Ah get born, keep warm Short pants, romance, learn to dance Get dressed, get blessed Try to be a success Please her, please him, buy gifts Don’t steal, don’t lift Twenty years of schoolin’ And they put you on the day shift Look out kid They keep it all hid Better jump down a manhole Light yourself a candle Don’t wear sandals Try to avoid the scandals Don’t wanna be a bum You better chew gum The pump don’t work ‘Cause the vandals took the handles.

It’s almost a year (love minus zero / one month) to the day I boarded a jet plane to Oslo. That story about a boy – and his bike – who went off to cycle 5000 miles across Europe has been well documented on another blog. I say well documented but if that blog is to be believed jBd2010 is currently still stuck wearing Boots of Spanish leather somewhere at the bottom of – well Spain. I better bring him back at some point. He has no direction home as it stands.

My non-literary self successfully returned to the UK mid October 2010. Since then ALL sorts of madness has gone down.  Jumping straight to the juicy bits I now live in London, work for a independent advertising agency as an ‘online community manager’ – when I know exactly what that means you’ll be the first to know – and co-host a podcast starring as the so called ‘king of real time’ (which I personally still think is Jack Bauer).
Astonishingly most of this happened in a very short and intense period, but it is said that the times they are a changin’.

I feel a change comin’ on: Life occurs in stages, segments, chapters. Even if you don’t realise it at the time, we can normally group chunks of experiences and engagements as we plot our respective journeys together through life. Circumstances, aims, people and even aspects of our own personal identity often vary as the years pass.
After a hectic few post university years which saw me undertake a whole host of temporary jobs and cycle from Oslo to Seville this move to London very much marks a new stage. I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.

A few weeks ago a certain Robert Zimmerman turned 70. Whether or not he actually celebrated this milestone who knows, but many people all over the world did give a hoot. I found myself attending a series of dreams Bob Dylan lectures at Bristol University.
Dylan is a cat who just keeps giving. Like or loathe him his creative output over the past 52 years is unrivalled and is unlikely to be surpassed – unless Justin Bieber just goes on and on of course… Dylan is also the father of reinvention and, publicly and musically at least, is the most definitive example of a life being lived in stages (the talks I went to were even entitled ‘the 7 ages of Dylan’). Olde Bob has inspired me to get writing again.

This new blog of mine, for those good enough to read it, will simply provide me with a canvass to express myself – most of the time. I’m not a protest blogger I just want to say my thing man. If I do it right hopefully you’ll be entertained and left having a ponder. Is a blog an act of commodifying ones own thoughts?!
In this new London adventure fully understanding social media will be key. My overall project is to encourage more meaningful ‘traditional’ relationships being born from social networks. We have never been more isolated as individuals yet at the same time more interconnected.

And on that I’ll say Bye & Bye for now,
Jules Xx

p.s. Happy belated birthday Bob & thank you.
Bob Dylan art –  http://www.bobdylan-art.com