very exciting to have a proper book. It was published a little early and nobody told me, so imagine my excitement when I found it on Amazon!” She admits that one day she might go down to a bookstore just to see it on the shelf. “But at the moment, I just try to get reviews and feedback.”

“A sick work of Art” by Claire Lewis is available online and can be ordered in every bookshop. Wild Wolf Publishing, £ 8,99.



Hear and see Claire reading an excerpt from her novel:
(The sound is pretty quiet, due to technical problems, I'm afraid!)

Aaron, pronounced the German way "Ah-ron" is or rather was our horse. We've had him since spring 1999, and he is now 15 years old. Today, his new owner picked him up and moved him to his new stable.

Yesterday afternoon: I open the front door, and find a letter on the floor, beneath the letter box. An official letter from the University of Cumbria.

Turns out, that after three weeks of being a Third Year student, I finally got to know whether I actually passed my second year or not!

We finished our second year of the Travel Journalism course in the first week of May. Everbody else got their results in July and August. But apparently, a certain Media Law lecturer had first of all got the results in too late and put the results in the wrong system, so it took this university five months and 2 weeks to process our results! Maybe it's just me, but I don't think that's acceptable at all. After all, we students get marks deducted if we hand assessments in a day late. So leaving it until after we signed up for another year, to officially tell us whether we passed the last year, seems just a tiny bit hypocritical!

I did pass the Second Year.
With 454 overall points last year, I got 56,75% - which in uni-speak is a Lower Second Class. However, if you count in my 516 points in Year 1 (thanks to the 85% I got on one of my tourism modules), which equals 64,5% or an Upper Second Class, I've just about got an overall Upper Second Class degree so far! The magic threshold from Lower to Upper Second is 60% - if you do your maths, I come out at 60,625% ! Which is why I need to pass most of my assignments with 60%+ to maintain that degree!

For those of you who are not familiar with the British marking system:
35 - 39%: Condoned Fail
40 - 49%: Third Class (D)
50 - 59%: Lower Second Class (C)
60 - 69%: Upper Second Class (B)
70%+ : First Class (A)
80%+ : First Class (AA)

My course leader was nice enough to email me a screenshot of my results (minus the Media Law one) in August, so I knew I had passed. But it still took the university almost two months, to actually confirm this!

From here on in, you can find my "Postcards from..." on Postcards from Conny.

So check my first blog entry there, for the story of my North Eastern adventure ;)

...yeah, as if!

My third year at university has only just started, and already I feel kinda overwhelmed by the whole "Write your dissertation"-situation. I am trying to really put in a lot of effort this year, copying lecture notes, doing all the necessary reading etc. and I'm fine with that. But when it comes to my dissertation - the thing I've been working towards for the last 2 years - I don't know where to start.

I know what I want to write about. I'd love to compare different travel magazines and newspaper travel supplements and determine how their content, style, tone, symbolism, semantics relate to their readership. I want to look at it both from a journalistic point of view (ie styles etc.),but also from a marketing point of view; analysing how readers can be split up into different market segments, what would appeal to these segments and whether they overlap or not. Is there a segment missing? Then why is that? And do travel publications vary from country to country? I want to find out, whether Britain, as an island nation, developed a different travel market than for example Germany, which has 9 land borders.

The problem is: I can't word my question. And without one, I can't work. Don't get me wrong, I've done my research proposal, I'm halfway through my literature review - but I need to formulate my question in order to get started. I'm the same in journalism. I need my headline first, to give me an angle on the story, to focus. At the moment, I feel like I'm hanging in limbo. If you have any suggestions, on how to put all that into a proper, academic-sounding dissertation topic, let me know!

I know I'll need to write about 10,000 words (without counting quotations) until mid-March and that I'll have to write a certain number of words per day or week to get there. We get tutorials at uni, on how to reference in the Harvard-System, but what I for one need, would be a look at a previous dissertation. How did they lay it all out? Did they include an appendix? How structured were the dissertations? I know that this is just about style, but once again, this helps me focus and getting the job done.

Over the next week, I'll have to read the books (including the ones about writing dissertations - like the "15 mins a day" one) and make a start. Get my first few paragraphs on paper. March seems miles away from now, and yet I know it'll come around too soon!

Wish me luck!

Can you tell a cheese from a typeface?

All you journalists, editors, designers out there, test your knowledge with the Cheese or Font Quiz! It's harder than it looks!

There are two versions of this quiz. A practice version, and the game version which actually counts your score! So go ahead and try whether you can distinguish world cheeses from computer fonts!

Right, it's that time of the academic year again.

University has started, and before I fall into the same trap I fell in last year - doing everything last minute - I've now planned my weekly time wisely. The plan is simple, really. I'll spend 1 - 2 hours every day writing up the lecture notes, doing the assignments as soon as I get them and reading in the relevant text books.

Then in the afternoons (except for Modays, when it's in the mornings before class), I'll spend 2 hours researching / reading and eventually writing my dissertation. This way I hope I'll be keeping on top of things and don't have to worry about deadlines too much.

I really need to focus this year. After all, I want a fairly good degree. Last year, I didn't really give it my best. I still got quite good marks in most of my subjects, but because the people at this university kept screwing my course around (and that has nothing to do with the lecturers - just with the fact that they didn't give us the lectures we were supposed to have).

But this year really counts. It's my final year! So I'd better put some effort in!