Back in London and dealing with issues about what to do next. It’s easy to say that certain things are beyond my control but I’ve come to the conclusion that this is no excuse for inactivity. 

Definitely time to start earning. Off to LSE for talk by the BBC’s former North America editor Justin Webb for a little intellectual stimulation.

On a random note, thinking about joining HubCulture to avoid falling into bad habits while working from home.

29

Seven days til my 29th birthday, 364 days since my first post on the blog and I´m still going. This might well be a record for me in blog terms. I normally ditch them after a couple of months.

There have been quite a few significant dry spells on this site. I´m also not sure that the content you´ll find has anything to do with the lofty aspirations mentioned in the about section.

But I´m happy to keep on typing.

Ibiza closing parties. The beautiful thing is that at the end of the season workers and holiday makers alike have one week to forget about the horrors that came before and those that await you.

The Ibiza closing parties are an infamous opportunity to dance your troubles away and say goodbye to the summer in style.

Having tired a little of searching out of date listing sites and being attacked by garish Flash-tastic ravers websites that never actually load, I decided to start my own list. It´s a work in progress so if I missed anything or made mistakes please do let me know.

Ibiza Closing parties ‘09
14/9 Monday
EDEN
Inside / Out closing party – Inside: Luna with Phil Drummond and Paul Jackson Out: Gorgeous and guests (closing party)
SPACE
Monday´s Calling closing party- Jonathan Ulysses, Camilo Franco, Deep Josh, Paul Darey, Oriol Calvo, Óscar Colorado, Aleksia, Steven Lee (Lee Cabrera), Guest dj
EL DIVINO
Purple Music closing party- Anthony Romeno, Jamie Lewis

15/9 Tuesday
AMNESIA
Armada / Release Yourself closing party– Markus Shulz *8 hour set *, Roger Sanchez
El DIVINO
Salvacion and Kidology presents REPUBLIK closing party – David Herrera, Paul Darey, Mark Wilkinson
ES PARADIS
Clubland closing party

16/9 Wednesday
EL DIVINO
Deepflight Ibiza closing party – Paul Lomax, Robbie Romero, Stereo Sushi

17/9 Thursday
EDEN
Twice as Nice closing party- Vibe Honeyz, Dr Psycho, Scottie B Host: Harvey PA: Ms Dynamite / Faith SFX
EL DIVINO
Pirates Party closing party – Nicola Fasano, Franco Moiraghi, Steve Forest

18/9 Friday
-

19/9 Saturday
-

20/9 Sunday
EDEN
Judgement Sundays closing party – Judge Jules with Marco V, Lisa Lashes, Richard Durand, Vicky Devine, Howard Donald, Rob Tissera, Tristan D, Alex Ellenger
EL DIVINO
Ibiza Planet closing party – DJ Junior, Drummer Jay, Outwork
21 Monday
PACHA
Swedish House Mafia closing party– Axwell, Steve Angelo, Sebastian Ingrosso, AN21
PRIVILEGE
Tiesto closing party – Tiesto
22/9 Tuesday
SPACE
Carl Cox – DANNY TENAGLIA, GILLES PETERSON, ELIO RISO, CARL COX ‘6 HOURS SPECIAL SET’
PACHA
Flamingo Nights – Fedde Le Grand, Funkerman, Mitch Crown (live), Andy & Dorothy Sherman live, Angel Linde

23/9 Wednesday (my birthday!!)
EDEN
Garlands – Les Calvert & Dave Booth
USHUAIA
Luciano closing party – Luciano, Alex Picone and others
SPACE
Cafe Ole closing party- Superlush DJs, Liz & Baker, Rafa Ariza, Luque, Javi Always, Iordee
AMNESIA
Espuma / La Troya closing party
PRIVILEGE
Meganite closing party– Mauro Picotto, Adam Beyer, Technasia, Ricardo Ferri (live), Valentino Kanzyani, Paco Osuna, Gabry Fasano
ES PARADIS
Waterparty closing party

24/9 Thursday
SPACE
Be Space closing party – Tom Novy, Wally López, Elio Riso, Óscar Cano, Ramón Castells
AMNESIA
Cream Ibiza closing party – Paul Van Dyk, Eddie Halliwell, Gareth Wynn,
PACHA
DJ Awards and FMIF – DJ Awards Ceremony & F**k Me I´m Famous with David Guetta and Tucillo. Global Room – Andy Baxter and Tonica Islanders

25/9 Friday
EDEN
Wonderland closing party- Pete Tong, Faithless SoundSystem, Eric Prydz, Rob Marmot, Alex Ellinger, Jo Mills, Thomas Hedberg
EL DIVINO
El Divino closing party
ES PARADIS
Kompass closing party – Des Mitchel and MDK

26/9 Saturday
SPACE
Hed Kandi closing party- Andy Norman, John Jones,With Resident Greg Myers
Featuring The Lovely Laura on Sax / Pav on Percussion, Live PA from Tara McDonald, Hed Kandi presents Nu Disco, Greg Wilson
AMNESIA
Amnesia/Matinee closing party – Amnesia DJs, Matinee Allstars, Richie Hawtin, Luciano, Marco Carola, Mar-T
PACHA
Defected In The House closing party– Bob Sinclar, Simon Dunmore, Miss Divine & Shovell, Julie McKnight, Teddy-O & Mucho Muchacho
PRIVILEGE
The Face of Ibiza closing party– DJ Oliver, Java, Special performance – Baby Marcello
ES PARADIS
Es Paradis closing party
27 Sunday
SPACE
We Love… closing party – Steve Lawler, Tiefschwarz, Guy Gerber (Live), Sneaky Sound System, Pendulum (Speed Dj Set & MC Verse), Wally López, Elio Riso, Dan Tait, 2manydjs, Hot Chip djs (Felix & Al), Smokin Jo, Nick Curly, Paul Woolford, Ian Blevins and many many more!
PACHA
Pacha Classics closing party– Paul Taylor, Sebastian Gamboa, Angel Linde

28/9 Monday
AMNESIA
Coccoon closing party – Sven Vath, Loco Dice, Ricardo Villalobos, Luciano, Zip

29/9 Tuesday
-

30/9 Wednesday
PACHA
Subliminal closing party – Erick Morillo, Harry ´Choo Choo´ Romero, Jose Nunez, Juan Diaz

1/10 Thursday
PRIVILEGE
Monza closing party – Ricardo Villalobos, Luciano, Raresh, Paco Osuna, M.A.N.D.Y, Manu-L, Bruno Monte Verde
PACHA
F**k Me I´m Famous closing party – David Guetta, Sarah Main, Pachatronica, Andy Baxter and Angel Linde

2/10 Friday
PRIVILEGE
Supermartxe closing party – Juanjo Martin, Pablo Kopanos, Vitti, Hugo Sanches, AB Garcia, Michael Sanchez, Salva di Nobles
PACHA
Pure Pacha closing party – Sander Kleinenburge, Chus and Ceballos, Jonathan Cowan

3/10 Saturday
-

4/10 Sunday
USHUAIA
Ushuaia Grand Closing party

5/10 Monday
DC10
Circoloco closing party

Circoloco DC10 IBIZA alert!!!

“Tuesday 6th october 2009 morning time h.12:00! Special edition closing summer 2009!”

That´s straight from the horse´s mouth folks! DC10 is back on (albeit for one day only)

Looking forward to seeing the Klaxons at the Ibiza Rocks Hotel before popping down to the Reclaim the Dancefloor closing party.

I´m not sure what the band has been up to since the first album stormed the charts but any act that names an LP after a Thomas Pynchon book wins my vote.

To be honest I´m not a massive fan of the venue.

I don´t know if the picture does it justice but from the outside it looks like a prison and on the inside it feels like a mental hospital.

It is, however, a fantastic concept made even greater by the fact that the owners pulled Manumission and promoted the budget clubbing idea in the year of the great crunch.

I tell you, these Spanish working hours are a joy to behold. It´s 6.20pm and only one hour and a half until I scoot out of here – I started at 10am and had a two and a half hour lunch. Long live the siesta!!

Blimey. Didn´t do to well on providing you with an update did I?

I´m doing a spot of digital marketing for one of the coolest clubs in San Antonio, Ibiza.

Eden (the one with the huge gold dome) is home to uber cool nights like Reclaim the Dancefloor, clubbing institutions like Judgement Sundays as well as parties that draw in the crowds such as Pete Tong´s Wonderland which boasted a live performance from Lady GaGa earlier this season.

Well that´s the work bit out of the way. Do follow me on Twitter – I only started on this last week and it´s proving to be quite an exciting challenge working purely on social networks.

So what happened before that? Why did you leave London and your job at one of the most influential newsrooms in British Broadcasting, you may be wondering (if you´re still reading that is

After being told I was being made redundant, a few days before the contract was about to end I was offered a role to stay with the company and help them re-launch their website.

Despite the financial crisis and rising unemployment I decided life was too short to spend eight hours a day doing a thoroughly unsatisfying job so I quit London for Ibiza and two months on I´m still here.

Updates to the blog have been infrequent because I have no friggin WiFi in my apartment. For some reason working from an internet cafe doesn´t quite have the same appeal.

Anyway, it was getting a bit ridiculous that I hadn´t posted anything for weeks, especially as I seem to getting good traffic nowadays.

I´ll try to add some photos of what I´ve been up to. In the meantime, follow my clubbing/Ibizan exploits at http://twitter.com/eden_ibiza

Sorry for the absence. Totally focussed on extracting myself from the current position I’m being made redundant from and starting something new. More details will follow soon, once my head is in the right place!

So Michael Jackson is dead. An era of pop has ended. Sorry to be such a hack about what a great story to go out on.

It’s 0145 BST and I’ve just got home after a frantic few hours in the newsroom, extended past my normal late shift finishing time.

On the taxi home I was wondering to myself if this will be one of the stories that everyone in media gets into a frenzy over but which actually in the cold light of day turns out to be irrelevant to most of the public.

We’ve totally gone to town on this story. First there was a breaking news bulletin a 11.33, followed by hourly updates. Three teams are being sent from London to the US to cover the story and the Washington desk has also had to decamp.

I was on the phone non-stop to Uri Geller’s house and lined up an interview for tomorrow morning at 8.30pm which should be shown on the special 9.30am bulletin as well as the news at noon. The real thrill was watching websites for updates – the LA Times’ coverage was outstanding, both on their site and through links on Twitter (care of Andrew Nystrom).

On the way home in the taxi the radio station was playing back to back Michael Jackson tracks. In the office the screens that I’d been staring of street scenes in LA, at the hospital, outside his house all gradually became  filled with a mass of people pouring out to express their grief.

As I got out of the taxi, shattered after a long day and on an adrenaline comedown I told the driver I hoped he enjoyed the Jackson tracks. “Actually,” he replied “I’m really upset about it.” Look forward to seeing what tomorrow brings.

Just back from a Thomson Foundation ‘Training the Trainers’ day at the Oriental Club, an old-school gentleman’s club in London.

It was a jam-packed session enabling practicing journalists to learn the skills they need to share their skills with others in the industry.

We were introduced to the tricks and techniques that help people to remember what they’ve understood and to make sure that they way that we train stimulates learning.

The key to all of this is to change the trainees’ behaviour. It’s all well and good putting on an entertaining show but if people who’ve attended your course go back to their working environment and cut put into practice or worse can’t remember what you’ve talk then it’s you the trainer, not them who’s failed.

After a few hours of introduction and learning we were put to the test, split up into groups of tv, print, radio and online people. Needless to say I was the only online person and found myself with the unenviable prospect of being in a group of one!

Many of the others had the advantage of not only having decades of experience in the trade but also having been on training courses and some had even been trainers before.

Well where the hell could I start on that one? Literally everything I know about the world of online I’ve taught myself. It’s not even like I had a distant memory of a course that I could repurpose.

Do you start with SEO, podcasting, online video? Seriously I was on the edge of an anxiety attack as I sat there pondering what the hell I could tell this assembled panel of legendary journalists including the likes of Robin Oakley who on average had more experience in the trade that I did on planet  earth.

In the end I decided to hone in on the basics. The likelihood is that most journalists won’t have entered the train to work online and while buzz words like social media are flying around the newsroom, it may not necessarily obvious how or why they can you such tools to their advantage in the world of work.

So the learning objective of my course was to teach journalists how to use social media to create a conversation with their audience. Ultimately I think that’s where the real value in stuff like twitter, flickr, social networking sites and blogs lies.

It was a really useful experience, but to be honest I’m still shaking from nerves two hours on. Not a bad experience, less than 24-hours after learning that I’ll be jobless.

Sorry, just took a look at the blog and noticed the irony of the juxtaposition of those two posts. Ain’t life funny!