Swedish journalist Kim Wall
It began with a Guardian article on the brave, pioneering Swedish journalist Kim Wall , who died in appalling circumstances earlier this year, whilst pursuing a story about a Danish man who'd made his own submarine.
Written by her friend Caterina Clerici , it showed how Kim had all the qualities required to be a fine reporter : obtaining the trust of her subjects, a fascination for the extraordinary in everyday life and , above all, a genuine sense of adventure.
Coincidentally, I had an article in the magazine 'The Welsh Agenda' which I'd never seen before, the bi-annual journal of the IWA ( Institute of Welsh Affairs), a kind of on-going think-tank.
It was a shortened version of my blog 'Music Fights Back!' and the editor cut certain parts, most noticeably my final paragraph condemning all those who'd voted Labour, LibDem and Tory for the dreadful state of education in Cymru.
Labour for their misguided policies, LibDem Minister Kirsty Williams for failing to counteract these and the Tories for their vandalistic austerity measures.
Understandably, the editor didn't want to alienate many readers, whereas in my blogs I really don't care!
It took me back to an integral part of my life which I do tend to forget.
Whenever I appeared in schools ( never nowadays!) I used to field the question - 'Did you ever want to be something else apart from a writer?'
The answer is - 'Yes, a footballer.....but I didn't grow quickly enough.'
I've always left out my ambition to be a journalist, for some reason.
At school and home, there was no encouragement. I wasn't expected to do well at 'A' Level and my mother simply looked at my alphabetically ordered bookcase and advised me to become a librarian like my father at that time.
Since my parents were divorced and my mother hated him, I saw this as something of an insult and was delighted when I got very good results and switched to an English degree.
Up to this point I'd been an avid reader of football mag's and, at Uni began to read music ones like NME and Melody Maker.
In our school mag I'd done a review of The Beatles' Abbey Road and nobody could make much sense of my phrase 'a synthesis of lyrics and music'.
At Aber Uni a unique opportunity arose when Neil Hamilton ( the boy from Fleur-de-lis) was voted in as editor of the college paper Courier. At that time UKIP's Assembly leader was a right-wing Tory and our response was to form an alternative magazine 'Rasp'.
It was a strange brew of leftist politics, philosophy, satire and creative writing and one of the regular writers was Gerry McLoughlin, then a member of the WRP, who later became a Sinn Fein councillor in Derry City.
In 1984, BBC's Panorama did a programme attacking Hamilton and included were stories of his involvement with neo-fascist rallies when he was at Aber.
Hamilton took the programme to Court and won costs and compensation, yet 'Rasp' reported over a decade earlier that he did attend rallies in Belgium and Italy and he never disputed these facts.
I especially enjoyed contributing satire and music reviews, even though 'Private Eye' was an obvious inspiration for the former.
One friend criticised my review of Don McClean for praising a 'maudlin balladeer' and it's intriguing that I lost that friend many years later when he objected vociferously to my blog on the Olympics opening ceremony, calling it 'bile!'.
( A shame because he was a rare, regular follower ).
If I'd had any careers advice at the end of my degree I may well have done a postgrad course in journalism, as my son did over 30 years later.
Instead, I ended up working on the pumps at a Barry garage....'a gap year' before anyone used the term.
With my mate from down the road, I was a regular attender of Barry Folk Club and was asked to write their weekly column in the local paper.
Despite hangovers I somehow managed to convey the excitement of those evenings, when the likes of Rod Tolchock ( not his real name) would thrill us.
I loved the drunken singalongs ending every evening and quirky entertainers who'd stomp the stage or mouth trombone-sounds.
My next foray was for the paper of Cymru Goch, the Welsh Socialists, 'Y Faner Goch', with articles on campaigns like anti-opencast , on football and music.
I was particularly enthralled to interview the Manics' bassist Nicky Wire not long after 'Everything Must Go' had been released.
I'd met Nicky several years before at the Central Hotel in Cardiff where he'd come to support his brother Patrick and see the Red Poets. At that time I hadn't a clue about their music.
Nicky was articulate and politically aware......a joy to interview.
When 'Wales on Sunday' began as a broadsheet the editor asked me to review cds, but he wanted to expand my brief and instructed me to interview Van Morrison, who was gigging in Newport.
As I was teaching at the time and knew Van the Man's reluctance to be interviewed I declined and that was the end of a brief but enjoyable 'career' .......the free cds were a welcome bonus!
Afterwards I did contribute to journals like 'Arcade' and 'Celyn', both of which are sadly missed.
I always tried to transfer my enthusiasm for journalism to education and the most successful example was at Pen-y-dre , Merthyr , where our Rock Music Club produced a mag called 'Bootleg'.
I still remember the day one pupil interviewed an unlikely English teacher about two of his former students when he taught at Cambridge High School, namely Syd Barrett and Roger Waters.
It was quite a scoop to discover that Syd was once an enthusiastic Boy Scout and Waters a very stroppy basketball player.
I'm so proud of my son, a TV journalist ( as, indeed, I am of my three children's achievements).
It was he who spurred me into blogging when I retired in 2009.
At times, blogs have alienated people , at others they have produced positive responses ; but in terms of football and music writing it's made possible what I once dreamt of doing.
I truly like the way an idea for a blog can lead to a poem and vice versa.
This one came about because of that article about Kim Wall who, as her friend Manski Choksi said - ' It still feels like she's just somewhere without wi-fi.'
She's somewhere
she's somewhere without wi-fi
you can't reach her
and she can't answer
but she's somewhere
swimming in the vodou waterfall
she's over and under
she's alone in Cuba
with the freaks in America
there are no signals
that you could measure
but there's energy there
she's water and air
she's somewhere out there
her expression ever-changing
as surely as the weather
without a phone
a tablet or computer
one day she won't return
one day an empty boat
will float down the river -
but she'll still be somewhere
Written by her friend Caterina Clerici , it showed how Kim had all the qualities required to be a fine reporter : obtaining the trust of her subjects, a fascination for the extraordinary in everyday life and , above all, a genuine sense of adventure.
Coincidentally, I had an article in the magazine 'The Welsh Agenda' which I'd never seen before, the bi-annual journal of the IWA ( Institute of Welsh Affairs), a kind of on-going think-tank.
It was a shortened version of my blog 'Music Fights Back!' and the editor cut certain parts, most noticeably my final paragraph condemning all those who'd voted Labour, LibDem and Tory for the dreadful state of education in Cymru.
Labour for their misguided policies, LibDem Minister Kirsty Williams for failing to counteract these and the Tories for their vandalistic austerity measures.
Understandably, the editor didn't want to alienate many readers, whereas in my blogs I really don't care!
It took me back to an integral part of my life which I do tend to forget.
Whenever I appeared in schools ( never nowadays!) I used to field the question - 'Did you ever want to be something else apart from a writer?'
The answer is - 'Yes, a footballer.....but I didn't grow quickly enough.'
I've always left out my ambition to be a journalist, for some reason.
At school and home, there was no encouragement. I wasn't expected to do well at 'A' Level and my mother simply looked at my alphabetically ordered bookcase and advised me to become a librarian like my father at that time.
Since my parents were divorced and my mother hated him, I saw this as something of an insult and was delighted when I got very good results and switched to an English degree.
Up to this point I'd been an avid reader of football mag's and, at Uni began to read music ones like NME and Melody Maker.
In our school mag I'd done a review of The Beatles' Abbey Road and nobody could make much sense of my phrase 'a synthesis of lyrics and music'.
At Aber Uni a unique opportunity arose when Neil Hamilton ( the boy from Fleur-de-lis) was voted in as editor of the college paper Courier. At that time UKIP's Assembly leader was a right-wing Tory and our response was to form an alternative magazine 'Rasp'.
It was a strange brew of leftist politics, philosophy, satire and creative writing and one of the regular writers was Gerry McLoughlin, then a member of the WRP, who later became a Sinn Fein councillor in Derry City.
In 1984, BBC's Panorama did a programme attacking Hamilton and included were stories of his involvement with neo-fascist rallies when he was at Aber.
Hamilton took the programme to Court and won costs and compensation, yet 'Rasp' reported over a decade earlier that he did attend rallies in Belgium and Italy and he never disputed these facts.
I especially enjoyed contributing satire and music reviews, even though 'Private Eye' was an obvious inspiration for the former.
One friend criticised my review of Don McClean for praising a 'maudlin balladeer' and it's intriguing that I lost that friend many years later when he objected vociferously to my blog on the Olympics opening ceremony, calling it 'bile!'.
( A shame because he was a rare, regular follower ).
If I'd had any careers advice at the end of my degree I may well have done a postgrad course in journalism, as my son did over 30 years later.
Instead, I ended up working on the pumps at a Barry garage....'a gap year' before anyone used the term.
With my mate from down the road, I was a regular attender of Barry Folk Club and was asked to write their weekly column in the local paper.
Despite hangovers I somehow managed to convey the excitement of those evenings, when the likes of Rod Tolchock ( not his real name) would thrill us.
I loved the drunken singalongs ending every evening and quirky entertainers who'd stomp the stage or mouth trombone-sounds.
My next foray was for the paper of Cymru Goch, the Welsh Socialists, 'Y Faner Goch', with articles on campaigns like anti-opencast , on football and music.
I was particularly enthralled to interview the Manics' bassist Nicky Wire not long after 'Everything Must Go' had been released.
I'd met Nicky several years before at the Central Hotel in Cardiff where he'd come to support his brother Patrick and see the Red Poets. At that time I hadn't a clue about their music.
Nicky was articulate and politically aware......a joy to interview.
When 'Wales on Sunday' began as a broadsheet the editor asked me to review cds, but he wanted to expand my brief and instructed me to interview Van Morrison, who was gigging in Newport.
As I was teaching at the time and knew Van the Man's reluctance to be interviewed I declined and that was the end of a brief but enjoyable 'career' .......the free cds were a welcome bonus!
Afterwards I did contribute to journals like 'Arcade' and 'Celyn', both of which are sadly missed.
I always tried to transfer my enthusiasm for journalism to education and the most successful example was at Pen-y-dre , Merthyr , where our Rock Music Club produced a mag called 'Bootleg'.
I still remember the day one pupil interviewed an unlikely English teacher about two of his former students when he taught at Cambridge High School, namely Syd Barrett and Roger Waters.
It was quite a scoop to discover that Syd was once an enthusiastic Boy Scout and Waters a very stroppy basketball player.
I'm so proud of my son, a TV journalist ( as, indeed, I am of my three children's achievements).
It was he who spurred me into blogging when I retired in 2009.
At times, blogs have alienated people , at others they have produced positive responses ; but in terms of football and music writing it's made possible what I once dreamt of doing.
I truly like the way an idea for a blog can lead to a poem and vice versa.
This one came about because of that article about Kim Wall who, as her friend Manski Choksi said - ' It still feels like she's just somewhere without wi-fi.'
She's somewhere
she's somewhere without wi-fi
you can't reach her
and she can't answer
but she's somewhere
swimming in the vodou waterfall
she's over and under
she's alone in Cuba
with the freaks in America
there are no signals
that you could measure
but there's energy there
she's water and air
she's somewhere out there
her expression ever-changing
as surely as the weather
without a phone
a tablet or computer
one day she won't return
one day an empty boat
will float down the river -
but she'll still be somewhere
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